~ Niamh ~
Fresh air hit me the second I stepped out of the shed, but it did nothing to cool the fire roaring in my veins.
My lungs felt tight, every breath a reminder of the secret I was now carrying like a lead weight.
Behind me, I could hear Shauna's frantic, uneven footsteps. She was stumbling, her breath coming in panicked hitches as she tried to catch up, her mouth opening as if to beg me one last time for silence.
But she never got the chance.
We hadn't even cleared the corner of the weathered building when the world seemed to tilt.
Massimo was there.
He rounded the bend with a predatory grace that always made my heart do a traitorous double-take, but now, it only made my jaw lock in pure, unadulterated anger.
He wasn't alone. Andrej was stride for stride beside him, his face a mask of iron, and behind them followed a small army—almost every guard I had seen loitering in the yard earlier.
