Wicked Lies: A Dark Mission Novella Read Online Free PDF Page A

knew every alarm in his brain was screaming at him to run. Get away. Move, damn it.
    Maybe he could see Danny’s face through the cameras, see how wide his good eye had gotten as the two faced each other. As the woman reached for the comm clipped to her belt. Maybe he could hear the rampaging thud of Danny’s heart, suddenly thick and acrid and cold in his throat.
    All one of them had to do was turn a head. Just look down the hall, and that’d be it. They’d be on him faster than he could run.
    The beatings would start again.
    His palms sweating, Danny realized it didn’t matter. He couldn’t move. Not to fade back into the corridor, not even to blink. Fear filled his skin, spread like ice and acid on his tongue.
    “What is it?” the woman demanded into the comm.
    Her partner hesitated, his head turning. Almost as if in slow motion, Danny’s spine locked with terror. Sheer, unadulterated panic.
    “All squads stand down,” came the static-peppered order through the comm.
    The man’s eyes snapped back to the woman. “Stand down? What was it?”
    “Not me,” Jonas murmured.
    The importance of that statement, Danny told himself, would have to wait until after he passed out. Or woke up from passing out. Back so tight against the wall that his shoulder blades pinched, he stared at the two operatives mere feet away and held his breath. Go.
    “Crap,” the lady said tersely. “I’m not paid enough for this.”
    “Easy,” Jonas murmured. “You’re doing great.”
    Danny’s lungs clamored for air. He jerked hard as his fists clenched.
    “Stand-down order means it’s not big, right?” The man sighed as he followed his partner down the hall. In the opposite direction. “You’d think they’d send a memo.” His voice faded, until not even their footsteps echoed anymore.
    “And . . .” A brief pause. Then soft relief as Jonas finished, “Clear.”
    Danny’s knees gave out.
    Collapsing heavily against the wall, his butt hit the floor with a dull thud he’d feel later. Or wouldn’t, given everything else already screaming in his body. He clung to the surface with sweat-dampened hands, supported himself at an angle that gave him no leverage if he had to move fast, and let out a shuddering breath.
    “You’re good, Danny.” Did that so-calm voice crack?
    No way.
    “That was close, but you’re almost out. Follow that hall for four junctions, then turn right.”
    “What was that?” Danny whispered.
    “I—” Jonas’s voice tightened. “I don’t know, and it’s not important. We need to get you out, remember? Four junctions, take a right.”
    “Right,” Danny murmured, raising a shaking hand to his eyes. He winced as his fingers found flesh too swollen to feel like his own. “I can do that.”
    “I know you can. Hard part’s over.”
    He couldn’t help himself. His mouth twitched. “Hard part’s half the fun, angel.”
    “Only half?”
    Holy shit. Danny jerked as a bolt of raw adrenaline unlocked from his rapid-fire heartbeat to shoot into his crotch. “Most of the fun,” he allowed tightly. “You’re a real tease, aren’t you?”
    A beat. Too long a silence to go unnoticed. Too short to fill as Jonas replied softly, “Just your nerves talking, kid.”
    Was it?
    He couldn’t push it. Not here, and not while his brain suffered a very real chance of leaking out through his ears. He felt like hell.
    He probably looked like hell; like ground meat paste and sweat. Not sexy.
    Danny didn’t say anything, forcing himself upright and jerking into a loping, staggered jog. It jarred every bruised bone in his body, but he could all but taste the promise of freedom. Hear it through the comm, his one fragile link to the outside world.
    As he followed the directions, he tilted his head. Frowned. “What’s that clicking sound?”
    “I’m securing your passage.”
    He knew that sound. Knew it the same way he knew a lullaby, or the sound of his grandmother’s voice. Knew it because the