Page 207 of Black Reign

My chest tightens.

“This changes nothing.”

“It changes everything.”

“We're still enemies.”

“Then you're going to have to explain why you called me.”

I don't have an answer for that.

He does.

His thumb brushes my cheek once.

“When it was real, Sabine, you didn't call the police.”

My throat tightens.

“You called Ghost.”

His eyes hold mine.

“And Ghost came.”

Then Xavier Blackwell puts me into the car and climbs in beside me.

For once, I don't run.

9

The first message arrives while I’m still staring at Adrien Beaumont’s file.

VESPER: 911.

For half a second, my mind refuses to process it.

Vesper does not use numbers when words will do.

She doesn't ask for help.

She doesn't panic.

She turns panic into sarcasm, encrypts it twice, and sends it back with a middle finger attached.

Then the next message appears.

VESPER: KIDNAPPED. REAL. NOT A GAME.

Everything inside me goes silent.

The hotel bar disappears.

London disappears.

The Shakespeare paperback beneath my hand might as well cease to exist.

I stand so fast the chair hits the wall behind me.