In Silence She Screams (Midnight Mayhem 3)

“And why is that?” she probes, and I know she’s not going to let this go.

“Because there are more men in this building than you can fight alone.”

Her face falls, as if she doesn’t understand what I’m saying, so I continue. “Kennedy, aka your mother, had called Bishop for protection while she was here. That’s how we found out that she has more people here, since he turned her away.”

“Well, you could have fucking said yes, and then we could have been able to just walk in!” Her growling is cute as fuck, so I reach over to her cheek and pull her lips into mine.

“No,” I say, squeezing the back of her neck. “Because we’re almost certain that’s what she wanted.”

Lilith sucks my lip into her mouth and rubs against me. “So who does she have?”

I’m searching her eyes when bullets spray out. I shove her behind my body, turning to place an earpiece into her ear. “If I lose you, I need to be able to still talk to you. It’s connected to all of us.”

She presses a kiss onto my lips, but before I can grab her again, she steps out of my grip and starts running toward the entrance door with a loud laugh, dodging bullets.

“Fuck!”

“Told you!” Brantley growls. “You’re not fucking ready for that.”

We start making our way to the door, shooting up to where the bullets are coming from when a Dodge Charger skids in front, blocking our view. The passenger side door swings open and Kyrin slides out with two AKs strapped to each hand.

He points to me with one, ignoring the bullets flying everywhere. “I’m not done with you both, but where the fuck is she?”

“Oh—” Nate laughs, pushing off the wall and raising a gun to the window in the building, squinting his eye and pulling the trigger. “He is going to fucking eat you alive. Again, I see the hype…”

I flip him off and point to the building, jogging ahead. “She went fucking inside.”

The sound is deafening, like explosions in the middle of a war, piercing through my ears. A stab of guilt lurches in my stomach from running from them, but I know I have to be alone for this. The bitch wants me, so she can have me… so long as my boys are safe.

“Lilith—” Eli yells in my ear. Shit. I forgot about this damn thing. “I swear to fucking God, if you don’t wait, Daddy Kyrin is gonna spank you…”

“How are you talking to her?” More bullets sound out and I realize they’re coming from my earpiece more than directed at me. I shove through a hidden door once I hit the end of the dark tunnel but stop when I find myself in a closed room with no exit.

I spin around to see where I came from, but the door is gone.

I push my finger onto the earpiece to speak. “I don’t know where I am.”

“Ha—ha—very fucking funny,” Eli again. Pop. Pop. “Try again.”

I step forward, touching the wall with the palm of my hand. Cold and damp, much like my heart. “Eli?”

“Yeah, baby…”

“I love you. Can you tell Kyrin, too?”

Silence.

I know this trick. I remember it from my training, and not once did I ever get out.

“You can tell him when we get to you.” Eli is in a closed room, no more gunshots firing off in the background. His tone is calm, serene, as if he knows he’s going to see me again.

He won’t.

I failed this every single time. It was a trick of minds, and now that I think back to it and knowing what Kiznitch do, it is here for someone like them to solve, not me.

Static sounds out on a speaker and I stop moving. “Focus on your breathing, Lilith. You’ve got this.” I stared back at Bear. Of course she would say that… this was easy for her. For some fucked reason, she aced this challenge every single time. “You’ve got to focus on your breathing. Your mind is your best tool in here.” I’d tell her that my mind isn’t my best tool at all, but she’d brush me off.

“Ah, so predictable, my daughter…” Her voice is like vomit reaching from the back of my throat. “If you get out of this room, I’ll allow you to come up and talk. But as you know…” She stops, and every second that passes, I feel my anger boil. “There’s always hidden costs in this room.”

“I’m ready,” I yell, piling my hair onto the top of my head. “You forgot that you created this monster. Give me the best you’ve got.”

“Lilith” from Ellise starts playing and I pause, losing my footing slightly. How did she know about this song? Laughing echoes through the speakers and I spin around to face the door I came through, waiting for it to appear and open again. I step closer, needing to see the paper-thin crack that outlines the exit. Just as my foot lands in front of myself, the air is knocked out of my chest and I’m being thrown back, slamming against the wall on the other side of the room.