Chapter Twenty-Six: Empty
Nobody moved.
The underground chamber fell deathly silent except for the low hum of the generators.
The vault door sat partially open in the dim light.
Wrong.
Everything about it looked wrong.
Nolan’s entire body went still beside Kylie.
Not shocked.
Dangerous.
The kind of stillness that came right before violence.
Wyatt immediately reached for the gun at his side. “Everyone back.”
Deputies raised flashlights and weapons simultaneously while the sheriff swore quietly under his breath.
Kylie’s pulse hammered painfully.
“No,” Nolan said quietly.
The single word echoed cold through the chamber.
Then he stepped forward.
“Kylie,” he added without looking back, “stay behind me.”
She hated how automatic her body responded now.
How instinctively she move
