The Countdown (The Taking #3)(85)

I blinked in surprise, my breath catching in my throat as I searched his eyes to see if he truly understood what he was telling me. Those were our words, something he’d told me the night I’d first been returned . . . and then he’d written them in chalk on the road between our houses.

And now he was using them again. I’ll remember you always.

A dimple cut through his cheek, the same dimple I’d traced with my fingertip once upon a time.

I almost couldn’t believe it. He’d more than forgiven me, he remembered. He remembered us.

And with that, he leaned down and kissed me. His kiss wasn’t tentative or exploratory like this was unfamiliar territory, which was what I’d been expecting since for so long he’d had no memory of the two of us. Instead it was the deep-emotional-memory-laden kiss of someone who cherishes you. Someone who knows you.

My heart was pounding when Simon cleared his throat, letting Tyler and me know in his less-than-subtle way our time was up. Tyler pulled away gently and stepped back, his eyes never leaving me.

When it was his turn, I thought Simon would say something corny, or give some big speech to convince me he was the right choice all along.

Instead, he whispered, thinking Tyler couldn’t hear, “You made up your mind before we ever even met.” And then he kissed me . . . a small, sweet kiss that wasn’t meant to sway me at all.

It was what it was—a good-bye kiss.

As the elevator doors closed behind them, I silently allowed myself to decide between them, once and for all. I said the name in my head the one and only time I would say it—Tyler. Tyler, who I would have picked, who I always would have picked if things could have been different.

If I could have survived all this.

And then I shut my feelings down because I had a job to do. One that didn’t allow me to think about either of them.

Any of them.

As long as this place was still standing, everyone was at risk.

Dr. Clarke had given us a brief rundown of the systems, on the off chance we found the codes we needed. I gave the others a twenty-minute head start to get as far as they could from here, which was generous. They’d need at least three minutes just to get back to the main level, and then another five to clear the facility altogether.

Beyond that, I couldn’t let myself worry about them. I had to hope they’d find Agent Truman’s car and would drive as far away as possible.

If not, they’d have to run and hide and hope the blast stayed fairly contained.

If they were hurt, they’d heal.

If they were killed . . .

I refused to let my mind go there.

This wasn’t about us.

I pressed my palms to the CPU’s fingerprint recognition software and shot a burst of current through the system, hacking into their mainframe.

Overhead, the red lights stopped flashing, blinked once, and then once again. And then remained on.

A new loop began on the speaker system: “Destruct sequence activated. All personnel evacuate the building. This is not a drill.”

A new countdown clock had begun.





TYLER


I PRESSED THE BUTTON IMPATIENTLY, SHIFTING anxiously on my feet.

Overhead, the monotone voice echoed off the walls. “All personnel must now be evacuated. Autodestruct set to commence in two minutes.” That was new, the audio countdown.

This whole ordeal was almost over.

I jammed my thumb at the elevator’s button one last time, deciding some kind of security protocol must have overridden the system and I’d missed my chance.

Then, just as I was about to give up, the doors slid open and I leaped inside. I still had Dr. Clarke’s key card, the one Kyra had given us in case we came up against any security measures, and I swiped it, my pulse pounding recklessly.

“All personnel must now be evacuated. Autodestruct set to commence in one minute forty-five seconds.” I didn’t want that to be the last voice I ever heard.

When the doors slid open again, I was facing a room full of computers. I did a quick survey, all the time I could afford, and an unsettling thought knocked the wind out of me: something had gone wrong. Kyra had made a run for it.

Then . . . I sensed her.

She was still here, just not on this floor. My mouth went dry as I stabbed the button again.

As the doors finally opened, I exited to the main floor, and I felt her presence . . . her awareness that I’d come back . . . her confusion and anger and reluctant pleasure all mixed up, all at once.

“Tyler? What the hell?” Kyra said, wasting no time coming to me. I wondered if she knew her cheeks flushed when she was pissed, and that it only made her more beautiful.

The voice intruded on our reunion. “All personnel must now be evacuated. Autodestruct set to commence in one minute fifteen seconds.”

“That?” she said, pointing at the ceiling despondently. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“Shut up,” I told her and reached for her. “This isn’t the time to tell me what I should or shouldn’t be doing.” I put my mouth to hers, not a kiss exactly, but the promise of one. Her lips parted and I could taste her breath. I could feel her heart beneath mine. “You said no one wins the girl, but you’re wrong.”

And with that, I made good on my promise, kissing her so completely, so thoroughly, she didn’t have the chance to argue. Her tongue was sweet and familiar, and I couldn’t imagine how I’d ever forgotten her. Forgotten this.