The Billionaire's Assistant

Chapter 86

She began to push back towards him desperately as realizations settled slowly upon her life snow. The bomb didn't go off here. The bomb didn't go off on this floor, it went off above her, which never should've happened. Why had it happened?

Kat felt panic clutch at her, claim her, as she realized, too slowly, what had happened. She pushed through the crowd that was flowing towards the staircase, fighting the people around her for her position. She burst into the busy stairwell where a steady flow of shouting people stampeded down, tucked herself into the far corner against the railing, and began to force her way up, picking up speed as she shouldered past the other employees as quickly as she could.

The flow of bodies cleared momentarily and Kat began to run, her feet pounding up the concrete stairs as fast as her legs would allow and her mind empty, unwilling to consider the possibilities of what had just happened.

They'd gone with the original plan. That's why Conner had been late, he was never planning to be on 11 at 2:37, he was planning to be on 24 and 2:37, the original window they'd planned to plant the flashbang in the core processor room. Kat cursed herself mentally as she realized that she'd given Andy the badge. Andy hadn't believed what she'd said, must've believed she was just covering for Jove, and had told Conner to go ahead with the original plan, had decided to keep Kat out of the loop.

This is what she meant, Kat thought, her heart pounding as she pushed past more scared faces. She wanted to give me this time before I could never come back, she didn't want me interfering with the real plan. Kat rounded another corner, her adrenaline carrying her up flight after flight and her heart pounding so loudly in her ears that the alarms seemed muffled. She finally reached the entrance to the 24th floor and threw it open, the door banging loudly against the wall as she'd attempted to avoid the first time.

"Hey," a voice yelled from her right. "Hey!"

But Kat was already running, the route to the core processor memorized despite her singular visit there. The floor was filled with a slight haze that solidified into white smoke the nearer she came to the processor, and she could already see a swarm of guards at its front door, smoke billowing from underneath it.

Her breath hitched. The door was closed. If the door was closed, and Conner had never gotten in, why was the floor filled with smoke?

"Hey!" she heard from behind her, the sound of heavy boots striking the ground quickly at her back. "Stop!" the guard called, and the other guards surrounding the door looked up, gripping their weapons more tightly as they saw the slight woman flying towards them.

They parted enough for her to see what they'd been looking at; a tall thin body lying unnaturally crumbled on the floor.

Kat heard herself scream, heard it as an outside observer before she even realized she was making the noise. It was a desperate scream, an animalistic one, one with layers of fury and hurt and guilt all stacked upon one another.

"Conner!" she wailed, ready to throw her body into a barrage of the men's bullets if it meant reaching him, placing her hands on his forehead and reassuring him everything would be okay.

"Conner," she cried again, and suddenly a muted thump made a hot pinprick of pain burst within her forehead, targeted at first, but spreading quickly. She tasted the slick, metallic luster of blood on her tongue and felt her feet pulled from under her before everything went black.