Think, Sunny. Think.
Her heart raced, instantly killing the high-stakes thrill of her successful heist, leaving behind a cold, paralysing dread that locked her joints tightly in place.
Through the thick, soundproofed walls of the vault, she could hear it. The way the men chatted about the fight, and then their exclamation.
They must have probably seen the boss coming.
The door at the far end of the room was the only conventional way out of this vault. Sunny stared at it, her eyes blown wide. Her brain ran the calculations at a million miles an hour, churning through every possible survival scenario.
If she tried to unlock that door and run out into the corridor, she would run face-first into the mafia boss.
I am not dying today. I haven’t even seen my mansion yet!
She spun around frantically, her eyes scanning the luxurious, dimly lit office for literally anything else. A vent. A secret panel. Anything.
Her gaze landed entirely on the far wall. Behind the massive mahogany desk sat a towering, floor-to-ceiling glass window. It overlooked the dark, rain-slicked alleyway right behind the Viper’s Den.
It was three stories up. A nasty, bone-breaking drop.
But a broken leg was infinitely better than being torn apart by a superhuman mob boss.
Before she could take a single step toward the desk, a sharp, mechanical click echoed violently through the quiet room.
The dense web of glowing red laser beams vanished completely.
The room plunged into deep shadows, illuminated only by the faint, flickering neon lights of the Koria cityscape bleeding through the rain-streaked window.
Sunny froze.
Oh my god. He just killed the security grid from the outside. He is opening the door.
She didn’t have thirty seconds. She barely had three.
Sunny lunged across the dark room toward the spot where she had dropped her oversized black hoodie earlier. She couldn’t afford to waste precious seconds fighting her way back into the thick, bulky fabric. Her arms were shaking too much anyway. She just scooped it up from the carpet, clutching it tightly in her left hand.
Her tight, low-cut black combat shirt was left completely exposed to the freezing air of the room. It clung to her curves, completely unsuited for the freezing night air, but she didn’t care.
She took a hard step toward the window and nearly tripped over her own feet.
Fuck! My shoe!
She had thrown her left combat boot down the hallway earlier to distract that guard. Running through the jagged, broken glass of a shattered window with only one thin cotton sock on was a guaranteed way to slice her foot open and bleed out in a filthy Koria alleyway.
"System!" Sunny hissed under her breath, her voice cracking with pure desperation. "Help me out here! I am going to die!"
The heavy, mechanical locks on the steel vault door began to disengage one by one.
Clack.
The first deadbolt slid back.
Clack.
The second one followed.
Sunny backed up, her bare foot hitting the soft carpet. She was out of time.
[Ding!]
[Host is in critical danger.]
[Emergency Evasion Protocol Activated.] [Equipping: Phantom Treads.]
A rush of warm, tingling energy swirled violently around Sunny’s calves.
Right before her very eyes, pitch-black combat boots materialised out of thin air. They wrapped securely around her feet, the heavy laces snapping tight in a fraction of a second. They felt incredibly light, yet tough as solid steel. They gripped the floor with perfect traction.
I could literally kiss you right now, System!
Clack.
The final lock on the door disengaged. The heavy metal handle began to turn downward.
Sunny didn’t look back. She gripped her hoodie tightly in her fist, gritted her teeth, and sprinted full speed at the massive pane of reinforced glass.
The agility points she had earned earlier surged through her legs like raw electricity. She leaped into the air, bringing both of her newly materialized boots up in a brutal, flying dropkick aimed dead center at the window.
The glass didn’t just break. It exploded.
A deafening crash shattered the tense silence of the room. Thousands of razor-sharp shards erupted outward into the cold night air, sparkling like deadly diamonds under the faint city lights.
Sunny followed the glass out into the open air.
The freezing Koria wind whipped violently through her fiery red hair, stinging her exposed arms and tearing the breath right out of her lungs. Gravity instantly took over, pulling her down into the dark abyss of the alleyway.
I am actually jumping out of a building. I am a crazy person. I have lost my mind!
Her stomach dropped into her new boots as she plummeted down. The neon signs of the city blurred into streaks of light. The freezing rain bit into her skin.
She miscalculated.
She thought she would hit the top of a dumpster. Or an awning. Or literally anything that would break her fall before she splattered against the wet pavement. But there was nothing below her but empty air and the hard, unforgiving asphalt.
She squeezed her eyes shut tightly.
She braced her entire body for the bone-crushing impact of the concrete. She fully expected the pain to knock the wind completely out of her lungs. She expected the sickening crack of her own bones.
Please don’t let me die. Please don’t let me die.
The impact came.
But it wasn’t concrete.
It was solid. It was warm. And it wrapped securely around her waist like a vice grip.
Sunny gasped, all the air rushing out of her lungs in a sharp, startled exhale. Her hands instinctively flew out, her fingers digging desperately into a pair of incredibly broad, muscular shoulders covered in expensive, tailored fabric.
She wasn’t lying on the wet asphalt.
She was suspended in mid-air.
She was being held securely in a pair of strong, unrelenting arms.
What the fuck.
Her brain completely short-circuited. The scent of dark rum, expensive tobacco, and raw, suffocating danger hit her nose. It wasn’t the smell of a dumpster. It wasn’t the smell of an alleyway.
It was the smell of a man.
A very, very powerful man.
Sunny slowly, hesitantly opened her eyes, her heart hammering against her ribs so hard she thought it might actually crack her sternum.
She looked up.
She was completely stunned to meet a pair of stunning red eyes staring right back down at her.