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All Chapters of Between You and the Bullet: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

51 Chapters

Chapter 21: Beyond the Exit

The fire alarm was still sounding.Even after it had been confirmed that the smoke detector on the nineteenth floor had been triggered deliberately, building security could not simply shut down the alarm system. Fire crews and security personnel still had to clear each floor, so Audrey and the others remained on the twenty-first-floor stairwell landing.Nathan kept everyone away from the partially open fire door while coordinating with Maya and Marcus and gathering updates from the building’s security director.Audrey stood near the wall and watched him in silence.Only minutes earlier, she had been prepared to do what anyone would do when a fire alarm sounded: evacuate.If Nathan had not stopped her, she might have entered the main emergency stairwell.Or she might have followed the service corridor without questioning it.Every time she tried to imagine what could have happened after that, her mind moved farther than she wanted it t

Last Updated : 2026-10-06

Chapter 22: The Night She Didn’t Go Home

By the time the fire alarm was finally cleared, it was already dark outside.Employees were gradually being allowed back into Sterling headquarters, but Audrey did not return to her office.While Nathan and Maya remained in the windowless security room receiving additional reports from the building’s security director, Audrey sat with Claire and began rebuilding the next day’s schedule.Every public appearance was postponed.Anything that did not require her physical presence was moved online.Meeting after meeting disappeared or shifted, and within the space of a few hours, the week that had looked perfectly ordinary that morning had been reshaped into something else entirely.“We’ll make the entire morning remote,” Claire said, checking the revised calendar.“What about the investment committee in the afternoon?”“You actually need to be there?”“I do.”“Then ask Nathan first.”Audrey looked up.“S

Last Updated : 2026-10-07

Chapter 23: Somewhere No One Knows

“You’re very good at pretending not to listen to phone calls.”Audrey said it as they left the security room.Nathan kept his attention on the corridor ahead.“I listen only to what I need.”“That sounds suspiciously like most of it.”“Only the parts relevant to your safety.”That was not exactly a denial.They did not use the usual route to the underground garage.The executive elevators were avoided entirely. Instead, they moved through service corridors used only by security and facilities staff, crossing into the basement of another section of the complex.Daniel went ahead while Nathan checked behind them each time they passed through a secured door.Under ordinary circumstances, the walk would have taken only a few minutes.Tonight, even the route they used to leave the building was information they wanted as few people as possible to know.An unfamiliar SUV waited underground.Before Au

Last Updated : 2026-10-08

Chapter 24: An Unknown Morning

For a few seconds after waking, Audrey had no idea where she was.An unfamiliar ceiling.Pale gray curtains.A small lamp beside the bed, with only the bare necessities arranged around the room.Then the previous night returned to her.The fire alarm.The door on the twenty-first floor.The two vehicles they had changed between without telling anyone where they were going.And this apartment, maintained by Nathan’s security firm.Audrey looked at the clock beside the bed.6:40 a.m.She could tell from the light beyond the curtains that morning had come, but just as the night before, she could not look outside. She had been told to keep the curtains closed while she stayed there, limiting anything that might reveal the location.At home, she might have gone back to sleep.In a room she did not know, she could not.After showering, Audrey was about to change out of the simple clothes she

Last Updated : 2026-10-09

Chapter 25: The Woman Who Won’t Stop

By a little after nine that morning, the dining table in the safe house had become a temporary office.Two laptops.Audrey’s company phone.Documents Claire had forwarded.And beside them, a compact communications device Nathan had placed on the table.He explained that it would route her connection through an encrypted system maintained by the security firm instead of allowing her to connect directly through Sterling’s normal network.A few days earlier, Audrey might have found the entire process exhausting.This morning, she simply followed the instructions.“The investment committee is at one. Until then, use the company-issued devices for outside calls whenever possible. Keep your personal phone on receive only, and don’t answer unknown numbers.”Nathan gave her the instructions all at once, then moved back toward the entrance to the room.“I’m not going to interfere with the substance of your work. But if any

Last Updated : 2026-10-10

Chapter 26: The Perfect Response

About forty minutes after the formal notice was sent to Ashford Global, Audrey’s company phone rang.Julian’s name appeared on the screen.The moment Nathan saw it, he looked up from the documents he had been reading across the table.“Julian.”“You can take it. You don’t need to put him on speaker. I don’t need to hear the details of a business call.”“You’ll listen to the parts you think matter, though.”“Only if you appear to be in danger.”Audrey smiled faintly and answered.“Hello.”“Hey. Do you have a minute?”Julian sounded exactly as he always did.“I do. I was working.”“That’s actually what I’m calling about. We received the formal notice.”He did not sound angry.If anything, he seemed to be choosing his words carefully.“First

Last Updated : 2026-10-11

Chapter 27: A Borrowed Name

Maya contacted them again that evening.Audrey was still at the safe house.The restriction on leaving had technically been lifted that afternoon, but Nathan saw no reason to move her before the end of the day. They would remain there for one more night.Audrey had just finished clearing the work documents from the dining table when Nathan’s device rang.He answered briefly, then looked toward her.“Maya wants you to hear this too.”“The rental car?”“Yes.”The call switched to video.Maya appeared on the screen from what looked like an investigative office. People moved behind her, but she ignored them as she opened a file.“I’ll give you the conclusion first. We don’t believe the person named on the rental agreement had anything to do with yesterday’s incident.”Audrey sat up straighter.“You already confirmed that?”“I met him. Forty-one years old, lives in New Jersey, works for a private c

Last Updated : 2026-10-12

Chapter 28: The Man Who Was There From the Beginning

Maya came to the safe house the next morning.Until now, most investigative updates had been delivered by phone or video call. There was no reason to increase the number of people who knew the location unless it was necessary.The fact that Maya had come in person meant she had a reason.Nathan met her at the building entrance and returned with her about ten minutes later.Maya barely paused for introductions before placing a tablet on the table.“We still don’t have an identity from the face itself,” she said. “But we found something else.”Audrey sat across from her.“What?”“Older footage.”A familiar building appeared on the screen.The hospital.The day Audrey had attended the charity event. The day a reporter had crossed the security line and Nathan had moved in front of her.Someone else had photographed that moment from the second-floor walkway.Audrey stared at the screen.“No.

Last Updated : 2026-10-13

Chapter 29: Whose Orders?

The formal image-analysis report on the man from the hotel came in just before noon.There was now a strong likelihood that the same person appeared in three separate locations.The hospital.The rental office.And the Sterling hotel on the night Audrey received the first threatening photograph.Still, they had no name.According to Maya, no useful match had been found through the official databases available for comparison.“So that means he doesn’t have a record?” Audrey asked.“Not necessarily.”Maya shook her head.“It could mean there’s no photograph in the systems we can access, that he’s used other identities before, or simply that there isn’t much official material to compare against. There are plenty of possibilities.”Nathan was studying the images arranged across the tablet.“What about the messages?”“Nothing yet.”Maya closed one of the files.“That’s actually the pa

Last Updated : 2026-10-14

Chapter 30: Victor Shaw

They got a name that afternoon.About three hours after Maya left, Nathan’s device rang. He stepped away to take the call, asking a few brief questions along the way.Audrey could not hear the details.But when he ended the call, she knew something had changed.“You found him?”Nathan did not answer immediately. He checked the file that had just been sent, then returned to the table.“We have a candidate. Maya isn’t calling him a formal suspect yet, but the match is strong.”A photograph appeared on the screen.A man in his mid-forties.His hair was shorter than in the surveillance footage, and he wore a suit as he faced the camera directly. The photograph appeared to be several years old, but the shape of his ears and the line of his jaw strongly resembled the man from the rental office.And beneath the photograph was a name.Victor Shaw.“Victor Shaw,” Audrey read aloud.“Wh

Last Updated : 2026-10-15

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