Normal Tuesday

Iris POV

The fire alarm screamed through the halls of Northwestern University like an angry monster.

I dropped my pencil and looked up from my notebook where I'd been drawing tiny flowers instead of taking notes about old paintings. Professor Williams kept talking about some dead artist guy, but all I could think about was my empty bank account and the rent money I still needed to earn at my coffee shop job tonight.

"Everyone stay calm," Professor Williams said, but his voice shook. "This is probably just a drill."

But fire drills don't usually make teachers look scared.

I grabbed my backpack and stood up with the rest of my classmates. We moved toward the door like a slow river of people. That's when I heard something that made my blood turn cold.

Pop. Pop. Pop.

Those weren't fire alarm sounds. Those were...

"GET DOWN!" someone screamed from the hallway.

My heart started beating so fast I thought it might explode. Students around me began to panic, pushing and shoving toward the windows. Professor Williams dropped behind his desk, his face white as paper.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out with shaking hands.

Aunt Elena: "Emergency. Leave campus NOW. Don't go home. I'll explain later."

I stared at the message. Aunt Elena never used all capital letters. She never said things like "emergency" unless something was really, really wrong. Like the time we had to move houses in the middle of the night when I was twelve, and she wouldn't tell me why.

Another text came through: "Trust me, baby girl. RUN."

The popping sounds got louder. Closer.

"Those are gunshots," whispered Sarah, the girl who sat next to me in every class. Her eyes were huge and scared.

Gunshots. On my college campus. This couldn't be real.

I looked around the classroom. Twenty-three students pressed against the windows or crouched behind desks. Professor Williams was on his phone, probably calling 911. Everyone looked terrified.

But something weird was happening in my brain. Instead of feeling scared like everyone else, I felt... alert. Like every part of my body was suddenly awake and ready to move.

"We need to get out of here," I said to Sarah.

"But they said to stay put and wait for help."

I looked at the door, then at the windows, then at the emergency exit map on the wall. Aunt Elena had taught me to always know where the exits were. She said it was just being smart, but now I wondered if there was another reason.

"Help might not come fast enough," I told Sarah.

The gunshots were getting closer. I could hear people screaming and running in the hallway. Heavy footsteps. Men's voices shouting words I couldn't understand.

My phone buzzed again.

Aunt Elena: "They know who you are. Move NOW."

They know who I am? What did that even mean? I was nobody special. Just Iris Kane, the girl who worked at a coffee shop and drew pictures in her notebook during boring classes. The girl whose biggest worry this morning was paying for groceries this week.

But Aunt Elena's message made something click in my brain. All those times we moved suddenly when I was little. All those times she made me practice climbing out of windows and memorizing escape routes. All those self-defense classes she made me take, saying "every girl should know how to protect herself."

Maybe I wasn't as nobody as I thought.

The classroom door burst open.

A man in a black suit stood there, holding a gun. He looked around the room with cold eyes, like he was shopping for something specific.

"Where is she?" he asked in a voice that sounded like gravel.

Professor Williams stood up slowly, his hands shaking. "Where is who? These are just students. Please don't hurt them."

The man's eyes moved across each face in the room. When they landed on me, they stopped.

"There," he said, pointing his gun at me. "Iris Kane."

Everyone turned to stare at me. Sarah's mouth fell open. Professor Williams looked confused.

How did this stranger know my name?

"I don't know what you want," I said, surprised by how steady my voice sounded. "But you have the wrong person."

The man smiled, but it wasn't a nice smile. "No, I don't. You're Robert Kane's daughter. And you're coming with me."

Robert Kane? I'd never heard that name in my life. My father died when I was a baby. Aunt Elena told me so.

"My father is dead," I said.

"No, little girl. Your father is very much alive. And he has something that belongs to my boss."

My brain felt like it was spinning. Nothing this man said made sense. But one thing was clear: he was here for me, and he had a gun.

I looked at the window behind me. We were on the second floor. It would hurt to jump, but it wouldn't kill me.

"Don't even think about it," the man said, following my eyes. "You run, and I start shooting your classmates. Starting with her." He pointed his gun at Sarah.

Sarah started crying. "Please," she whispered. "I don't know anything."

I felt anger burn in my chest. This man was threatening innocent people because of me. Because of something I didn't even understand.

"Let them go," I said. "I'll come with you. Just don't hurt anyone."

"Smart girl." The man gestured toward the door with his gun. "Let's go."

I started walking toward him, my legs feeling like jelly. But before I reached the door, I heard something that changed everything.

"FEDERAL AGENTS! DROP YOUR WEAPONS!"

The man in the black suit cursed and spun toward the voice. That's when I saw them—people in FBI jackets flooding the hallway, guns drawn.

But instead of looking relieved, the man looked angry.

"This changes nothing," he said, grabbing my arm with his free hand. "You're still coming with me."

He pressed the gun against my side and started pulling me toward the back of the classroom. I could smell his cologne and see the scar on his neck. Up close, he looked even more dangerous.

"Let the girl go!" shouted an FBI agent from the doorway.

"Back off, or she dies!" the man yelled back.

That's when I realized something horrible. The FBI wasn't here to save random students from a school shooting. They were here for the same reason the man in the black suit was here.

They were here for me.

My phone buzzed one more time. With the man's gun pressed against my ribs, I managed to glance at the screen.

Aunt Elena: "Don't trust anyone. Not even the people who say they're here to help. Your real father has enemies everywhere."

My real father? The room started spinning. Everything I thought I knew about my life was a lie.

The man in the black suit was dragging me toward the window now, using me as a human shield. The FBI agents couldn't shoot without risking hitting me.

"You're making a mistake," I told him, though I had no idea what mistake he might be making.

"The only mistake was letting you live this long," he said.

Live this long? What did that mean?

That's when I heard something that made my heart stop completely.

Footsteps on the fire escape outside the window. Heavy boots climbing up toward our classroom.

The man heard them too. He spun around, keeping his gun pointed at my head.

"Well, well," he said, looking out the window. "Looks like the Torrino family decided to join the party."

Torrino family? I'd never heard that name either, but the way he said it made my skin crawl.

The window exploded inward in a shower of glass.

And that's when I saw him.

The most dangerous-looking man I'd ever seen in my life was climbing through the broken window. He was tall, dark-haired, and moved like a predator. His eyes swept the room and landed on me.

For one crazy second, our eyes met. His were dark as midnight and cold as winter. But when he looked at me, something flickered in them. Something that looked almost like... recognition.

"Alessandro Torrino," the man holding me said. "Should have known you'd show up."

"Let the girl go, Rodriguez," the dangerous man said. His voice was calm, but I could hear the threat underneath it.

"She's worth too much to just let go."

"She's worth more alive than dead. And if you hurt her, you'll find out exactly how creative I can get with a knife."

The gun pressed harder against my head. "Big words from someone who's outnumbered."

That's when Alessandro Torrino smiled. It was the scariest smile I'd ever seen.

"Who said I was alone?"

The lights went out.