Chapter 19
NINETEEN
En Route to The New Safe House
The SUV’s leather seat is cold against my back, even through the borrowed jacket someone draped over my shoulders. Camile sits beside me, silent and tense.
Allison next to me, is gnawing her thumbnail, staring out the tinted window at nothing.
There are cracks in my resolve, and they’re spreading with every minute that passes.
“Can you give me the time?” I ask Camile.
“It’s been forty-four minutes since they left.”
That’s all?
The silence returns. Heavier this time.
The combined concern between the three of us is thick enough to suffocate. We’re not the only ones who are keyed up.
Evan drives with the kind of focused intensity that makes conversation impossible. His eyes constantly flick to the mirrors, scanning, assessing.
Every few minutes, his hand moves to touch something at his hip. A weapon check? A trained habit.
Each time it makes my stomach a little tighter.
Something bad has happened. I don’t know what the briefing was about that took place while I was in the bathroom, but the playing field has changed.
Everyone is on high alert.
“Sorry, I’m just wound tight,” I tell Camile.
Plus, my ribs throb with each breath.
I’ve been holding back from saying anything, but the pain medication they gave me at the hospital has officially worn off.
“Does anyone have an aspirin?” I ask, trying to distract myself from the worry gnawing at me.
Allison startles into motion, unbuckling herself, earning a growl from Evan. But she doesn’t heed his order to buckle up; instead, she leans over the back seat to rummage through gear.
“There’s a first-aid kit right here,” she says, her voice muffled as she stretches over the third-row seat.
Does she have anything in that first-aid kit for heartache? Because in addition to my bones being sore, there’s something else going on inside my rib cage.
Evan says, “Copy, go ahead.”
“He’s talking on his radio,” Camile whispers. “It took me a long time to get used to them just hearing things inside their head.”
I nod, trying to cue into what his facial expression is saying.
There’s a very subtle shift in his stony facade. Without thought, I lean forward trying to hear something, barely aware that Allison’s back in her seat.
“Here you go. This is Motrin; it will be even better.”
I absently take it from her hand as Evan curses. “Goddammit. No.”
Camile, Allison and I all go still in the seat.
“En route,” Evan responds tersely. “ETA twenty-two minutes. Any other updates?”
A beat passes. He’s speeding up, the engine growling louder as he asks, “How long since you’ve heard from them?”
My stomach clenches. “Who is he talking about?” I ask quietly, hating how my voice shakes.
Camile glances across me to Allison as her brow furrows.
“Well, it sounds like,” she whispers, “he’s talking about… Justice and Beast.”
I’m not sure what is worse, getting shocked in the stairwell—or this.
Evan completely blocks all questions for the next twenty-two minutes, even when Camile and Allison team up on him. They might as well be talking to a brick wall.
It’s not until we get to the new safe house that all hell breaks loose when Allison confronts Truck.
“What’s going on?” she demands as soon as he unfolds his tall, muscular body out of his Agile Security & Rescue vehicle.
“I need all of you in the house. Now.” He crowds her, herding us all toward the front stoop of the modern home.
“We’re a team now,” she says to him, even as she lets him guide her to the doorway. He’s scanning around the house as he enters a code, uses a digital palm reader, and gives a voice command.
Allison, blocks his path, raising her chin. “We’re a team. That means you talk to me.”
He growls something, shoves open the door, and forces the three of us inside. “Stay here. I’m clearing the house.”
Two of the man are in a tense conversation in the yard.
“This is bad. I feel it in my gut,” I say to Allison.
“I have to agree,” she replies. “But try not to get too freaked out, things are always happening with this kind of job.”
Well, I’m not used to it.
Knowing I’m perfectly safe with all of the Agile team around, I push between them and jog across the lawn toward the boss.
I want answers. I’m going to the guy who will know them.
He looks up from a laptop he has perched on the hood of the truck when I reach them. Neither of them looks happy. That alone makes my spine tighten.
“Have you heard from Justice and Beast?”
Marshall studies my face for a beat, assessing something before he clears his throat.
“No. In fact, they’ve been in a crash. I’m waiting on more information, but according to the police reports, it’s definitely our truck—but both men are unaccounted for.”
No. This is impossible.
“Oh God,” I wheeze, and I must sway because Evan grabs my arm to steady me.
“Let’s go inside. We can update everyone at once when the property is secure. I don’t like you being outside,” Marshall says, scanning the road we used to come into the property.
“What does that mean, unaccounted for? Are you saying they’re missing?”
As I wrestle my arm free from Evan, they share a look that pisses me right off.
“I’m not some child to be coddled. What happened, where did they go, and how could this possibly happen?”
“They were going to Westerly’s headquarters when—”
“Get down!” Evan barks as he shoves me to the ground, drawing his weapon.
From the ground, my views is almost completely blocked. The only thing I can see is a narrow strip below the body of the truck. What I watch in that space turns my blood to stone.
Someone coming. A lot of someones. And they don’t look friendly.
Three oversized, black trucks churn up the grass, slamming to a stop around us.
Shouts fill the air as men pour from the doors.