34. - Kayden -
Chapter thirty-four
- Kayden -
K ayden’s phone was going off in his ear.
He tried to ignore it, reaching a hand out to search for a soft, warm body before remembering she wasn’t there. Ugh.
The previous night’s events slowly replayed in his mind in annoying detail. The devastation on Corey’s face, the look of betrayal, gutting him all over again. And then drinking far too much whiskey with Jason in the aftershock of it. Jason had been confident that Corey would bolt the second she found out about their contribution to the drug epidemic in the city. Kayden didn't believe it, given how she had accepted every other fucked up thing about them. She’d cut off a man’s dick, for crying out loud.
How he’d fooled himself into this false sense of security with her was confusing, but he’d been so wrapped up in her that maybe it had influenced his perception. Maybe if he talked to her, he could make her see reason. Was there any reason, though?
His goddamn phone went off again. He groaned and stuffed the pillow over his foggy head to block out the noise. Why did he have an alarm on his phone? He didn’t even remember setting one. Kayden grabbed it to turn the alarm off and realized it was Archie calling, and that it was also 5:00 a.m. He was about to swipe at the screen to answer the call when a heavy knock came from his bedroom door.
“Kayden? It’s me,” came a cautious female voice from the hallway. “It’s Corey.”
Still half asleep, he laughed at her naming herself. Who the fuck else would it be? “Come in, Little Fox.”
Corey pushed his door open and sheepishly entered his room. She was in one of their oversized hoodies, her bare legs looking sexy as hell under the hem. It was a good sign she was coming to his room before sunrise, right?
“So, listen. I think I overreacted last night.”
Yup, definitely a good sign. Even without hearing her thoughts, he felt he had a pretty good handle on how she processed things.
“Thank fuck. I know I couldn’t have misjudged everything so horribly.” He kicked the blankets off the bed and stood up. “Now come here so I can fuck you against the wall until you apologize for causing me an extremely stressful night of wondering if I would lose you.”
But before he could make good on his promise, his phone went off in his hand again .
It finally occurred to Kayden’s sleep and booze-addled brain that if Archie kept calling him, it was probably extremely important. His stomach dropped and he picked up the call.
Archie’s voice was strained, his words crashing into each other, and Kayden couldn’t make out what his friend was saying. Something was very wrong.
“Archie, slow down. I’m not following.” There was a buzzing in his ear that most definitely was not from his phone. After Corey had gone off like a bomb, they hadn’t debriefed the café incident, and what it might mean for them .
“They have him, Kay. Kreig’s men. Jason went out late last night for a ride. I didn’t get a notification that he returned to the penthouse, so I got worried and checked the CCTV through the city. They have him. I’ve been trying to get through to you since I realized. I’m trying to trace him now, but they’ve had him for hours.”
Kayden felt the air tear from his lungs and his legs give out.
He was on his knees, panic consuming him, the buzzing in his ears growing louder.
“No, no, no, no.” He brought his hands up to cover his ears, trying to block out the sounds.
“Kayden!” He heard Corey scream his name, but it was distant. She landed beside him and picked up his phone. He must have dropped it. Vaguely, he processed Archie’s voice on speakerphone, relaying the same information to Corey. Tears were distorting her perfect freckles.
“Kayden, we need to go get him! What’s the plan?” He registered her question but didn’t respond, just blinked in shock. She grabbed him by the shoulders and shook. “Get your shit together!” She sounded just as panicked as he felt.
He heard Archie’s voice through the speaker. “I have his location. He’s in one of the industrial parks. I’m still trying to access the security system, but their security is strong. If I can breach their walls, it’s going to take me some time.”
Corey was also saying something to him, but he didn’t hear her. All he could think about was Jason. The other half of him. They would take his sweet time with him, too. Everything he’d heard Kovack thinking and planning for them, he was sure Kreig’s guys were doling out on Jase.
Suddenly, his cheek flared with red-hot pain. Then his other cheek smarted as she slapped him again. It was the jolt he needed to come back online.
He shook his head and grabbed her hand out of the air before she could slap him a third time. She was shaking badly .
He scrambled for the phone on the floor. “Archie, I’m here.”
“Thank fuck, I’m barely keeping it together myself. We need to plan, immediately. I’m still not through their security. I have no eyes inside the building. You may need to go there physically and get me connected.”
“I’m going regardless. There’s no one I can trust right now for recon.”
"I don’t know which teams have been compromised. I don’t know who to send with you, Kayden. The only team I have needs three hours.” Archie’s voice was desperate.
“He doesn’t have that time. I’ll have to go in alone.”
“I’m going too,” Corey said through a sniffle.
“Absolutely not!” Kayden cut her a glare. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“Ridiculous? Me? You going alone is ridiculous!”
“She’s right. I’m afraid it will be a suicide mission,” Archie said through the phone, keyboard clacking in the background. “The building has just as much physical security as they do cyber. It’s no joke.”
“Oh god, this is my fault. This is all my fault.” Corey’s distress was palpable. “If I hadn’t freaked out last night, he wouldn’t have left! I have to come, I have to!”
“It’s not your fault. We should have told you earlier. I’m sorry. You had every right to react the way you did.”
“This isn’t the time,” Archie barked over the phone.
“You can’t leave me behind and go in there alone. I won’t allow it. Put my violent tendencies to good use.”
“It’s not up to you!” Kayden yelled at her.
“It is up to me! It’s my choice, and I would rather die than lose him to this!” A sob escaped her quivering lips.
“You love him.” It wasn’t a question.
“He needs me.”
“ I need you.” His voice almost broke.
“We’ll all make it out of this. I promise. Let me go with you.”
“You can’t promise me that. ”
There was pain in her big blue eyes, but rock solid determination too. He couldn’t take it. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to think, and it hurt to look at her. Everything had fallen apart so quickly.
He choked, gulping down some air.
He felt her hands grab his face. “Open your eyes.”
He hadn’t realized he’d closed them.
“Look at me.” He did. He looked at the beautiful woman in front of him, who was the only thing holding him up. When he was falling to pieces, she was holding steady.
“You’ve got this, Kay. This is what you train for. You know what you need to do to get him back. But you can’t do this alone, not like this.”
He nodded.
It was dangerous, he realized, loving two people. He loved her, so he wanted to keep her safe. But he loved Jason too. Did he love him enough that he would risk Corey to get him back?
He did. And the weight of that decision was heavy in his bones, like a boulder dropping in a lake pulled down, down, down . But as it settled in the sediment, it became an anchor—grounding—the foundation he needed to take the first step in this impossible task ahead of them.
“Okay,” he said.
“Okay?” she asked back.
“Okay,” he repeated with more fortitude, loosing a long breath and confirming his insane decision. “You’ll need a lot of knives.”
“And a big ol’ gun.” She was still holding his face, the ghost of a smile on her lips. “Let’s go send them to hell and back. No one fucks with my guys.”
“There we go,” Archie said. “I just sent the location to your phone. Suit up and get the comms in. We’ll connect once you get to the building. You’ll need as much ammo as you can carry, but you’ll need to be fast too. Bring the night vision goggles. I’ll formulate the plan while you travel and brief you for execution before you infiltrate.” Archie disconnected the call .
Before Kayden could take control, Corey was pulling him up off the floor.
“What does one wear on a mission like this?” she asked, forcing her voice to be steady and light. She was so damn strong, but her eyes betrayed how deep her worry was.
“Leggings and long sleeve is fine. I’ll get you a vest downstairs.”
“I was hoping you were going to say leathers.” She forced a smile.
“Nah, too restrictive and makes too much noise. It’s also hard to run in and it’s too hot. I’ll see you in the front hall. Move as fast as you can.”
Corey turned to sprint out of his room, but he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her in for a deep kiss before letting her go. “I love you.” It was hard to get the words out with the constriction in his throat.
He didn’t wait for a response. He ran to his closet, threw on his black cargos and wool socks, and a tight black base layer. Hurrying down the stairs two at a time, he finally reached the front hallway.
Kayden tied up his tactical boots, making sure they were double knotted so they wouldn’t come undone on the mission. Then he pulled out all their guns, holsters, grenades, knives, belts and two top-of-the-line Kevlar vests from the closet.
Corey joined him in the hall as he laid everything out on the floor.
“Get your boots on. Do them up well. A mistake like that could cost us our lives.”
He strapped the belt with the throwing knives around her and then strapped on another sling of grenades. Two gun holsters went under her arms.
“These are automatic rifles. They have a wide spray and low accuracy, but you’re not trained with guns. We’ll get the rest of the ammo in the car.” He handed her an earpiece. “This earpiece is your lifeline. Archie is connected.”
“Hi, Archie,” she said out loud .
“Hello, there. I’ve heard quite a bit about you.” The voice came through crystal clear in their ears.
“Only good things, I hope?”
“Oh, just the worst.” There was forced levity in Archie’s familiar voice, but Kayden appreciated the effort.
“Jason had these made for you.” Kayden passed Corey a stiff pair of fingerless leather gloves. “When you squeeze the palms, it activates a spring, and the blades retract from the knuckle holsters. It’s like the ones I wear on my forearms but Wolverine-style.”
She pulled the gloves on and squeezed her fists together.
Thin blades sprung out like claws over her fingers. She stared at them in awe, holding them up to her face and turning her hand around to take in her new weapon. She squeezed her hand again and the blades retracted. “These would have been helpful yesterday.”
“Well, hopefully they’ll be helpful now.” Jason’s life depended on it. Reckless fucking idiot.
The drive to the industrial park wasn’t long, but under the haze of the morning moon, it felt like an eternity. There was a thick, cotton layer of calm over the car, like maybe they were just driving to the airport for an early morning flight.
Kayden spent the drive tunnelling deep into the fractured parts of himself, the parts that had done this before. Visualizing the carnage that lay ahead of him helped fine-tune his focus. Every one of his senses heightened as he kept burrowing into instinct, releasing his hold on rational thought.
The GPS took them to an isolated industrial park. Archie had hacked the gates on the drive and exterior security feed, but still didn’t have eyes in the building.
Pulling into the drive, Kayden parked the Rover off to the side, nestled between two large Dumpster bins. Then he opened the back, using his thumbprint to unlock the big iron trunk there. He pulled out more supplies—an additional vest with rounds and rounds of ammunition, and night vision goggles.
“I have canisters of noxious gas. Should we?” Kayden asked Archie.
“I thought about gassing the place, but gas masks will be too heavy to carry, and we don’t know where Jason is being kept inside. We can’t risk poisoning him. I’m in their system now. I’m going to cut the electricity. When you get close, I’m going to run interference on their securities communications.”
Kayden nodded his agreement. They were well and truly geared up, both of them looking like weapons of war. “Ready?” he asked Corey.
“No,” she admitted in a whisper.
He took her face in his hands, angling her eyes up to his. She was perfect. “You are made of more fire than blood, more river than water. You do not fear them. They fear you. Okay?”
“Okay.” The deep pools of her eyes came alive with the waves of the ocean as her determination crystalized, as she threw her fear into the fury of her storm and decimated it with resolve, turning it into a shipwreck on her shores. He let go of her face, hoping he had enough fire to bring to her blaze, that he was enough to add to her raging current.
She nodded once, clenching her fists so the blades sprang out. She nodded again, and with the confidence of an animal both predator and prey, she walked down the drive, away from the Rover. Away from safety.
Her steps didn’t falter as she forged on to waiting hell.
There was lower security around the building, only four men guarding the back entrance. The men noticed them long after Kayden and Corey had already approached.
Flicking his cigarette to the ground, one of them lifted his gun up, taking aim.
Archie released the high-pitched frequency through their communication feeds, and the four of them shot hands to their ears, quickly pulling their earpieces out .
With that distraction, Kayden locked the silencer and let off four precise shots, taking each one out quickly. He was a force of instinct and training. There was almost nothing human left in him, just a fine-tuned weapon.
He didn’t even blink, holstering his pistol and taking the keycard from the front pocket of one body on the floor, scanning it to unlock the door.
“Security has lost communications, but they’ll know they’re under attack,” Archie advised through their still-functioning earpieces.
Before pulling the door open, he looked at Corey and holstered his automatic rifle as well. She copied him.
“Goggles on, you two. I’m cutting the lights.”
They both slid their night vision goggles on, and Kayden opened the door.
A darkened hallway awaited them. He could hear the echo and scuffle of several people moving further down the hallway, could see small strobes of light flashing around, refracting in the glare of his goggles.
They slid in and closed the door behind them, sending the hall into darkness, before his eyes adjusted to the greenish hue in the lenses.
In grainy flatness, Kayden could make out the six men skittering along the hall, grasping for the walls to guide them. Bringing up his second hand to stabilize the rifle, Kayden unleashed thirty rounds on the men, aiming high for their face then low for their legs, severing major arteries. As the men fell, the screaming began.
“You’ll need to check every room. I’m in the circuit board. All the doors have electronic locking mechanisms. I’m going to keep them locked until you get to them. Name each room as you move.”
Kayden and Archie checked each room off the first floor hallway, uninterrupted by more security. They found nothing in each, just storage rooms of boxes.
They ventured further into the massive building, finally nearing the end of the hall.
“Kayden, take the corner first,” Archie said into the earpiece .
With his rifle lifted, Kayden rounded the corner, his back to the wall. The barrage of bullets rang out loudly, and two bullets hit him in his vest. He absorbed the impact without flinching at their sharp bite, releasing his own shots at the two men down the hall, taking them out quickly.
Four more men came around a further corner and started shooting.
“Grenade, Corey,” Archie directed.
Corey sprung from behind the wall, tossing a grenade into the fray. It detonated, sending shrapnel and sediment into the air, the instant of brightness blinding both of them in their goggles momentarily and leaving a ringing in his ears.
Before the automatic gain control could level out their vision, one man pressed Kayden up against the wall. He was scrabbling to aim his gun, but Kayden had his arm angled out to the side, so the bullets shot wide, hitting the ceiling and the fluorescent lighting panel there, causing shuddering sparks to jump to the floor.
The other guards were down, and Corey was pacing the two scrapping men with her gun lifted. She looked like a pit viper circling her prey, but he could see she was panicking. It was too close contact for a gunshot. She didn’t have any experience with accuracy, and she knew that. It was why he’d given her automatic submachine guns for wide sweeps.
She wouldn’t risk shooting him. It’s why she hadn’t pulled the trigger yet. “Just like darts, Little Fox,” he called over the hum of the broken lighting.
She nodded once, exchanging the gun for knives and throwing two in quick succession, aiming right for the throat like they’d taught her. Her aim hit true, and the man's hands moved to his neck. Kayden used the distraction to push him off. He kicked his legs out from under him, and the guy went down hard.
Kayden bent down and pulled the knives out, wiping the blood off on his pant leg. Corey sprinted over to him. He kicked the guy in the head once for good measure, but he wasn’t going to waste a bullet on him .
His ravaged throat would kill him in a minute.
“Nice shot,” he whispered.
Corey’s arms went to him. “Are you hurt?”
“Not yet.”
Kayden took in the long hallway. Nothing but rubble and dead bodies. There weren’t any more doors to check, so they hurried to the end of the hall, ready to round another corner.
“The doors are still locked, and the power grid is off. I was finally able to breach the interior security feed before cutting it. This floor is clear. Jason is on the top floor in the back room. There are men up there. You’ll need to split up.”
“Absolutely not. We go together.”
“Kay, I need you to set up the explosives to bring the building down while Corey recovers Jason. He’s in bad shape. There won’t be time after, and their security backup is coming. Corey can’t set the explosives. There’s only eleven men up there. She can take them out. The stairwells are locked, the top floor will be open for retreat after Corey clears it, and then everything will be bottlenecked on the first floor for extraction. I have control over the elevator. We can send her up now.”
“Corey, it’s up to you,” Kayden said hesitantly.
“This feels too easy.” Her focus was bouncing around the blackened space, the putrid smell of leather over flame thickening.
“No one should be able to do what I can do. Security couldn’t have prepared for this.” With her head cocking to the side, Kayden could tell Corey didn’t understand Archie’s ambiguous comment.
“It wouldn’t be this easy without Archie. We’d be dead already. He has control of every electronic plugged into this building, so he can manipulate them to do what he wants. Archie’s special, but we don’t have time to explain. ”
“We’re not out of the woods yet, either—only a third of the way through. You still have to get up there and get out.” The smoke alarm had gone off, and the noise was blaring in their ears. Archie disabled it quickly.
“You trust him?” she asked Kayden.
He’d say with his life, but hers was worth more. “He’s the only reason we’re all alive.”
In the green glow of his night vision goggles, he could see the grim set to her jaw.
“Okay. I’ll do it.”