CHAPTER TWO
Kade’s in trouble.
Medical teams are patching everyone up on the fourth floor.
Bodies of their fallen were taken to the basement morgue, often called the Cold Room.
Iron Star runs a full crew, all of whom were well protected during the failed one-man invasion, and they get back to work before the dust has even begun to settle.
Sweep teams are performing a full and thorough search of the whole Tower.
Whoever sent this fucker is going to pay dearly, but for now that’s not Kade’s interest. The medical team gave him a quick once over, packed and wrapped the shallow wound from earlier, put cotton wool in his ears, but he tends to heal fast anyway and they all know it.
The Tower is locked down.
And Kade is absolutely in trouble because he went directly against protocol. Tunnel attacks are one thing. This was something else entirely.
Strange activity requires fallback observation.
The body of the intruder is still in the Watch, and around him an argument volleys back-and-forth between Seth, Luca, Cole and Finn, none of whom seem willing to agree on how he got in and how he got this far up.
Kade stares at the body.
‘That’s a fucking Paranatural!’ Seth yells again, pointing directly down at the man Kade shot in the face while Finn shakes his head, poised to correct the term. ‘They’re not cute or whimsical, they’re dangerous!’
‘Brightlings,’ Finn corrects sternly while Cole and Luca engage in quieter, more serious back-and-forth about how the intruder managed to get through the levels so fast, ‘are not monsters, and I’m not arguing that he was clearly more than human, far from it, but you can’t just—’
‘That fucking thing killed my brother! I want it cut open.’
‘It?’ Even Cole, pragmatic non-believer that he is, looks over at that with a line between his eyes, frowning. ‘That’s way out of line.’
‘Are you serious? I’m supposed to care about its feelings when—’
The steel door in the nearby wall slides sideways open, bars directly behind it like a prison cell, but they too roll left. Everyone in the room falls silent as the boss of Iron Star enters the Watch.
Riley Harker is an inch shorter than Kade with wider set shoulders.
His dark-blond hair is pushed back from his face, typically wavy.
He’s wearing dark blue jeans and a black henley beneath the same leather jacket he’s had ever since Kade can remember, now almost charcoal with age.
His boots aren’t like Kade’s, they’re western, well-worn and faded too just like the jacket.
If you didn’t know him, you might not look twice.
No flash, no rings. He’s not even armed.
And yet, despite all this, his presence instantly brings everyone, including Kade, fully to attention. Riley never raises his voice. He doesn’t deal violence the way other men do and to the untrained eye, he’s not threatening at all.
The room holds total silence until he speaks.
‘How many dead?’ It’s soft-spoken, eminently calm, yet Kade knows he’s in trouble, he can feel it.
Luca glances at Kade, subtly signs, I think he’s mad.
Kade swiftly rolls his eyes as if to say, you think? ‘Eighteen, including Gage.’
‘Injured?’
‘Twenty-two.’
Seth and Luca move respectfully back when Riley approaches the body of the intruder. Kade watches his boss closely, curious.
Riley stares down when he gets close enough to see it, and for several tense beats, he doesn’t move at all. His expression is completely shuttered, no movement but the slow, steady rise and fall of his chest.
‘Who got him?’
Kade steps forward. ‘I did.’ He’s trying to meet Riley’s gaze, but it’s fixed down, stuck hard on the body and with no reaction, Kade’s nerves give an unpleasant twist. He presses the inside of his wrist, massaging it, a habit that usually helps. ‘I know you’re mad, but—’
Cool blue eyes snap up, giving a warning that Kade takes, falling silent. Riley then looks to Finn, expression mild once more. ‘He was alone?’
‘As far as we know, sir.’
‘Show me the footage.’
‘The Mesh malfunctioned at various times.’
‘Show me anyway.’
Riley goes to the consoles with Cole and Finn.
Kade crouches down beside the body, reading what he sees and processing, desperate to have something to show his boss.
Answers, ideally. That way he won’t feel like shit for breaking protocol.
Kade lifts the tee, finds no visible armour underneath, proving right his initial impression that this psychopath came in here totally bare, but that’s not what’s troubling him.
The skin is tacky with blood, but there are no bullet holes on his chest. None. Kade pivots down to the ankles and pulls off both boots.
He knows he shot him there.
He saw the bullet hit, watched it drop him.
But when he pulls down the socks, fingers pushing through the blood, he finds no wound, no entry, not even a graze. Kade holds the boot up. There’s a hole clean through the leather of the upper ankle. Both sides.
‘What the fuck?’
Luca taps him on the shoulder and starts rapid-fire signing, but Kade stops him, gives a brief smile because he appreciates the gesture.
‘I can hear again, it’s OK,’ he says quietly.
‘Luca, look.’ He shows him the boot, then the ankle.
Luca follows his gaze, mildly patronising at first but then he slowly understands, confusion marring his features.
Luca is one of Kade’s closest friends. They’ve known each other for five years.
‘Um, what the actual fuck?’ he says.
From behind Kade, Seth hisses, ‘I told you!’
‘What’s wrong?’ Cole asks.
‘Stay back.’ Kade takes out a blade and slices the tee off completely. There’s blood all over the intruder, scars everywhere, but no wounds, not a single… fucking… one. Luca checks him thoroughly too, both of them pawing at this strange intruder to find exit wounds, holes, scrapes, anything.
‘Kade,’ Riley says. Kade can’t ignore him even if he wanted to, so his gaze snaps up. Amber eyes meet blue. ‘Talk to me.’
‘He’s not hit,’ Kade blurts out, doesn’t know how else to say it.
‘I got him in the ankle, but there’s nothing, only blood.
He’s not hit anywhere except the—oh my God.
’ Kade stares at the intruder’s face, horror growing inside like gruesome wings unfurling as his mind struggles to accept what it’s seeing.
Bullets are wiggling out like stubby worms.
His skin around the freshly vacated holes is extending like feelers, stretching and reaching to clasp and meld with the other side, sewing together.
His face is spitting the bullets out, stitching itself up.
Luca falls backwards, scrambling to get a chunk of distance but Kade can’t move, can’t look away.
The intruder’s face is healing right before his eyes.
The Watch is deadly silent, but Kade hears each of the bullets fall onto the floor and then a shaky, crackly breath is dragged into wet, previously still lungs.
The intruder coughs, his body jerks, and he tries to blink, but he can’t quite do it because one of the bullets went right into his eye and even though it’s healing, it’s thick with sticky blood.
Kade can’t believe what he’s seeing, but he’s also practical enough to yank every weapon off the man while he’s still boneless.
Luca shakes himself quickly and helps. They slide each item across the floor, yelling at someone to take it and get it away.
Once even the smallest of blades is removed, one of which is custom built, Kade drags him by the bare feet towards the steel doors.
‘Permission to lock him in here?’ he asks, and he’s doing it either way but has to ask because those stairs lead to Riley’s rooms on the very top floor.
Already headed for the doors, Riley says, ‘Granted,’ not a moment too soon because the intruder is waking up, groaning as he looks around.
Riley touches the wall beside the doors to open them both.
The steel door and iron bars slide into the wall and Kade throws the intruder’s weight against the bottom step leading up into the spiral staircase. He steps back quickly.
‘Just the bars. Keep the door open so we can monitor.’
Riley does as he suggests.
Thick, heavy bars slide into place, locking tight like a prison cell. For the first time ever, Kade is grateful for them.
All holding rooms are in the basement.
They’d never have made it before he woke up.
The six of them stare at the intruder.
‘Seth,’ Riley says. ‘Take a team, sweep the building level by level and find anything he left behind.’ Seth, whose brother is dead downstairs, gives an efficient nod. ‘Luca, sweep the outside. None of this leaves the Watch.’
Both Seth and Luca dutifully answer, ‘Heard.’
Luca pats Kade’s arm, throws him a look. ‘Catch up in a bit.’
Kade gives a shaky nod.
It’s just him, Cole, Finn and the boss in this room where a man shot to death came back to fucking life. Riley Harker turns his full attention to his bodyguard. ‘Kade,’ he bids, ‘come with me.’
‘He’s n-not dead.’
‘Let’s go.’ Kade forces himself to look away from the doors, confused.
‘What if he—?’
Riley leaves the Watch, doesn’t look back.
Kade shakes himself and follows. The boss leads him two corridors away to Kade’s own bedroom. Only High Command sleep on this floor. Kade is still seeing the outline of the intruder.
The look on his face and the name he uttered.
Jules.
‘Kade.’ Riley walks into Kade’s bedroom. ‘Kade. Eyes on me.’
He blinks hard but can’t process anything. ‘Um.’
‘Sit down.’
‘Right. Yeah. Sorry, what?’
Riley turns Kade’s face side to side with a rough, knowing touch, examining him. ‘Little bit of shock,’ he says gently. ‘Not surprising. How are you feeling?’
‘I’m fine.’
‘Answer me, Kade.’
‘I did.’
Riley has worked for years to uphold the Varrow City Accords. He’s smart, ruthless and pragmatic but he’s also quiet, withdrawn and composed. Kade has never once seen him fight, but he’s always reasoned that bosses don’t have to when you have the best to guard them.
He’s Kade’s best friend, the only person he’s known all his life.