Chapter Forty-Four Reed #2
“I’m not one of them. Not involved in this.
I just escaped when your friends showed up in the basement, and this asshole”—he nodded with his head toward the body I’d dropped—“was trying to take me out. I wasn’t expecting to run into you.
” He held his hands out and open at his sides.
“I’d never hurt you. I love you like family. ”
“Did you know in Rome—”
“No,” he cut her off. “My cousins told me they found out you’d be in Rome alone and I should ditch training to go with you.
I never thought to question them. I showed up to have your six the afternoon of the rave.
You were surprised to see me and wouldn’t tell me the real reason you were there.
” He paused for a breath. “Thankfully, you let me go with you that night, though, because I held off Putcheski’s men.
I was knocked out by someone after and woke up in a van with three men I didn’t know, along with two of my cousins. ”
At sudden movement down the hall, I readied my rifle, only to relax when I realized it was Alex. I gave him the heads-up. “It’s Delta Three.”
Alex joined us as backup as Hollis focused back on Kylo, and I remained protectively at her side, letting her handle this how she needed to even if we were short on time. “Does that mean it was Julian’s protector who took out those three men in the van? Or was it Gideon’s protector, Rowan?”
“It was Orson who killed them. Orson told me what was going on and to pick a side: our family or yours. He said Rowan chose smartly, so I should as well. He believed your family had been corrupted, which I didn’t accept, but Rowan discreetly signaled to me to go along with what Orson was saying.
So I did, because Orson had you and Gideon in some zombielike state. ”
She hesitantly freed Kylo from being pinned down.
“Orson ordered me to take Gideon back to Monaco and stay off-grid and await orders from him. From there, Orson went with you and Rowan to Florence.”
“And that’s when Orson tried to kill me?”
Kylo nodded, then shifted upright, sitting against the wall while returning his NVGs in place.
“Rowan didn’t have the antidote to give you like I had to give Gideon, so he improvised.
He removed your chain and waited in the Czech Republic for your family to get you, but when he took off, they caught up with him.
They scrubbed the video footage. They assumed I was on his side, not theirs, so they locked me up after that. ”
“Wait, did you say antidote?” I rasped, lowering my rifle, chills flying up my spine and into my tense shoulders.
“Yeah, the mind control drugs apparently don’t work on their bloodline, not without them being administered the memory-loss one first. They’re too strong-willed.” He focused back on Hollis. “From what I overheard them say, they had to wipe your identity first so you’d forget, and then they could—”
A blast rocked the building, cutting him off, and I grabbed hold of Hollis’s waist to keep her steady as the walls shook.
“What’s going on? Was that us?” I transmitted.
“That’s not us,” Julian responded. “It’s coming from under the ground somewhere. We can feel it and hear it, but we don’t see anything.”
“I’m sure that’s my cousins. They’re clearing an escape path. Opening up one of our old emergency tunnels that were previously sealed off underground,” Kylo explained. “It’s probably their backup plan if they overplayed their hand with you all.”
I swapped my M4 for my 9mm and offered Kylo my free hand to help him stand. He took it and rose while sharing where he believed his cousins would be going from here.
I relayed the information to my team, hoping he was truly on our side.
“This is Alpha One. The king is alive and secure. Lost track of the other packages.”
“That’s a good copy,” Alex transmitted back. “They have to be in that escape tunnel now.”
“Foxtrot and Delta, pursue,” Carter ordered. “Alpha Team will hold the ground here and cover you.”
“Orson’s two brothers, Cassian and Waylen, are the ones now running the show with their father.” Kylo looked at me and clarified, “Lyra and Tristan’s protectors.”
They must have been the traitors Rowan had signaled to Gideon about.
“Tristan’s innocent,” Kylo let us know before Hollis could even ask him. “It was Orson who used the drugs on Julian to get his source code. And Waylen’s the one who stole the book from Tristan.”
I may have had the list of names in my head for all these fuckers, but they were about to become A, B, and C in a second. Too damn many of them to keep track of. “And they just told you all this?” I scoffed.
“They didn’t plan to let me walk, and I can be a persistent pain when trying to get information out of people.
” He started to reach for Hollis, but hesitated, clearly realizing that’d be a shit idea.
I wasn’t prepared to trust him yet. “Tristan’s been a prisoner, right here along with me.
They must’ve brought him here before they got to us in Rome that night. ”
If he was telling the truth, at least Hollis’s brother was innocent. That was something, I supposed. We still had to put an end to this now and get the antidote for Hollis. But thank God, there already was an antidote.
“I can’t go out there with you,” Kylo rushed out. “I have to find Rowan and my parents. They buried them alive somewhere on the property. I was next, but then you showed up.”
“Why’d your parents lie to Gideon when he visited them in Peru?” I couldn’t help but ask, even though we needed to roll out. Then it dawned on me before he could answer. “To keep their sons alive.” Of course.
“The four of us are the only ones who didn’t go along with my cousin’s plan to overthrow your family.
I had no idea any of them were so power hungry.
We should have seen it coming, though, I’m so damn sorry.
” Kylo crouched and picked up the fallen weapon from the man I’d killed, and I clocked his every movement in case he was yet another traitor hiding behind a mask.
“Delta Three, come in. What’s your status? I’m still tracking you on level one,” Ryder asked over comms.
Before I could respond, a female voice called out, “Don’t shoot.”
I raised my 9mm, not seeing anyone through the night vision.
A few seconds later, a figure emerged from the shadows. She had a weapon down at her side and a helmet with night vision in place.
Who the hell was that?
“It’s me,” she whispered. “Hollis, are you there?”
“Lyra?” Hollis called out, faltering at my side. “Are you okay?” She started to sidestep me to get to her, but I hooked her arm, stopping her.
“I’m so sorry,” Lyra cried out, her voice shaking. “Cassian promised me everything would be okay. He said no one would get hurt.” And then she raised her handgun and fired off a round.