Chapter 16
Chapter sixteen
Raegan
The two days of training drag. I feel every minute that passes like a looming countdown that has my nerves buzzing and heart racing. After we take out our assigned board member, our group is going after Charles.
We’re going to defeat GE.
Dane gathered as much information as he could on the final board members before switching his time to hunting down Charles.
We need to know where he is or will be tonight so we can move on him before he has time to hear about his board.
Finding him is easier said than done, considering how well he hides himself and never has any recorded travel logs.
When I’d last seen Dane after lunch, he’d been so stressed that he snapped at me for asking how it was going.
His face paled when he looked up and realized it was me.
After an apology, I kissed him good luck and left him to it.
He didn’t need to say anything for me to understand how important this piece is. If we don’t have Charles, then this gives him a clear statement that the Guild is against him, and I’m sure he’ll attack us in full force. We don’t have the numbers compared to his to survive if it comes down to that.
Aiden offered Dane one more day, as much as he wasn’t thrilled with it, but Dane told him to fuck off so he could focus.
Alice has been released from her apartment to hang out in the Guild Hall and watch the training.
She’s still restricted to the Tower and without access to a phone or the internet, but I'm hoping she’ll see hope for a new life.
Mostly, she stands in the background and watches on in silence.
It’s probably what she’s used to... quietly observing rather than getting involved.
It’s better than her getting angry with others or arguing with them, at least. Instead, she looks more nervous to talk to anyone than anything, like a new kid at school trying to figure out how to fit in.
I invited Portia and Elias to our training, but they’d politely declined and said they’d prepare for their assigned guild member with their team.
On the last day, Jack takes me to an abandoned beach to test more of my strengthened gift. He keeps the tests to a minimum to avoid wearing me out while we learn more about what I can do now. Then he takes me back to the Loft for a quick fuck and some rest.
Until the alarm sounds.
The salty ocean air stings my nose and sours my mood.
Too many memories claw at me the second I'm this close to the water, and unease settles deep in my gut. I hadn’t expected our board member to live in a mansion on a rock cliff with private beach access.
If I had, I would have asked Aiden to assign us to someone else.
I’ll take the city or Old Red in the woods any day over a beachfront property.
Jackson slips his fingers through mine as if he can sense my anxiety. The leather of his fingerless gloves blocks my palm from his. Normally, I don’t mind it. Tonight, it bothers me. I need the skin-on-skin contact to put me at ease, even if I know there’s no logical reason for it.
I scratch my thumbnail over the leather, pushing at it. Jack smirks, immediately removing his gloves and returning his hand to mine. His lips graze my ear when he murmurs, “Let me go alone. I’ll slit his throat, and we can leave.”
His dark, blood-soaked promise has me clenching my thighs.
Dane continues typing on his laptop on the other side of me in the backseat of the car.
We’re in a five-seater this time with Kell and Aiden up front.
It was a two-hour drive to get here from the Tower.
Others rode with Portia’s group on Elias’s private jet to their destinations, while Reid’s team has the board member on the opposite coast.
Squeezing Jack’s hand, I shake my head. As tempting as his offer is, we have a board member whose gift is unknown.
I’m not risking him going alone as much as he believes he can handle it.
If killing the man is going to be so simple, then there’s no reason why the rest of us can’t be there as well to watch his back.
“I’m in,” Dane remarks quietly. His fingers fly over the keyboard as he disables the security systems. He never found Charles, but he came up with the idea of using our target’s phone to find him. All it will take is a call to Charles for Dane to find out exactly where he is.
“Are there cameras inside?” Aiden questions from the passenger seat.
“Just outside.”
Which means we don’t know where he is or if anyone else is there. From Dane’s research, he lives alone with no family. And considering it’s two in the morning, he should be asleep in bed.
Jack draws a throwing knife free, spinning the loop around his finger before catching the handle. He kisses the back of my hand in his. “See you inside.” He slips out of the car, disappearing like a shadow in the night. He’ll come in from the back while we enter through the front.
“Let’s go,” Aiden directs.
The rest of us exit the vehicle. The ocean breeze sweeps over us, inciting a cool chill and another wave of unease. Something moves out of the corner of my eye, but when I turn to look at the car, there’s nothing there. Dane reaches for my hand with a look of concern. “You okay?”
Damn. I need to get my shit together if everyone’s noticing.
“Yeah,” I lie, more to myself than him. If I say it aloud, maybe it’ll become true.
“Let’s just get this over with.” We run down the street from where we parked to the house and Aiden works his magic to unlock the front door.
Once we’re inside, I activate my gift. The reddish glow gives us away, but it should be okay now that we’re not on the street.
I’d rather have it ready to use than not, so it’s worth the risk even if he is awake to see it.
Kellan takes point through the first floor. When there are no bedrooms to be found, he leads us up the creaking stairs. I mentally curse them for always being noisy.
Jackson crouches behind the wall next to an open doorway on the second floor.
His fingers undulate a few inches off the ground.
He must’ve sent his origami creatures into the room to check for Harvey’s sibling.
Alice said she would sleep in the member’s room on the floor so she would wake up when they did.
We expect the same thing from her siblings.
That also means that while they’ve been told not to interfere with anything—including a threat to the board member’s life—they are required to report any updates to Charles.
We need to restrain or incapacitate them before that happens.
Jack motions to Kellan, pointing in the room.
I peek with him. A single white crane sits in the air a foot off the ground at the end of the bed.
Dane and Kell go in first. While Dane uses his gift to make them visible, Kellan covers their mouth and restrains them.
Aiden fashions a set of cuffs and retrieves a small roll of duct tape from his jacket.
The boy panics when he wakes up enough to realize what’s happening, thrashing in Kellan’s hold yet barely moving at all.
I step in front of him to try calming him down with a finger to my lips, a prayer position, and then pointing at the board member.
His eyes widen when he sees me, and I realize then that the reddish glow likely makes me look terrifying in the dead of night.
Fuck.
I turn it off to see if that helps, but now that he’s seen it, he stares at me like I’m a nightmare.
At least I'm able to distract him so that Aiden can get everything on him. Jackson hops onto the bed, landing soft as a feather as he squats over the sleeping board member. Once he’s in position, he grips the guy’s hair and shoves his head to the side into the pillow.
Jack swipes his blade across his carotid artery as soon as it’s exposed, before the board member even opens his eyes.
Blood spurts from the wound, spraying Jack in the chest and face as he holds him there.
The boy screams into the gag, terror reflecting in his wide eyes as he watches on in horror.
Probably not a good first impression on our part.
I would try to soothe him, but I’d only make things worse at this point.
At least this part is done. Now we need to find his phone and Charles.
Jackson whips around to the door, his arm flying out and the bloody blade sailing through the air. He blinks in surprise just as something stings my neck.
“Ow! What the fuck?!” Dane cries out, echoing my thoughts aloud.
I reach for my neck and find a dart stuck there.
Fuck.
It pulls free without a problem, but that only means whatever was in it is already entering my bloodstream.
A thud sounds in the doorway. A stranger lies there, a knife in his heart and a gun in his hand. The one who darted us, then.
“Raegan!” Aiden shouts.
I turn to see what’s wrong just as the floor vanishes, and I drop. Jackson dives after me, and we disappear into a portal.