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“Gentlemen, meet Cain and Remington,” Greyson said, and there was a faint flicker of humor—the first I’d seen since he left the rink with Kennedy—when he said, “Try not to piss Cain off. Not when you’ve just started to grow on me.”
“Greyson,” Cain nodded, his voice deep and resonant.
“Thanks for coming,” Greyson said, wasting no extra breath as he swept his arm toward the digital map projected on the wall. “Here’s the situation.”
I shifted while Greyson briefed them, my heart pounding in sync with the flickering of the red dot that represented our best lead on Kennedy’s location. Remington unpacked his equipment as he listened, and his eyes scanned the data with a predator’s focus.
“Damn.” Remington finally broke the silence, his low whistle cutting through the tension. “You guys must be going crazy. If it were Aurora missing…”
He trailed off, leaving the implication hanging thick in the air.
His words hit me like a gut punch. I didn’t think anyone could understand, but they had a girl too. Her face, her laugh,the way her long brown hair felt slipping through my fingers—all of it haunted me. Especially the…
“She’s pregnant,” I blurted out.
Sebastian’s hand was a steady weight on my shoulder, grounding me.
“I understand.” Remington pivoted to the computers he’d begun to unpack. “I can cut the power. Plunge them into darkness. It’ll give you an edge.”
My mind conjured images of Kennedy, alone in that pitch blackness, her heart racing in fear. But the advantage was undeniable. “Let’s do it.”
Beside us, Cain’s imposing figure loomed closer. “We’re going to need more than just the element of surprise. We can go in with night vision, but we’re still looking at a high cost. We know they’re expecting us.”
“Understood,” Greyson acknowledged, his eyes locked on Cain’s.
“Friendship’s got its limits,” Cain said bluntly, crossing his arms over his vast chest. “Halting my entire operation to get every man massed out there…”
Greyson didn’t hesitate. “We know. Whatever it takes.”
Cain gave a short nod. I had the feeling he’d do the same for Aurora.
The pain I felt was muted by the blur of preparation. Greyson took us to the armory, where the scent of gun oil lingered in the air. Grimly, we loaded magazines and prepared ourselves for war.
Hawk and his team reported back. Greyson told his men that we would be planning an attack for the morning and to get some rest.
And then, unseen, we slipped out. Cain picked us up and brought us to the edge of the factory, where his people were gathering.
The abandoned factory loomed ahead. Cain’s men were already there, figures draped in darkness, their movements efficient and silent. I could make out the soft-green glow of night vision goggles.
Remington held a heat gun. “I’m seeing at least twenty bodies in there.”
I ran my hand over the weight of the gun under my arm, before pressing the butt of the rifle I carried into my shoulder. I hadn’t carried a gun since we left the Jackals.
“Everyone’s in position,” Cain murmured, his voice barely above a whisper, yet it cut through the quiet like a knife.
My chest tightened at his words, anticipation and dread knotting at the base of my throat. We were here. This was where I would find her, or lose everything trying. The world seemed odd through the green night vision blur.
I stepped forward at Greyson’s command, and he grabbed my arm, giving me a shake of the head. “For Kennedy’s sake,” he muttered, “hold back.”
I hesitated, then nodded. He was right. As much as I wanted to get in there, Kennedy would be destroyed if she lost us.
The lights at the factory cut out, every one of them dying.
Cain’s men melted out of the shadows, running up on the building in a practiced crouch, like special forces.
With every fiber on edge, I followed them. My hands were steady, gripping the rifle that had become an extension of myself.
The night vision goggles cast everything in a surreal green hue, narrowing my focus even more than my adrenaline already had.
