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It only took a moment for Theo to process my words before the heavy weight of our reality sank in. His fair skin took on an ashen tone and those eyes were the widest that I had ever seen them. He stumbled back into the doorframe while his partner emerged to peek over his shoulder. “How did this happen? We have security systems in place — protocols meant to alert us! The only way this could have happened is if you weren’t at your post! Where the hell were you two?”
Tate pushed past him with a scowl. “Does it matter? They’ve almost broken down the front door. The fact they haven’t yet just means they’re fucking with us. Grab your laptop, Theo. It’s time to go underground.” His hazel eyes swung our way. “Wipe the drives. Do you hear me? Neither of you leave until everything is erased!”
Theo didn’t offer an ounce of protest when his brother grabbed him by the arm and dragged him back into the office. The simple click of the lock rolling into place simply confirmed that neither of them would have to use the same exit plan as the rest of us. The brothers had their own personal back door to escape through.
“Fuck this!” Beau scrambled for the same door that all of the others had scrambled through.
I reached out to grab a fistful of his shirt, yanking him right back to the computer. “Where the hell do you think you’re going? Tate gave us specific orders to wipe the drives. We have protocols for shit hitting the fan, Beau, and I can’t do this without you. I need you on the secondary monitor to ensure there’s nothing left for them to find!”
He stared at me for a moment with those lips still parted while the banging grew louder upstairs. Fear had him by the balls so much that he couldn’t seem to break free from the paralysis until the wife of the family living upstairs screamed in horror. His eyes shot up toward the wooden ceiling as the sound was followed by several gunshots.
Fucking hell, Brandon managed to conceal a loaded weapon during the last raid.
Bullets weren’t going to do a damn thing against the demons except piss them off. From the wild shriek that pierced the air within seconds, I knew that I had hit the nail on the head. The noise had distracted me long enough for Beau to break free from my grasp. “Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” I demanded as he made a rapid retreat.
Beau didn’t have a damn thing to say now that he was out of my reach. He simply offered me a sorrowful look before he tore through the door, leaving me alone at the monitor.
You fucking bastard. Not only did I feel betrayed by the one member of the APL that swore he would always have my back, but now I felt violated. I had given him the one thing that no one else had been able to claim — not that any of the others seemed to have any desire to. My only reward for trusting Beau to this extent had left me at the monitor alone with the predators closing in on me. Gritting my teeth, I brushed all of those thoughts aside while I took to the keyboard.
I would worry about it when I had the chance to hunt his feeble ass down — after I wiped the drives and escaped capture. Not only would I give him one hell of a punch to the jaw, but I would ensure it was followed by a swift kick to the balls.
“No, stop!” The woman wailed. “There’s nothing down there but our food storage!”
Fuck. That was the unspoken signal that the bastards had found the trap door in the floor. It wouldn’t be long until they came down the steps and found me trying to erase all of the evidence. I bent my head, keeping my eyes trained on the screen while I pounded at the keyboard. I could sense the final code just waiting to be released by the time the entire monitor exploded.
I jerked away from it with a panicked scream. The sight of fire popping out of the gaping hole with smoke in tow was the final sight I saw before I was slammed against the wall. A shadow loomed over me, nothing more than a dark shadow as he drew his face close to mine. I shivered as his cool breath brushed against my cheek. Is he…sniffing me?
A deep chuckle rumbled from his chest as he kept me pinned against the other devices by my hair. “They left you behind to take the fall, didn’t they? Their pretty little scapegoat.”
The dominating smell of bourbon mixed with pine washed over me, causing my stomach to pinch with nausea. “Do what you want with me,” I snarled at him. “Any evidence you would’ve had against us is gone.”
My captor brought his face closer. It only took a moment of silence before he ran his tongue along my neck, leaving me to shake against him with disgust. “Is that so? Something tells me that we’ll find everything we need on your boss’ laptop. You’re all condemned, mortal, and it’s time for you to face judgment.”
Any warmth left within my body seeped out at his words. It could only mean one thing: the APL had escaped out the back door with the demons waiting for them. There was no escape for any of us.
The man chuckled again as the full weight of my reality sank in. “You’re a smart one. I’m going to enjoy playing with you.”
I didn’t have a chance to process his words before his grip tightened in my hair. He pulled me away from the wall long enough to slam me right back against it and send me into the black abyss that was waiting for me.
I was now completely at his mercy.
QUINN
“Aspen…Will you please talk to me?”
I gritted my teeth until my jaw throbbed in agony, determined to keep my eyes glued firmly on the filthy metal floor beneath us. There was so much rage pulsing through my veins that the only thing that stopped me from striking Beau in the back of a moving van were the cuffs around my wrists. The bastards had gone as far as to connect them directly to the floor and keep my ass firmly on the small bench.
If he didn’t shut up soon, I would risk cutting my skin with the feeble hope of jamming my foot into his jaw.
Although the irritation was dominant on my face, that didn’t stop him from leaning forward and straining against his cuffs. “Please,” he begged.
“Why should I say a goddamn thing to you after what happened?” I growled.
The icy edge woven within my words was enough to encourage Beau to draw back. He blinked several times while he processed my words. The silence only lingered for a moment before he broke it. “You can’t hold that against me. I was terrified, Aspen.”
“So was I! Yet I was the one that stayed behind and tried to do my job.” I shifted on the bench to angle my body toward the back doors. Compared to the last hour, the van had started taking more turns and the speed had dropped dramatically. We were getting close to our destination and there wasn’t a part of me that wanted to be taken by surprise again. The throbbing bump on my temple was proof enough that the bastard could’ve killed me.
A frustrated groan escaped his lips. “You can’t honestly blame me for doing what comes naturally to us. Demons are predators, Aspen. We’re the prey. Granted, I ran to save my own ass and I still ended up corralled by them.”
