I don’t care if his smile terrifies me. I pull off my jacket and step forward, wrapping it around him.
“Kat, what the fuck are you doing?” Cade says, reaching me first. “You can’t take off running without your team, without answering comms. Get your jacket back. It’s freezing.”
I look over at him like he’s lost his mind—clearly he has no empathy. The little boy turns and runs deeper into the parking structure.
“Shit, Kat, we don’t have time for this. You can’t save everyone. You gave him your coat. Let that be enough,” he says, tugging at me. I turn to look at him, realizing Malachi isn’t with him, and none of my other team members are here.
“Why did you come alone?” I ask.
“Everyone else is fanning out around the pizza place. Looks like Marco may have some high-tech surveillance set up, but Bash is trying to knock it out with his powers,” Cade says.
We both turn toward the parking garage when we hear sudden commotion.
“Fuck,” Cade curses under his breath as we see at least five men running toward us from behind different pillars.
“It was a fucking setup, Kat,” he says, and I realize that must be why the kid was fake crying and then smiling at me. Oddly, I don’t feel upset. My heart only hurts more for what that poor child must be going through to be used as bait like that and not see anything wrong with it.
One of the men reaches us first—skinny and scraggly, his clothes hanging baggy on his emaciated frame. He has a crowbar in his hand and swings it at me, but I duck, realizing I’m kind of in shock.
I shake it off as Cade socks the guy in the face and sends him flat on his ass. Cade’s strong, especially when we’re fighting malnourished vigilantes. I don’t want to kill them, but when the rest close in on us, I don’t think we have a choice.
Instead of wasting one of my daggers, I pick up the crowbar off the ground and slam it into one of the men, then swing around and knock another over the back of the head. Cade and I fall into a steady rhythm, and we manage to get all five of them on the ground in record time.
“Cameras are out. What the fuck is taking so long?” Dante says in my comms.
“Minor setback. On our way to you,” Cade says, breathless, giving me a sharp look.
At least we didn’t have to kill any of them. Fuck, they have no relation to Marco or his security team. These are desperate people trying to survive.
Cade pushes my shoulder to turn away from them, and we start jogging back out of the alley to the road we came from. I need to focus on the mission at hand.
They’ve made it farther down the street and spread out around the building, so we reach Malachi first. “Where’s your jacket?” he asks when he sees us.
“Don’t ask,” Cade says. Malachi starts unzipping his.
“Stop, I’m fine. Let’s get inside,” I say, grabbing his hand.
Malachi turns and moves toward the brick building. All I can think is what the fuck is Marco doing having an abandoned pizza place be the entrance to a lab. It has to be the weirdest thing I’ve seen in a while.
“Side door is the best way in. We’re ready when you are,” Bash says, and we round the corner to find him, Nasha, and Dante waiting for us, pressed up against the wall.
“Any movement inside?” Malachi asks, and they shake their heads no.
Malachi gives them the signal, and Dante kicks the door in. We all flood inside, spreading out and searching the place. There’s no one, not even a squatter looking for warmth.
“Back here,” Dante calls, and I follow Malachi to where they are in what used to be the kitchen but is now an empty room, too clean compared to the rest of the place.
Dante looks back at all of us, then reaches for the pantry handle, pulling it open fast and silent. It’s a large walk-in pantry with a hatch in the floor. Cade steps forward, opening the hatch, and we all lean over the large opening, looking down into the darkness.
It’s a ladder going straight down. Little LED lights can be seen at the bottom, but it’s too far down to tell what they are. It’s still silent, and I’m a little on edge. How in the world do they get people and equipment down here if this is taking us to a giant underground lab?
I guess the city is huge, and the underground tunnels branch out in a maze. There have to be other ways in and out of this place. But why did Viktor tell us about this one? Maybe he really does want his brother dead and knew this would be the least patrolled. I’m still suspicious.
“Why haven’t Aurora or Alex showed up yet? We can’t go down there without them. Something has to be wrong,” I say, and everyone is silent for a moment. My heart starts to beat faster, and I tell myself now is not the time to spiral. They probably got held up in a fight like we did.
“Dante, I want you to search the perimeter and keep trying to reach them. They could be out of range for the comms, or something Bash did is causing interference,” Malachi says.
“No, it’s not me. I know my equipment,” Bash says, which doesn’t make me feel any better.
