“Your little sister…”
“Is Ellory. And yeah. She’s dating Ash.”
Townie grinned. “Dude, that isbrutal.”
Several snorts sounded as the humor broke through.
Archer gave the team the first genuine smile since he walked in the room. “It was humiliating.”
Rome shook his head. “And Ash still dated her knowing she was related to you.”
The guys cracked up, and the room breathed again.
Cannon gave a single nod, drawing them all back to business. “Now we have a pattern. But we know it’s not Cipher.”
“No,” Archer agreed, stare fixed on that screen. “But whoever it is learned from him.”
* * * * *
Creeping around the base made Jolie think of her childhood days. When Christmas rolled around, excitement took over and she would wake up before her parents and search for her gifts under the tree.
Now she was searching for her phone. Oranyphone. A landline, even.
And an exit.
The hallway stretched longer than it should have, the overhead lights spaced just far enough apart to create pockets of shadows between them. The walls weren’t drywall—they werepoured concrete, but uneven in spots, like they’d been patched over time.
Pipes ran along the tops of the walls in a maze of connections that made her glad she wasn’t a plumber.
Some of the rooms didn’t have doors, and when she glanced in, she saw nooks only large enough to fit a desk or a cot. The place was unlike any buildings she’d ever seen. It was comprised of small rooms connected by hallways, then the space would open up unexpectedly.
She clutched a book in one hand and dragged her other along the wall as she walked. It was an old habit from navigating the dark in her house, checking on her siblings. Somehow it felt less like she was floating and more tethered to earth—something she needed right now.
The air was cool but not a bit musty or damp. She couldn’t pick up a single sound from outside these walls, which altered her sense of time.
A left turn dumped her in another hallway. A right turn—same thing. The place looped in on itself like a maze, which gave her a sense of dread she refused to let take over.
As she reached the end of the hall, the space opened without warning.
The ceiling vaulted two stories high, crisscrossed with steel beams and industrial lighting that cast everything in a clean glow. The floors were still concrete, but they looked polished from people living in this space.
She realized she was looking at a common area and couches with retro wood arms arranged in a rough square around a low table scarred by knife marks and drink rings. A massive TV was mounted on one wall, flanked by shelves stacked with mismatched books and old magazines. She even spotted a board game shoved in sideways.
Off to the side, a pool table stood under a hanging light and a dartboard hung crooked on the wall, the darts embedded like someone had thrown them with more frustration than accuracy. There was a card table too, with chairs pulled out as if a game had been abandoned mid-hand.
The team wasn’t here. She listened hard but heard only the low hum of the heating system. She continued to the far end of the room and explored an opening. A wide doorway branched into a new room.
She paused, fingers anchored on the wall, taking in the space that looked like a restaurant kitchen had been dropped here, complete with stainless steel counters and double refrigerators. A few cabinets were labeled in black marker.Dry goods. Medical.
Ammo.
She gripped her book tighter and gave the long dining table surrounded by mismatched chairs a last look before backtracking. This door opened into a gym.
Weights lined one wall and there were several benches and treadmills. A punching bag hung in one corner and there were mats stacked against the far wall. It was all too easy to envision the big men training here, pumping iron, chests glistening with sweat.
One thickly muscled body in particular filled her mind, and she bit down on her lip.
Then she heard a low murmur and lifted her head. She followed the sound until she faced several closed doors. One appeared to be thicker than the rest. Voices filtered through it, muffled and impossible to make out, and the door had a keypad lock.
