Page 360 of Immune

And behind us, on a stretcher dragged by two of Valeria’s men, they get Vector’s puny leader, unconscious and tied so tightly that his hands have gone pale. Yeah, I know, I’m pissed about it too. I hoped for a more gruesome end for the wrinkled asshole. Hell, even Dakota liked my idea of leaving him on the ground with a lure on his chest and fast Rots racing through their burning camp.

Unfortunately, the two guards grabbed him before he could suffer.

I’m upset about it. It’s a new bruise and it hurts when I press on it.

Bunch of fucking spoilsports.

People gather at the gate as soon as they open. Medics, guards, civilians, Omegas hidden behind doorframes and cracked windows. The whole compound is watching.

Before, they looked at Dakota like she was something rare and dangerous. Something valuable. A problem with pretty pale hair and a pulse. Now they look at her and see the blood. They can see the restraint marks and the hat and the fact that Vector took her and she came back with their camp collapsing behind her.

Not untouched, not unhurt, but not owned. Never owned.

Mercer pushes through the crowd first, and his face goes completely white the moment he sees her in Xeon’s arms.

“Medical,” he demands roughly. “Now.”

Dakota lifts one hand weakly from Xeon’s chest and points at the stretcher behind her. “That fuckface first.”

I choke on a sound that almost breaks free, amusement battling with lingering fear and anxiety.

Mercer blinks. “Dakota.”

“If he lives, he talks. He has files.”

Her voice is absolutely ruined, but everyone still hears it, and the whole crowd goes quiet in a ripple I can physically feel.

Fletcher steps closer. “Darlin’, you need treatment.”

“I need a chair,” she corrects with a rasp, her head still resting on Xeon’s shoulder. “And then I need to sit back and relax while I watch the bitch boy with the clipboard crumble like a wet paper bridge.”

I smile at Mercer. “She means Hale.”

“That’s what I said,” she mutters.

Mercer’s eyes close for one very tired second before he says, “I didn’t want to believe he could do something like this.”

Valeria appears from command with two squads at her back a second later, and her face tells me enough. She’s already started digging. Good stuff.

“Commander Hale has been detained,” she says stiffly.

A murmur travels through the crowd while Dakota rolls her head to look over at her. “Ah, so we’ve all figured it out then?”

Valeria’s jaw flexes and something in her eyes shutters. “You were taken through a restricted route opened with command-level access. Three west-wall patrols were reassigned thirteen minutes before the breach. The generator shed hatch was unlocked remotely. Hale’s private channel contacted an unidentified external signal less than an hour before Vector moved.”

Kaito’s eyes sharpen and Fletcher goes impossibly still. Maine looks like he might actually fall apart.

I ask, “Right. And Porter?”

“Dead,” Valeria answers bluntly. “Two other faction members alive. Restrained. Five more under guard pending questioning.”

Dakota exhales slowly, but there’s no relief in it. There’s something colder in the small sound, and it matches her voice when she says, “Bring Hale out.”

Mercer stiffens. “Absolutely not. You’re drugged, injured, and in need of immediate care.”

Dakota turns her head to him and it’s slow. So slow that it’s genuinely scary. Even off her knob and hurt, my girl is absolutely terrifying. I fucking love it, especially because I’m not on the receiving end of it.

That’s the only reason why I feel bad for the guy when she says, “Mercer.”