Page 100 of Mile High Heist

“Fuck,” Nate said after a minute. “This is a super fucked up situation.”

That about summed it up.

There was blood streaked on the door. We’d moved the body, but the scene was grim. The whole situation was grim.

My knuckles throbbed as I clenched my fists. We’d been so fucking close. The buyer was waiting. We had the prototype. The Vipers were dead. Olivia was on board with the take-down-Preacher-plan.

The universe had granted me a taste of freedom. Just a single moment of pure, fucking bliss.

Then the rug had been yanked out from under me. The second I’d seen Olivia stumbling toward me, bloody and screaming, the truth became undeniable: People like us don’t get happy endings.

The injustice burned hot. The anger, hotter. I could taste the iron on my tongue, the hunger for violence. There was the risk it would cloud my judgment.

I had to calm down. I couldn’t think.

It was a good thing I had my brain trust. Madoc, not Nate.

Nate was a fucking idiot.

“So, what, we just wait here until the fucker has to take a piss?” Nate kicked at the door for good measure. Reinforced metal. No way in. No way out.

Grim.

Madoc turned suddenly and walked away without a word. I didn’t follow.

“Where’s he going?”

“He’ll be back,” I said.

Sure enough, Madoc returned a few minutes later, Olivia’s ID badge in his hand.

Nate scoffed. “You think he’s just going to swipe us in?”

“No,” Madoc drawled. “I’m knocking on the door.”

He scanned the badge. The light remained a harsh, unwavering red. Denied.

But a moment later, the phone by the door rang.

Madoc smirked at me. “It’s for you.”

I stepped forward and answered it, nearly snapping the cord in my anger. My voice was steel. “So, what the fuck do you want?”

Silence.

It wasn’t a shocked silence, but a calculated one. A silence before detonation, before the bomb went off. If I’d learned one thing since boarding this plane, it was that the Vipers were a dramatic bunch of assholes. They loved the production of death.

“You know what I want, Jax.”

The prototype. Naturally.

I should’ve known the Vipers would have a backup plan.

The snake laughed at my silence. The phone creaked in my fist. I didn’t realize I was crushing it until cold fingers brushed across my knuckles.

My eyes flicked to Madoc. I unclenched.

“Is that it?” I bit out. “I give you the prototype, and you fly us straight into the ground?”