Page 39 of Craved

“It would be short range, but yeah.”

“Short?”

“Ten meters max.”

I consider that. “Then why doesn’t he use it for the kids?”

Maxim shakes his head. “For one, the kids could scatter. This room is huge. For another, no way will he want to be carrying a transmitter. The Jeep’s on the street, so—”

I nod. “Plausible deniability. I get it. It’s just weird that he mentioned the pocket version.”

I shake it off, turning instead to look at the kids. The fifteen darling children playing on a jungle gym who have no idea the danger they’re in. The whole indoor playground was provided courtesy of Foundational Tech, and I tell myself not to be sickened. Rather, I need to be glad that something good has come out of something so bad.

“The Children’s Haven owns this whole building?” I ask as I wander with Maxim toward the window.

“They do. Dorm style rooms for homeless kids on the first three floors. Then medical facilities, then classrooms above that. Office space, a few as-yet-un-purposed floors, and then this in-the-sky playscape.”

We’re on the eleventh floor, and as we stand by the window and look down, we can see the roof of the gym and swim center that shares an entire exterior wall with this building.

It’s Manhattan, after all.

There’s nobody in the rooftop pool right now, but I remember going there once many years ago to watch a diving competition. And I can’t help but think how much I’d like to be over there right now, rather than standing over here waiting and waiting and trying to make small talk.

“We’ll know soon,” Maxim says, obviously reading my mind. “Nothing yet, but—” He looks at me. “Wait.”

He tilts his head, and I know he’s fighting the urge to press his fingers to his ear to make it easier to hear, since doing so might reveal to Killion that Maxim has some reason to be on coms.

“It’s on,” he whispers. “Our vehicles are forcing a perimeter. The transmitter’s on a Jeep. They’ll keep him blocked.”

“Thank God,” I say, though I won’t believe it until it’s over. I glance back at the adorable children playing tag on the far side of the room. I fight a shiver as I try not to think what will happen if that signal gets through.

If Killion’s monstrous plan actually goes into effect.

I remember my little KelTec pistol and wish that I’d asked Maxim to get it back for me. But considering my tiny dress, I’m not sure where I would have stashed it. And if Killion had discovered that Maxim had armed me…

Well, that would be what we in the covert ops biz call very, very bad.

I sigh, take a sip of my wine, and tell myself that Maxim has a gun. And that it doesn’t matter anyway, because he won’t need it.

But the truth is that I fear he will. Because sooner or later Killion is going to realize that his transmitter is stuck outside the perimeter. And when that happens, I have no idea what a crazy, fucked up man like my father is going to do.

The thought makes me shiver, and I instinctively seek out Maxim. The realization makes me smile. For so long, he’d been the enemy. But we were back now. Fully and completely. All we have to do is save these kids, take down Killion, and manage to stay alive.

Do that, and we can go live happily ever after.

I’m really, really looking forward to that part of my personal fairy tale. I’ve been the beaten down Cinderella for far too long.

“Hey,” Maxim says, hurrying to my side. He bends close, as if kissing my cheek, and whispers, “Done.”

I pull away so that I can look at him straight on. “You’re sure?”

He nods. “Some of the team are on their way here right now. Backup. It’s time, Baby. We’re going to take this fucker down.”

My grin is so wide it hurts my face. “You say the sweetest things.”

A huge clatter comes from the far side of the room, and I turn in that direction only to see my father in a fury, sweeping some of the charming tables free of their drinks and appetizers.

“You,” he says, his finger pointing straight at me. “I should have killed you in the womb.”