Page 131 of Deadfall

There was a horrible static sound.

“Where are—” North’s words broke off, and for a moment I thought I’d lost the call.

“We’re in deep, can’t talk long. Just wanted to let you know we have her.”

“What?” Static.

“She’s here. We found her, North,” I repeated. “As soon as I have a trusted line, we’ll be in touch—”

The line went dead.

“We lost Rune,” Seven called. “Mahoney cut the tablet.”

“That means we are running out of time,” Angel said. “Remove your trackers quickly.”

I removed Seven’s and he cut out mine, then I moved over to Emersyn. She automatically turned her back for me, her brow furrowed. My fingers traced along the small welt where her tracker was.

“Ready?” I murmured.

“Is this you asking permission?” I could just see the curve of her lips over her shoulder. “Because if so, it needs a lot of work.”

“Don’t be a brat,” I grumbled.

She smirked and smoothed her hair away. I removed the tracker and destroyed it. She turned back around, and I pulled a new comms unit from my vest.

“You need a new one of these,” I said dryly.

I pushed her hair away, my fingers purposefully coasting across her cheek. She went still, and I heard her breath stutter as she looked up with eyes that were slowly losing their apprehension. I slipped the small device into her ear.

“No taking it out this time.”

Emersyn opened her mouth to reply, but Angel strode over and dumped a duffle bag at our feet, effectively ruining the moment.

“You’re going to need different clothes if we’re going traipsing in the woods,” he said dryly.

Seven groaned. “Such a tragedy.”

“There’s firearms in there too.” Angel checked his phone. “We have three minutes until this location is compromised.”

We all stared at him, and I crossed my arms. “Perfect. Three minutes for you to tell us who you are.”

Angel ran a hand over his mouth as he debated. I waited him out and nudged the bag of clothes toward Emersyn, who unzipped it and started to pull out what she needed.

“I’m the one who sent Rune the email,” Angel admitted.

“What the fuck,” Seven exclaimed. “Why?”

Angel waved his hand. “That is too much to explain now—”

“Well try—cliffnotes,” Seven demanded.

“She is why I’m here,” Angel said like it was obvious. “Emersyn is very important, and it is imperative she doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. I couldn’t bring an entire team in or Mahoney would have known.”

Before I could ask why Emersyn was so important, Angel shrugged. “So I tipped you guys off.”

“What?” Seven said incredulously. “That’s insane—” He sputtered and looked over at me in disbelief.

“I mean, you’re here, so it worked,” Angel chuckled. “I have a team on standby because it was always the plan to get us all out tonight.”