Page 82 of Barinov

“Okay good. Call the others.” Rez’s icy-greenish-blue eyes bounce between me and Cade. “Make sure no one leaves Redspire until Lex and I get there.”

“Oh,” Cade whispers. “Do you think Luca would really take one of—”

“Just fucking do it man!” Rez yells loud enough Cade flinches and shuts up. “We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“Look, I don’t mean to be insensitive about Iz or anything,” Laing says, stepping up behind us. “But while you’re down there in Miami getting your face bashed in, what the hell are we supposed to do about the Lotus Market?”

Shit. I forgot about that.

“He’s right,” Cade says. “We can’t all be in two places at once.”

“Then we’ll split up,” Nate says, looking up. That familiar command already slipping into his tone. “Two teams. Each one gets a sniper, hacker, and muscle. Team one: me, Laing, Kenji, Khoza, and O’Malley. We’ll take Chinatown.”

His eyes flick to Briggs. “Stick with the girls. If the Lotus Market really is in town, they could become targets quicker than you think. Don’t let them out of your sight.”

Briggs nods and tightens his arms around both Ellie and Haley. “I’ll keep ‘em safe.”

“The rest of you,” Nate says, snapping his laptop shut and rising, “you’re with team two in Miami.”

“You and Rez should head to Redspire,” Tex says. “Make sure they all know to watch their backs for the next forty-eight hours.”

“Wait what’s going on?” August yawns, him and Cal finally waking the fuck up and blinking at the room like two dazed golden retrievers.

“Idiots,” Cade mumbles under his breath, shaking his head.

“Call your coach, Rez,” Nate adds, completely ignoring the two Row Rats. “Get that football team on alert too.”

Chapter 20

ZEKE

Eden

22 days since I got my sister back.

“There,” I grit as I close out of Luca’s Instagram account. “It’s sent. Now can I go see her?”

It’s been over a week since he’s let me see my sister.

After my trip to Miami, I barely made it home. Whatever cocktail of poison Luca hit me with had me crawling. Literally. I hardly had anyt ime for the antidote to disperse through my veins before the asshole jabbed me with another needle.

Then he sent Ivan and me on another errand. More prepping for one of his sick little trials he’s got planned for her boyfriends. I know why he’s doing it, keeping me away. He wants me out of her orbit so he can turn her into his little perfect Izzy all over again.

He’s changed since she’s arrived here. He’s angrier with me. Like Bella not remembering a life she never lived is somehow my fault.

I told him I could still do it. That I could get her there. That this shit would take time, but he’s not listening. He’s not hearing me.

My control over him is slipping. I can feel it in the way he looks at me now. No longer lustful… or loving. Like he no longer wants it to be the three of us anymore. Only the two of them and I’m just in his fucking way.

He hasn’t tried to touch me once since I got back. I know I shouldn’t care, but a small part of me does.

No, you don’t care. You can’t care. Stay focused.

Remember who the fuck you are!

Ezekiel Malik Blackwood.

“Very well,” Luca says, smug as ever. “I guess you’ve earned a little time with her.”