Page 9 of Barinov

“A few years back, we had some jackasses try to escape,” Tex says, glancing over at Nate. “Zeke decided that we needed a better way to keep them contained.”

Nate nods and takes over. He slides a sheet of paper to us. Some sort of schematic that looks just like the thing on her neck.

“Between Zeke’s knowledge of code and Sabine’s chemical expertise, the two of them created those collars. They’ve got built in GPS, location lock, and—”

“Just fucking spit it out!” Lex barks, his voice sharp enough to cut through steel.

Nate swallows. “Basically, that is a chemical bomb strapped to Bella’s neck.”

Air.

I need fucking air.

“Oh my God,” I whisper, dragging a hand through my hair. “And Luca? H-h-he has the detonator?”

The three of them nod, not a single one of them daring to make eye contact with us.

Lex explodes out of his chair. “FUCK!”

My knees give out the second I stand up. I try to steady myself by resting my hands on the corner of the table, but my legs don’t seem to be getting the message. I fall back into my chair, almost tipping it over backwards.

“Can’t you hack it, Knox?” I ask. “Disable it remotely somehow?”

Knox frowns, his eyes digging into the screen. “Possibly. If I was close enough to it. Even then, I’ll need to call Laing.”

“Laing?” I echo.

“Yeah, Laing. And Sabine.” He peers up from his screen. “If—and this is a big if—if Zeke is helping Luca.”

“He is,” Lex mumbles under his breath, white-knuckling the back of my chair so hard it creaks.

I smack his hand. “Not now, babe.”

“If Zeke is involved in this,” Knox continues. “Then there’s a chance he may have modified the code on her collar. And if he did, I’m going to need some major back up.”

Lex lets out a bitter scoff. “So you need Tattooed-Dragon-Dick? Well isn’t that just perfect.”

“Like it or not,” Knox replies calmly. “Laing’s great with code.”

“And Sabine?” I ask.

“She knows the chemical makeup of those collars better than any of us,” he says. “If any of those chemicals leak or worse… destabilizes, then she’ll be our only shot in saving Bella’s life.”

He pulls out his phone and dials.

“Who are you calling?” Lex asks.

Knox ignores him. “Uh, hey Jack. Look, call us back. We need to talk to you.” He sets his phone back down on the table.

“Let me guess,” Lex grits. “Straight to voicemail?”

Knox nods, the heels of his palms digging into his brow.

Lex’s voice drops. “Damn it! Where the hell is he?”

Nate snatches the laptop from Knox. “None of this makes any sense. His GPS is off on his phone too.”

“Guy’s probably on a call. We can’t sit around and wait for him.” Tex exhales, his back groaning as he stretches it out. “One of you call ‘em in. Not just Laing and Sabine. We need all the Black Books.”