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Wylder swung his arm. “We got what we came for. Let’s go!”
We took off toward the side street we’d come up from. The plan was to meet Gideon and Roy back at the van. If he came out and joined us in full view, it was too likely the Storm’s people would realize the full extent of our assault—not just on their men but on their computer systems. The longer they went without realizing what Gideon had stolen from them, the more use we’d get out of that information.
Hopefully our friends would be on their way out any second now.
The second we reached the van, we threw ourselves inside. Kaige leapt into the driver’s seat and started the engine so we could tear away as soon as the others reached us.
Rowan was still sitting braced on the bench with the laptop on his knees. “I don’t know half as much about this stuff as Gideon does,” he reported, “but it looks to me like he’s already sent a crapload of stuff. I think—”
A sharp voice crackled through the van’s interior. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
I flinched before I realized the sound had come from the speakers—from Gideon’s mic. Then my heart hiccupped all over again.
“We were just—” Gideon’s voice replied.
“Don’t let him get away!” someone else hollered.
There were two ear-splitting bangs, followed by a thud. Bile shot up my throat. I clapped my hand to my mouth just as Gideon’s voice carried through the speakers with a soft “Fuck.”
Was he still okay? He hadn’t been shot?
Another new voice reverberated from the speakers, but this one I recognized. “Who the fuck was that? And who’s this prick?”
A chill swept through me. It was Xavier. The boss had returned.
“Some Claws guy,” another man answered. “Better off dead anyway. This one acted like he was with us—he said he was bringing him in for questioning.”
“And you bought that lame-ass story?” Xavier demanded. There was a fleshy smack of knuckles meeting the side of a head and a pained groan.
I dropped my face into my hands. Roy must be dead—he was the one they’d shot. And they had Gideon cornered.
“I was only trying to—” Gideon started again, his voice rough. Something cut him off, the sound warbling. I realized Xavier must have grabbed him by the front of his shirt near the microphone.
“You’re not acting alone, are you? The fucking Nobles or the Katz girl sent you? Ha!” Fabric tore, and Xavier chuckled darkly. “Can you hear me, Mercy? Or maybe it’s Wylder Noble on the other end. Either way, listen up. I’ve got your man. What are you going to do about it?”
Then, with a sputtered crackling, the line went completely dead.
“Shit,” Wylder said, spinning toward the doors. “Shit, shit, shit.” He looked ready to rip right through the steel. I jumped up, wanting to race out there with him, all the way back to the hotel. What was that psychotic bastard going to do to Gideon?
Why had we ever let him go in there?
“Stop!” Rowan said, standing up, his voice harder than I’d ever heard it. When I looked at him, he was shaking, but his gaze stayed firm. “We can’t get him out right now. You know you’d be running right to your deaths. If we want to get Gideon back, we have to pull back and regroup so we can figure out some way of beating them.”
Wylder swore again and punched the wall of the van. Kaige had turned in the driver’s seat, watching his friend with a taut and uncertain expression. I glanced toward the doors, but I knew Rowan was right. Running off to be slaughtered wouldn’t save Gideon—it’d end any chance we had of rescuing him.
But the thought of leaving just about killed me too.
“We are coming back,” I said, a tremor running through my voice. I had to say it out loud. “We figure out how to get the better of those assholes as fast as we can, and then we’re getting him back.”
“You’d better fucking believe it,” Wylder snapped. He raked his fingers through his fiery hair, but he must have seen the truth as clearly as I had. With a haunted look in his eyes, he nodded to Kaige. “Let’s get out of here before that psycho’s goons come looking. We’ll be back soon.”
Kaige grimaced, but he hit the gas and swung the van around.
With every block we put between us and the old hotel, it felt as if another piece tore off my heart.
