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“They might have been able to get out of that,” I said. “Victor is a good driver.”
“Right. But there were a lot of people there. It was a close call for us, too,” Grayson said.
“We can’t exactly go back and look for them there,” I replied. “Do you have any ideas?”
Grayson rubbed his temple. “I hate to say this because I know our friends are in mortal danger and everything, but maybe our best bet is waiting?”
Sofia’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Waiting? That’s not a plan, Grayson.”
“I know it’s not ideal, Sof, but what other option do we have? We don’t know where they are or what happened to them,” Grayson replied, his voice strained with frustration. “We can’t just go in guns blazing. Even if we could, they would probably kill us.”
“But we can’t just sit here and do nothing!” Sofia protested.
“I hate to say it, but they’re right, Sof,” Sam piped up. “Sometimes the best move is not doing anything at all.”
“No offense, kid, but I don’t think you know what you’re talking about,” Sofia replied, glaring at him.
“He does,” I reminded her, my hand on her shoulder. “Your brother is the law, remember?”
Sam chuckled. “That makes me sound like a superhero.”
“I absolutely didn’t mean it that way,” I replied.
“Yeah, I know.”
Sofia let out a heavy sigh, her eyes flickering between each of us. “Okay,” she said finally. “But what about Jace and Victor? We can’t just...leave them out there. They also have Miranda so...”
“I didn’t say we would do nothing. We’ll set up a watch and keep an eye out for them. But right now, we’re at a disadvantage. We need to regroup and come up with a new plan,” Grayson explained.
I could feel Sofia’s eyes on me, silently asking for my opinion. I took a deep breath and nodded, agreeing with Grayson. “He’s right. We need to regroup and come up with a new plan,” I said, turning to look at her.
She looked down at her lap, nodding slowly. “Okay,” she said quietly.
I reached out and grabbed her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. “We’ll find them. I promise.”
Sofia looked up at me, her eyes misty with unshed tears. “Thank you,” she whispered.
“There’s nothing to thank me for. They are my men and I don’t leave people behind.”
We sat in silence for a few moments, each lost in our own thoughts. Things were tense, almost suffocating, and even with the AC running, the weather wasn’t helping. I knew that we couldn’t stay there for too long; we were exposed and vulnerable. But at the same time, our next move needed to be carefully calculated.
“Okay,” Grayson said finally, breaking the silence. “Let’s get moving. We need to find a safe place to hunker down until we can come up with a plan.”
We all nodded in agreement and I shifted the SUV into gear. We drove for what felt like hours, but couldn’t have been more than maybe forty-five minutes. It was hard to take back roads and avoid main highways in the Everglades, the car was battered and the terrain was so flat and strange that it was easy to get lost. The radio crackled with static and occasional bursts of garbled information, but nothing concrete that would help us locate Jace, Victor, and Miranda.
Finally, near dusk, we found an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of town. It was rundown and clearly hadn’t been used in years, but it was better than nothing.
Then Grayson’s radio crackled.
And we heard Victor’s voice.
Chapter Twenty-Three: Jace
Myeyessnappedopenand I was immediately on alert. Every nerve in my body was taut, ready to burst. My head pounded as the flickering electric light overhead assaulted my eyes. It took me a few seconds to realize what had happened.
After we were ambushed, after we were caged in by other cars, I had been taken and put in a room where I could see no one. I vaguely remembered Victor trying to drive out of there as we followed the SUV Teo was in, but someone had shot at our tires and our vehicle had skidded until we’d crashed against…something.
I thought it was a tree.
