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“What’s wrong?” Matias muttered.

Wes remained quiet, typing into the tablet again. No sooner he was done, the fob blinked yellow twice, and then it blinked red. “Fuck,” he whisper-yelled. “It’s not taking the damn code.”

“Are you serious?” Calista grumbled behind me.

“Try it again,” Jim whispered over his shoulder.

Wes gritted his teeth, typing into the tablet a third time. The black device blinked yellow twice, and then it blinked red. “Shit,” Wes growled through gritted teeth as he smacked the fob hard.

This was definitely not good. “Is it possible that we’re at the wrong service entrance?” I whispered.

Wes mumbled a few more choice words, ignoring my question.

“Incoming,” Jim whispered-yelled.

A guard rounded the building, and no sooner than he did he was pulling out his weapon to fire as he lifted a radio to his lips. But before he could utter a single word, Jim fired his stunner, and the man dropped to the ground. Matias ran forward into the light, and Jim followed him while I stepped forward to serve as lookout, aiming my stunner high, ready to fire at the first sign of trouble. Matias bent down on the left side of the guard, grabbing the fabric on the man’s left shoulder while Jim grabbed the right. Together, they pulled his body out of the light and into the shadows where we were. Matias quickly searched his body, rummaging through pockets until he pulled out a keycard.

“See if this one works,” he said as he handed it to Wes.

Wes snagged it from Matias’s hand, reached forward, and flashed the card at the fob. The black box blinked yellow twice, and then it blinked green.

“Bingo,” Jim uttered, a sly smile consuming his lips. “Time to enter the belly of the beast.”

57: Perhaps

Once inside, Matias stripped off his clothing. My cheeks flushed as I caught sight of his exposed, rippled chest. I turned around, facing away from him as he finished undressing, but I caught sight of Calista, arms crossed, as she drank him in with hungry eyes. I’m not gonna lie, I felt like shoulder-checking her. I might not have been in love with Matias, but he was sort of, kind of my ex, and the thought that she was trying to claw her way back to Wes, only to now be slobbering over Matias, was more than just a little provoking. But I kept my mouth shut and focused on the task at hand.

“We don’t have much time, Wes,” Harper warned.

“I know.”

After another minute, Matias had geared himself back up, wearing the guard’s uniform and tactical belt. “Done,” he said.

“Let’s go. Stairway’s to the left.” Wes used the guard’s keycard to unlock a thick metal door with a red image of stairs on it. Thelock clicked, and he opened the door, checked the hallway, and then motioned for us to follow him.

One by one, we filed into the passageway, and immediately began our climb up, stunners pointed and at attention. We hustled, deathly aware that we were on borrowed time, and at any moment, someone was going to realize that the guard we left gagged and tied up was missing. It only took us a minute to reach the fifth floor, where another metal door with a red number five painted on it waited for us.

Wes lifted his tab and thumbed it, looking at the schematics of the building. “Cellblock C should be to the left. It looks like there’s a guard’s station we have to get by first.”

“Cameras?” Matias asked.

“Definitely,” Harper said.

Wes thumbed his tab again. “It looks like there’s a surveillance room to the right.”

“We should split up,” Blondie said. I frowned and looked at her. She caught my gaze and lifted one sculpted brow ever so slightly before shifting her attention back to Wes. “You three can take out the surveillance,” she said as she pointed to all three guys, “while the princess and I wrangle the guard at the security checkpoint.”

“No, we’re sticking together,” Wes snapped. “Beyond this door should be an empty hallway. We’re going to take out the surveillance and then we’ll deal with the security.”

“We’re going to run out of time—”

“We do it,” he uttered forcibly, emphasizing each word, “together.”

Calista huffed, but she said nothing more.

We all listened as Wes gave us the details of his plan. After another minute, Wes swiped the keycard. The lock clicked, and he pushed open the door. After checking the hallway, he motioned us forward. In a single file line, we got low and hustleddown the dimly lit hall. After huffing it several yards, Wes held his hand up for us to stop and pointed to a closed door with a rectangular window in it. We saw several men talking, but we couldn’t get an exact count.

Harper and I moved to place ourselves flush against the wall on the left side of the door while Calista and Wes did the same on the right. Matias, on the other hand, rolled his shoulders back, strolled right up to the door, and tried the keycard in the key fob. The device blinked yellow twice and then blinked red.