Page 47

“Question.” He looked squarely at Zarek. “You seriously never wondered why your throats weren’t slit in your sleep in those safe houses?”

Zarek didn’t flinch, but I saw the subtle shift in his stance. His shoulders tensed, his spine locked up.

Sebastian, however? He pressed his lips together, looking down, trying so fucking hard not to laugh.

Logan noticed instantly and shot him a sharp glare.

Bee, still cradling her precious cup of coffee, snorted like she found this entire situation amusing. Logan turned his glare on her, but she ignored him completely. Instead, she wandered over to Gray and held up the cup, a silent “You have to try this.”

Gray… fucking took it. Sipped. And continued destroying us like nothing happened. “Ever realize how Gunner, here, survived the Warehouse 67 explosion?”

He handed back the cup to Bee without a word.

Logan’s eyes narrowed as if trying to remember the day he was blown up during Operation Icarus.

Sebastian was still struggling, like a man trying not to laugh at a funeral. Gray’s lips quirked up slightly as he noticed Seb.

So, he turned to him then, like a lion sniffing out an easy kill.

“Oh, you think Gunner and Healer made it out of Ravenrock alive because of you, Ranger?” A pause. Then, with a smirk, “Cute.”

That did it.

Bee fucking cackled. A full-on, manic, unhinged laugh that echoed through the room, making the whole thing so much worse.

Seb coughed, rubbing his jaw, suddenly finding the floor very interesting.

Zarek’s jaw was locked so tight I thought he’d break a molar. Amelia was stiff beside me, radiating barely-contained fury. And for once, I was the one trying to keep things level.

“Right,” I forced out. “Okay, so… you’re saying we were never safe. And you were our protection?”

Gray just stared at me, waiting for my brain to catch the fuck up.

“The opposite. We were commissioned by Romlinson to eliminate the Alpha Squads, five and a half years ago after their previous asset, Sǐwáng, was deceased,” he said, voice cool and unaffected.

“We haven’t always been against Romlinson, so yes, we did kill some of your precious squad members… early on.”

“Who?” Zarek growled.

“Squad Seven. Squad Three. And… Psyche.”

My eyes widened—snapping to Zarek, who was seething.

“You killed Maxton?”

It wasn’t a question. It seemed more like a prelude to a gunfight. His hand was already on his gun.

Gray glanced at his trigger-ready hand and smirked. “Safety is on.”

Lia stepped forward slightly. “Wait—what asset did you just say? Si—what?”

Sevy, who barely spoke, finally muttered, “Sǐwáng. Death.” Then she quickly snatched the cup from Bee and sipped the damn coffee.

Was there cocaine in it? Because Bee immediately snatched it back.

Lia’s eyes narrowed. “That asset isn’t deceased. It was marked… inactive.”

Gray shrugged. “We were told he’s dead. We never questioned it. Maybe Romlinson killed the asset.”

Sebastian finally muttered, “Why didn’t you kill Romlinson yourselves?”

Gray tilted his head. “ You’ve already killed them. Are you any closer to defeating them?” He let the question hang before adding, “And… we didn’t have the technological resources to do it. That’s mainly the reason we let you live.”

Zane scoffed. “ Let us live? Listen, you walking pile of war crimes, you needed us to succeed. That’s why you’re here, aren’t you? Admit your failings like an adult.”

Gray smirked, unbothered. “We don’t consider geeking our way out of global cyber warfare a success , pretty boy. We’re not nerds.”

Zane’s lips curled into a snarl. Ronan quickly put a hand on his waist.

Gray kept going. “Besides, we mean it. We did let you live. You’ve been on Deathmark’s list for months. Squad Six and Two? For years .”

The room was already suffocating under the weight of everything Deathmark had just dropped, but Gray wasn’t done. Not even close.

He turned to Leora, his dark eyes assessing, cold and indifferent. “By the way, that was a brave stunt, Dr. Mateez, surviving an explosion.” A beat. Then, he tilted his head, like he was debating whether to keep talking. “But where do you think Casteel Romano and Mason Keller went after Stratford?”

Silence.

“Two words.” Flat. Final. “Lake. Huron.”

Leora’s entire body went rigid. Her fists clenched, her jaw locked so tight it could cut glass. My stomach twisted.

Zarek inhaled sharply, and quickly grabbed her shoulder.

Lake Huron.

Stratford.

The fucking house explosion when Leora was kidnapped in Canada.

That was months ago. We thought we’d lost the trail. We thought they’d vanished. But Deathmark was standing here, casually tossing the names of men we’d been hunting like it was a fucking afterthought.

Gray shifted his attention to Sebastian now. “Who do you think hid the fact from Romlinson that Blackthorn Security was helping Squad Six?”

Sebastian’s expression barely flickered, but I knew that look. Processing. Calculating.

I wanted to fucking laugh.

Of course, they knew. Of course, they were the reason Romlinson hadn’t come down on Blackthorn like a goddamn wrecking ball. Not until recently, at least.

Gray didn’t let us sit with that one for too long before he turned—to me.

“Why do you think you are still breathing?”

I froze.

A sharp, electric tension crawled up my spine.

Bee grinned over the rim of her now-half-empty coffee cup, like she was waiting for a reaction.

And I hated that I didn’t have an answer.

Because I should be dead, shouldn’t I? Many times over.

But I wasn’t.

They hadn’t saved me from Ling. But they’d let me live.

A thought crashed into me like a freight train.

I straightened. “Where’s your fifth member?”

I meant the masked man—the one who’d come out of nowhere and ended Ling.

Gray’s expression barely shifted, but his eyes sharpened.

“He’s not our fifth member,” he said evenly. “He’s your seventh.”

I staggered back half a step.

What the fuck?

The man who killed Ling—who ruthlessly crushed his skull into the floor—was Dylan?

“Kabir?” Zarek’s voice cut through my thoughts. I looked around the room—at my team’s confusion, all of them staring at me.

I cleared my throat. Swallowed hard. “Uh… the skull smasher? That was Dylan.”

Eyebrows shot up. Someone swore. Someone else choked on a breath.

They already knew what happened in that hotel room—at least the parts I could remember.

But this? This was something else.

I never thought Dylan had that kind of violence in him. That kind of carnage brewing inside.

Lia’s breathing had picked up. I silently held her hand and squeezed.

“Was he the one who admitted me to the hospital?” I asked.

Gray shrugged slightly. “With help.”

I just shook my head—my mind reeling.

Fuck, I should’ve connected the dots. Who else would admit me as Sahil Chawla?

“I think you’re just confusing them,” Sevy muttered under her breath.

Gray gave a dry laugh and took a step back, eyes sweeping the team like we were slow children.

“You really thought Pedro and Lan were the only names on the hit list?”

Kaylan sucked in a breath. Logan’s jaw twitched.

I clenched my fists. Fuck.

“You killed them?” Logan asked, his rage barely contained.

“We were supposed to,” Sevy replied. “You all were on our hit list.”

So… no?

Where were the straight answers when you needed them?

Then, Gray smiled, like he had a personal vendetta against our collective sanity. “That cute little White House stunt?” He gave a slow, mocking shake of his head. “Let’s just say someone kept the security teams… distracted. Otherwise our list would’ve become a tad bit shorter.”

I looked at Gray—really looked at him.

There you go! He’s the ‘Officer’ who scanned us into the fucking White House.

Fuck. My. Life.

Delara, who had been silently seething this whole time, suddenly snapped her head up. “You’re telling me you let us break into the most heavily secured building in the country?”

“ God! I love your accent.” Bee sighed dreamily before Gray quickly raised his hands to shut her up.

“More like we let you leave .” Then he looked at Amelia and added, “Relatively unharmed.”

Gray returned his gaze to Delara. “How many snipers did you kill at Romano’s estate?”

Delara’s eyes widened, her mouth snapping shut.

There went that mystery of who killed the four snipers out of the seven.

Sebastian exhaled slowly. Zarek still hadn’t moved.

Bee was casually adjusting and then readjusting Vic’s balaclava. He didn’t dare move an inch, though.

I was fairly certain that all of us were slowly learning to tune Bee out.

But Gray wasn’t done.

“Romlinson didn’t just kill a few Alpha Squad recruits and prospects.” His voice was eerily steady, too matter-of-fact for what he was saying. “They tried to kill all the squads.” He tilted his head, considering his next words. “We eventually… disagreed.”

I felt Lia shift beside me, her breathing slow and measured. My own pulse was pounding in my ears.

Then, it was Sevy who spoke.

Her voice was quiet but deliberate. “The seventy Ravenrock prisoners are alive and well.” A pause. Then, she looked directly at Kaylan. “Including your Martha, Healer.”

The breath that left Kaylan’s lips was sharp, disbelieving.

Logan reached for her instantly, steadying her.

The Ravenrock prisoners.

The people we thought had vanished.

Gone. Possibly dead.

But Deathmark was standing here, staring at us like we were the biggest fucking idiots on the planet.

Sebastian let out a very controlled breath, his expression unreadable. Then, finally—he let out a low, humorless chuckle.

“Fuck me,” he muttered.

Bee beamed, like… wait… did she want to? Fuck Sebastian?

Bee’s arm was suddenly, gently grabbed.

The fourth Deathmark member.

The one who hadn’t twitched, moved, or uttered a single damn word. Not a scoff, a snort, not even a fucking huff.

Bee immediately sobered, like someone had flipped a switch.

“We will work together. Bring down the Rubicon Network. Or… doom switch, whatever you call it.” Gray ordered. Ordered . He didn’t ask.

The room was silent.

Utterly.

Fucking.