Page 55

Crew

T he gun at my side is a reassuring weight. Steady. Constant. Everything’s wrong without her here. Fuck, I will get her back, I remind myself. But the words ache. Because I have no idea what I’ll do if we don’t.

“How are you holding up?” Skar says over the earpiece, and I snap out of my daze to see the road in front of me.

“This never should have happened.” My words trail off, but I haven’t yet resolved myself to pity.

“What’d you say?” Harvey looks up, and I shake my head as I explain,

“Earpiece.”

“Oh.”

Silence fills the car again. We have a few miles until we get to the hotel. The plains outside are barren, the city long behind us. I’ve yet to give Harvey any gear- partially because I don’t trust he’ll know what to do with it. Partially because I don’t think I can handle talking to him yet.

Since I dragged him along with us, he’s yet to look up from his hands. Or acknowledge anything, really.

“There is nothing you could have done.” I’m surprised when I hear Charlotte’s voice over the earpiece.

I thought they would have split up by now, but it’s possible she, Skar, and Ricky will be sneaking in just minutes ahead of us. Her next words are soft- softer than I’ve ever heard her:

“There’s nothing any of us could have done.”

I can’t find it in myself to respond. I know it’s not my fault. But it wouldn’t have fucking happened if she was with me. I reach into the pocket of my suit, feeling the weight of the pistol in my sheath.

“We’re here,” Skar announces, which means Char and Ricky will be splitting off.

“Good luck,” Char says quietly, and I know she’s talking to me, but it’s Skar who responds,

“We’re not relying on luck for this.” He lowers his voice for only her to hear. “I’ll see you after. You hear me?”

She hums, and I hear them kiss. “Getting protective of me, Benenati?” she whispers.

“I’ll give you two a minute,” I say, tugging the earpiece out with a sigh.

It leaves me painfully aware of the fact that Harvey’s still staring at his lap. Wearing that same frightened look on his face since the moment I told him Olivia was gone.

We need to talk about this , I decide.

Two tortuously long moments pass, but he beats me to the punch.

“What happens now?” He tugs at his suit nervously.

I focus on the road. “Taylor got us fake security clearance. Once inside, I’ll walk you through finding the hotel booking system. We’ll figure out where Olivia and Aleks are and get them out before anyone realizes they’re gone.”

“As for Skar and the others?”

Truthfully, I don’t know what Charlotte and Ricky have planned. They’ll be sneaking in, and once they give us the go-ahead, our real plan will be set in motion.

“We’ll be fine,” I tell him, meaning it. “We stick to the plan.”

For a few more moments, it’s quiet again. The silence is easier than trying to digest the fact that there’s no easy way out of this.

“I know the coke is bad,” he starts with a sigh, but I shake my head.

“I’m not judging you, Harvey. I’m angry about the situation.”

“I never would’ve-“ He swipes at his eyes in my peripheral. “This never should’ve gotten this far. Now she’s…” He doesn’t finish, but I know the sentiment there. I feel it in my chest. “I can get clean for her.”

I want to trust him, but if this has made anything clear, it’s that I don’t know Harvey like I thought I did. Things are hard to do alone.

“You know, I got wrapped up in some nasty stuff a few years back,” I admit aloud. I feel him look at me. “Not personally. My… My girlfriend at the time kept her addiction private. I didn’t know until it was too late. She owed some money. I went to pay off her debts, but my head wasn’t in it…”

She died. But the truth is that I did what I could. Sometimes it just isn’t enough.

“Skar got me out. He had my back. Helped me get my head screwed on straight after. I couldn’t do it alone, and I don’t think you can either.”

I see the hotel’s shining gates at the end of the road. The parking lot is packed with guests driving in for the event. I veer onto a hidden path. Minutes must pass, and I half-wonder whether Harvey might say anything else.

“You’re probably right,” he admits quietly, but when I hear something muffled over the earpiece, I lift it back into place.

“We’re clear,” Skar says.

I nod as Harvey looks at me in question. I reach into my pocket for the spare earpiece. Dropping it into his palm, I grab his wrist, halting him. “I need your head in this. Right now. This can’t wait.”

He looks at me carefully, nodding with a slight smile. “I suppose we should probably talk about your job when we get back.”

I smile, dropping his arm, because at least he’s admitting that there will be time when we get back. “Definitely a conversation for later.”

He puts the tech in his ear, the feedback quieting. We drive to the back gate, and after flashing our badges and being waved in, I park as Harvey and I share a look.

I nod. Harvey clambers out of the car, and I do my best not to sigh as we stroll to the back doors. My palms are clammy, unsteady, as the doors open. It’s dark- almost completely so, and in my gut, I hate knowing that we’re probably walking into a trap.

Through the earpiece, Harvey is breathing heavily, breaths too fast to count. It’s an effort not to rip the ear piece out and change the whole plan.

I should do this alone, I think. But I can’t. I force myself to focus on the task at-hand.

“Stop panting,” I coach quietly, and he swallows.

Harvey takes an employee entrance immediately to the right. He swipes his card, and the scanner illuminates green as I disappear into the ballroom . The room is loud with the clamor of guests. I spot a detail of guards stationed near the balcony and all entrances.

“In yet?” I hear Skar over the earpiece.

“Which hall?” Harvey asks. He’s probably made it past the reception desk by now.

“Go forward past reception. Take the stairs to your right and there will be a door with keycard access.”

Violin and piano float from the room, but I hover outside the doors, acting as security as I watch people float about.

I hear Harvey shuffling. Then the distinct sound of a door opening. “Now what?” he says. “There’s no one here.”

Lucky , I think, remembering the path he’s meant to take on the blueprints.

“Hurry. There’s going to be three doors on either side. Take the last one on the left, and it should take you to an electrical closet. Find it?”

It’s unlikely that the hotel leaves their cameras unmonitored, so there’s only a slim chance that security isn’t already on their way. I eye a guard across the room that’s looking my direction.

It’s quiet for a moment...

Then, “I’m inside.”

“Remember what Taylor told you. Access the Central Reservations System. Figure out which room they’re in.”

I hear him clacking away at one of the computers. “What am I looking for?”

“Anything that might tell us where Olivia, Aleks, or Rema is,” Skar interrupts. I hear the sound of a door opening through his wire.

“There’s… There’s only a few rooms without reservations. Including the rooms for private events. Third floor shows… Fully blocked off. But- I don’t know what to look for!” Harvey hisses quietly. “Wait. 3rd floor balcony. Company Dinner, it says. That's where we were supposed to meet originally.”

“I’ll start there,” Skar says.

“Is there anything else? Anything unusual?”

“I don’t…” he growls, still searching as I spot a security guard appearing by the private stairwell closest to the elevators. I step further back, hiding behind an opening door. “Basement says Restricted Access .”

That’s where they’ll be then.

Harvey curses. “Chase found me.”

“Harvey-“

His line goes dead. I peer around the door to see the security guard gone, and a million thoughts racing through my head as I debate what to do next.

“Skar?”

“Go,” he orders. “I’ll find Rema. You find Olivia and Aleks. I’ll let you know if anything changes.”

I push off the wall, scouring my memory for a route that would lead me to the basement. One path takes the private stairwell. All likely monitored. I’d have a better chance trying to hide amongst the crowd.

So I do, passing by the entirety of the ballroom unnoticed. I flash my badge at either of the guards stationed at the elevator, and I take stairs one level down where the noise of the party is more muffled.

The left leads to the kitchens and the right leads to a couple of laundry rooms and the wine cellar. I head for the right, keeping my hand on my gun. When I hear two voices around the corner, I withdraw my pistol slowly.

I move without thought. I sneak behind one of the guards, covering their mouth and keeping their head in a lock as I aim my gun at the other.

“Scream and I shoot.”

He moves for his radio, and I fire a single round into his leg. Before he can shout, I shove them both into the nearest room. I slam them into the wall, knocking them unconscious. Stripping them of their electronics, I pile everything on a shelf above their heads. I zip tie their hands and ankles so they can’t move.

My gun is still in-hand as I check the hall, tracking the wall with my hand. I check a few of the rooms, cursing when I find most of them empty, but when I peer down a hall and find the empty wine cellar, I pause.

I notice a silhouette sitting just inside the darkened room, and I prowl forward. My heart hammers as I push the door open.

“Olivia,” I mutter in relief, but I see her tense, turning over her shoulder to look at me.

I drop to my knees in front of her. “Crew?” Pulling a knife from my boot, I cut through the zip ties around her legs. “What are you doing here?” she croaks.

“You’re safe, Princess. I got you,” I tell her, and once her legs are free, I notice one of her hands is already cut loose. I can’t stop myself from reaching up and cupping her face.

Blood is scabbed over her hairline, and I touch the bruise gingerly, frowning when she hisses.

“I’m okay,” she murmurs as I turn her chin to see the red bruise on her cheek. “I’m okay, Crew. Please just-“ she tugs on the remaining zip tie.

When I see a letter opener in her lap- a clear sign she was trying to escape- I grin, brushing her hair back again. “That’s my girl.”

I cut the last tie, and as soon as I do, she throws her arms around me. Just the weight of her, the smell of her shampoo, makes the ache in my chest fade.

“I know where Rema will be,” Liv says into my neck, and I sweep her hair away to assess for any more wounds. She winces, her skin flush. “I- I can find him. But there’s more of them. And Sofia-“

“Sofia?” I blurt, still absently touching her cheek. Still not believing she’s real. I yank myself back to reality. “There’s not enough time. Let’s go.”

I curse when the lights flicker on. I find Donatello Rema standing in the doorway. He claps slowly. Threeguards tail him, guns aimed at us. I block her from view, knowing I could take them on my own- but not while protecting her.

His grin is all cocky. “I have to give you credit for getting this far. But I can’t say I’m not disappointed you didn’t plan better,” he scoffs.

Come on Skar , I think. But the more time passes, the more I’m filled with doubt.

Then Rema’s phone rings… and his smile falls.

I grin, knowing that we haven’t lost yet. “Answer it, why don’t you?”

He digs it out of his pocket, and when he answers and hears Skar’s voice over the line, I watch everything fall into place.