Page 55 of Final Exit

Devlin Buchanan.

She very slowly lifted her hand off her gun. He plucked the pistol from her holster and then he was gone, like a wraith, rejoining the others watching over Kade. She let out a shaky breath and wondered if her heart would ever be the same.

The creep in the wheelchair, Austin, winked as if this were all some amusing game. He shoved the chair out of the way and wheeled behind the desk. His fingers practically flew across the keyboard as he studied the screen in front of him.

“Austin,” Jace called out. “One of these days I’m going to teach you some manners.”

“That day may come, but it is notthisday.” He winked at Bailey again.

She narrowed her eyes.

He grinned.

“Did you just quoteLord of the Ringsat me?” Jace called out again from the other side of the room.

“If you have to ask, you’re not worthy of an answer.” Austin hit Enter, frowned, typed some more commands.

Bailey turned around. She’d been avoiding looking at Kade, afraid she’d see the hurt and anger in his eyes again. But he wasn’t looking at her. He was glaring at Buchanan, who had his gun trained on him, while Jace and Mason were...

“What the hell are you doing?” she demanded, crossing the room. “Let him go.”

The click-click of metal sounded as Jace and Mason fastened the handcuffs into place.

“Stop it! Take those off.” Bailey’s divided loyalties were no longer divided. She was Team Kade all the way. These Equalizers could suck it. She was about to take them down.

Starting with Jace Atwell.

She stalked toward him. His back was turned to her as he spoke to the others.

“Bailey.” Kade’s low, urgent whisper stopped her in her tracks. He shook his head. “Don’t.”

He was worried about her. He was also angry, bordering on furious. She could see it in every line of his body. But above everything else, he was concerned about her.

“Kade.”

Jace stepped past her on his way to the desk, seemingly oblivious that she’d been about to pummel him.

“Finding anything?” he asked.

“The Ghost wasn’t lying,” Austin announced. “The mainframe’s been wiped clean. I figured if we had a valid ID we’d be able to pull whatever files they’re using to go after Enforcers. But there’s nothing here.”

Bailey took a step closer to Kade, her gaze locked on his. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Did you know?” he asked quietly.

She glanced at Buchanan and Mason standing on either side of him, before answering. “No. I didn’t. I swear.”

“Could they be hiding files in the system?” Jace asked from behind her at the desk.

“This isn’t a homegrown interface,” Austin answered, sounding like he was lecturing a child. “This is a vanilla operating system interface. Trust me. Nothing’s hidden. Wherever EXIT’s files are, they’re not here.”

Devlin pressed his hand against what Bailey now realized was an earpiece, like the ones the secret service wore. “Terrance says the Feds are ten minutes out. They must have some kind of monitoring system still active out here. We need to go.”

Kade stiffened.

“You didn’t know they were monitoring this building, did you?” Jace called out, apparently more aware of the scene playing out in the middle of the room than he’d seemed.

Kade shrugged. “I knew it was a possibility. But I thought it was a remote one. Did you tap into the security system? Is that how you knew we were here?”