Page 26 of Into the Fire: After

Breakfast of champions.

The guard stood at attention, back to the door, just like every other day. They’d stay there for five minutes, or until I finished the sandwich and water. They’d say nothing else. Hadn’t yet, anyway, no matter how many times I asked about Taryn and Caine. So I’d stopped asking and started watching. Takingmental notes. Searching for even a hint of a weakness I could exploit.

“Keep eating. Don’t react.”

So much for predictability.

Suspicion prickled my skin, even as I fought to follow his instructions.

“The omega passed you something,” the guard continued. “I need it.”

My heart pounded, a cold sweat dewing on my neck. “You think if I had anything useful, I’d be here?” I rattled my handcuff—which forced my left arm to stretch a bit behind me as I ate—to punctuate my point.

“Like you could lock pick your way out of here with a bobby pin?” the guard replied, face and posture unchanging. “She didn’t give you something to help you get out.”

“Then what did she give me?”

He swallowed, the first indication of any tension. “Something that will helpusgetin.”

What did that even mean?

“Take a bite of your sandwich,” he prompted.

I heeded his command, studying him as I did. Beta, not quite as tall as I was. No scent that I could detect, but that was likely neutralizers. Dirty blonde hair, cropped short on the sides but longer on top, slicked back to stay in place.

Eyes? Harsh.

Muscles? Tons.

Weapons? Gun on one hip, nightstick on the other.

Chewing bought me seconds, but they slipped by like water through my fingers. Was he on our side? Had he discovered Taryn’s scheme somehow and was just looking for confirmation before following through on the doctor’s grotesque threats?

Do I trust him?

What the fuck else was I gonna do? How many cameras and security locks and guards and bullets stood between me and my packmates, between us and the exit?

Just thinking of them, that fleeting image of the two of them in my mind, was enough to have my alpha howling, ready to strike and fight. It was an unusual sensation. So rarely did my alpha act out or lash against my steadfast control. I’d never needed to assert dominance before; it was always self-evident. Here, though, isolated and impotent, he was raring for a brawl.

“We have ninety seconds left,” the guard said, tone flat.

“If I give it to you,” I said softly, index finger drumming on my thigh, “I want the three of us housed together.”

“Out of the question.”

“Then Caine and me,” I countered before taking another bite of the tasteless sandwich. I spoke around it. “I want the two of us housed together, unshackled, and your word that you’re not in the process of fucking us over.”

The guard cut his eyes in my direction, a motion invisible to the camera but sharp enough to send ice through my veins. “It’ll take a few days to get that arranged.”

“Well,” I said as I finished the last bite of sandwich. I emptied the water cup in one gulp and slid the tray back toward the end of the bed. “You know where to find me.”

Amicrochip.

My omega had smuggled a microchip into a multimillion-dollar conglomerate's illicit research facility.

Here I was, telling her tokeep fighting,and all the while she'd brought a rocket-launcher to a gunfight.

She was kind of my hero.