Page 42 of Into the Fire: After

Seventeen

Brooks

Thecopwasgonnaswing at me, I just knew it.

“For the last time,” Vikki said through her teeth, “hand over your phones, your tablets, whateverthe fuckyou’ve got, and get out.”

I laughed. “Who do you think owns this cabin, hon?” I said, hopping onto a free spot on the counter. “You can’t kick us out. And you can’t disconnect or risk losing data. So stow the dramatics already.”

“Youwantyour pack to get out of there alive, right?” Vikki bit out. “Like, you’re notactuallylooking to get all of them killed? And us too, for good measure?”

“More than you do,” I snapped back. “It’s been over two weeks, and you still won’t fucking—”

“This is bigger than just—”

“—fates in the hands of a goddamn—”

“—no idea the risk you’ve put us all—”

“Shut up, both of you!” Brea stood between us, one hand held in each of our directions like we’d actually stepped in to start brawling. “We’re on the same team, remember?”

“Coulda fooled me,” I muttered, leaning back on my palms.

Brea groaned and rolled her eyes. “I swear to all that is good and righteous, Brooks, if you don’t—”

Vikki’s phone rang. Brea’s mouth snapped shut.

The phoneneverrang. It vibrated once every hour with the texts from V. Vikki called out on it, usually to Gail Thorne to talk about the files or when she was supposedly making her arrangements to get our pack out of the Phoenix Labs building.

But this was not a phone that received calls.

It rang again. Shrill like a siren.

She swallowed, stepping to grab it from the countertop. “Only one person would call this number.”

Brea and I exchanged glances. Neither of us had a clue what this meant for our alphas and omega. But we weren’t buying any more of Vikki’s bullshit.

“Answer it,” Brea said. “On speaker.”

Vikki tucked a short strand of dark hair behind her ear as she tapped the screen to answer the call, then again to put it on speaker. She didn’t say a word, and neither did we. The person calling clearly didn’t need a greeting to jump right in.

“I’m burnt.” Agitated words, the voice winded like he was running. “We’re all fucking burnt.”

Vikki gave a little shake of her head. “Whoa, whoa. Explain yourself, V.”

“I’m fucking stupid and our moles are goddamnidiotsis what happened,” the voice snapped.

Brea immediately stepped forward, outrage marring her face, and Vikki shot her hand up with a finger in the air, bidding her to wait. “Stop playing coy. What’s happening?”

The male on the other end loosed an infuriated sound. “Omega was on day six of the first heat cycle. I couldn’t—” He took a deep breath. “I had an opening to bring the alphas to her. I thought they could ease the worst of it for a few hours. But they’ve allbitteneach other and there’s no hiding that. Shift change is in forty-one minutes, and once they come in, they’ll see the bites, they’ll figure out who helped her, they’ll discover I’m a leak, and they’ll plug that leak and shove all of us into the incinerator.”

A beat of silence followed the diatribe while we gawked at each other.

“Hello?”the voice called out over the speaker. “Dead man walking here!”

Vikki shook herself again and began pacing. “Shit, shit, shit!”

Brea’s eyes were nearly manic, her face pale. She swallowed hard. “Forty minutes?” she choked out without breaking eye contact with me.