Page 43 of Into the Fire: After

“What the—you had me on speaker, K?Are these the geniuses who texted me about adopting fuckingpuppies?”

Anxiety burned in my gut. I wasn’t thelay down the lawguy. I wasn’t thedo as I say or suffer the consequencesguy. But the moment our mysteriousVhaddeclared they were all on borrowed time, my world shrank. Objectively, sure, there were billions of people on this planet. As far as I was concerned, there were less than ten who mattered.

My pack. And the ones who’d keep us alive. Primarily, though, my alphas and my omega.

“Get them all ready,” I said, stepping closer to Vikki. My eyes stayed glued to Brea. We were each other’s anchors amidst a growingly turbulent sea. “Grab hard drives, files, whatever you can get physically in your hands. Be ready for our call.”

“What’re—”

“Do it, Sevrin!” Vikki said before ending the call.

I pulled my own phone out of my pocket and dialed Colin’s number. He didn’t answer. I called again. Third time. Fourth time.

Finally, my driver buddy picked up. “Dude, gimme like half an hour—”

“Change of plans,” I said. “We need extraction today. In the next thirty-five minutes.”

“Fuck you,” Colin said. “There’s no way.”

“Colin, I don’t care who or what or how,” I said. “We need to move today. Like, as soon as literally possible.”

“Brooks, it’s not so much I don’t want to help as it is that I simply don’t have the ability to bend time and space. This kinda work, you don't just hop on a new route.”

Of course he chose now to be fucking verbose, every stupid word ticking away another second. “I swear to motherf—”

A pale hand reached over and snatched the phone from my hand, hanging up on our only chance of rescuing our pack.

“Brea, what the fuck?”

She didn’t answer. She simply dialed another number and hit the speaker button, raising the phone to the middle of our standing triad.

A computerized female voice spoke immediately. “Thank you for calling Hydrex Technologies, Incorporated. For a list of—”

“Extension one-zero-two-eight,” she said, eyes dull and face grim.

The voice cut off, followed by a brief pause. “Great,” she said in an artificially cheery tone. “Please enter the ten-digit passcode.”

Brea pulled up the keypad and did as instructed. Vikki and I watched, mute.

Once she finished, there was another pause over the line. “Thank you,” the voice said. “I’ll connect you.”

A dull buzzing sound denoted the dial tone. Lost and looking for any hint of a road sign, I shook my head at her. “Brea, whose number is this?”

She swallowed. “One I promised myself I’d never dial again.”

The buzzing cut off. “Heath Torrington speaking.”

My heart leapt straight from my chest, confusion morphing into fury to even hear that dipshit’s voice again.

Brea ignored me, diving in without preamble. “I have a proposition for you."

Heath cursed on the other end of the line. “How fucking dare—”

“Don’t interrupt me,” she commanded. “I have a proposition for you, and you have thirty seconds to accept or decline.

“I have in my possession a hard drive. On that hard drive is all the information you need to access Phoenix Labs’ internal data and systems. All their proprietary research, field tests, and developments at your fingertips. Both legal and non.

“I need an extraction of four individuals from the lab facilities in southwest Remington City, and I need it done in the next thirty-three minutes. You get them out, and deliver them safely to me at a location of my choosing, and I give you that hard drive.”