Page 24 of Martyr (Sterling Falls Rogues #3)
This is insane.
Insane .
Kade had a cache of weapons locked in a safe, but he refused to give me a gun. He refused to give Saint one either. Mumbled something about us shooting each other. Instead, he and Reese loaded up, then we piled on every piece of dark clothing we could find and spent time locking down the cabin.
Then, we split up.
I follow Kade toward the trauma camp. Reese and Saint are going to scope out the dock to clear us a path, but there’s one extra factor involved.
Lyssa .
Kade’s face turned stony when Reese came back in the room and told him what he’d discovered. That Gabriel had found out about where we are, that Ouranos is out for Saint’s blood…
Good stuff.
“I didn’t tell him anything,” Kade says again, glancing back at me.
I roll my eyes. “You said.”
“Well, it’s the truth. He’s caused enough havoc to last a lifetime.”
Also true .
Our mission? Hide Lyssa.
We can’t remove her from Isle of Paradise, but we can make it look like she was moved.
Dr. Hawthorne meets us at the edge of the trees. She leads us around to a building I’ve only gone in once, for a tour of the place when I first arrived: the locked unit. It’s for those who are a bit more emotionally unstable.
There are more orderlies on shift twenty-four seven, private rooms, and additional support staff for each patient.
Resident.
Whatever .
“We’ve moved her already,” Dr. Hawthorne says. “And issued new paperwork. As of tonight, she’s Lisa Jones, admitted a week and a half ago for psychosis treatment and physical therapy.”
Kade frowns.
It doesn’t sound nice…
“And Lyssa’s files?”
“Will say she was discharged into your care,” Dr. Hawthorne confirms. She pauses. “I assume I can do the same for Saint Hart?”
I nod.
“Just know that you can come back at any time.” She touches my shoulder. “Or call. If you need it.”
Kade clears his throat. “We’re on a time crunch here, Doc.”
She dips her chin and continues down the hall and stops outside a closed door. She uses her ID to unlock it and waves us ahead.
I stay in the hall— call me paranoid —while Kade goes in. His voice mingles with Lyssa’s confused, sleepy one. He explains about moving her for her safety, for the name change… He apologizes, then leaves.
Dr. Hawthorne closes the door firmly behind him and folds her arms over her chest. “This is it, then? Getting off the island no matter what?”
Kade shifts. “Next time we can dive into my claustrophobia, Doc. Next time.”
She chuckles.
We leave her behind and meet Reese and Saint in the woods. It’s relatively easy to find them, since they’re right off the path. We would’ve tripped over them if they were any less obvious.
“Two guards,” Reese reports. “No perimeter as far as I can tell. Just the Coast Guard dingy docked there.”
“Easy enough to sabotage,” Saint murmurs. “Slice it and sink it.”
Kade nods his approval. “And the guards?”
“Sneak attack. Incapacitate long enough to get away,” Reese advises.
“Good.” Kade points at me and Saint. “Stay.”
I frown.
Saint seems just as annoyed.
But, since neither of us have weapons, we do as we’re told and watch them silently disappear into the shadows.
“This is fun,” Saint gripes. “I don’t understand half of what’s happening anymore.”
“You killed someone’s brother. That someone is now invading Sterling Falls and calling all the shots.” I eye him. “The brother was Kronos, for the record. He’s the one who slit Nyx’s throat.”
Saint’s expression blanks. It does that sometimes, although I can’t tell if he does it to suppress emotion or memory.
Maybe both.
I ignore it until Reese shines a light in our direction, flashing it twice.
We hurry down to the dock, and the familiar sound of water lapping against the shore gives me a modicum of peace.
Then again, this is where Saint pushed me into the frigid water and nearly let me die of hypothermia…
Maybe he didn’t mean it.
Maybe he did .
He jumped in after me and carried me back, though, so that’s a plus.
Still, I inch away from him and closer to Reese. We stand at the edge of the dock, and Kade allows Saint the honor of stabbing the dingy. It takes some time to deflate enough to let water in, but Saint knows his way around a knife. Before long, it’s completely submerged.
“I thought you were going to get Lyssa,” Reese says to me.
“Too risky in her condition. She needs professionals to help jumpstart her body again.” I tilt my head. “But when Gabriel comes looking, it’ll seem like we moved her off the island.”
Reese smiles. “Sounds like something that might cause him to come unglued.”
“I know.” I smile back. “I feel like we already saw so much of his bad side… but the worst is yet to come. And this time, we have the leverage.”
Take out Gabriel, take out Kade, and who does Ouranos have left who he trusts?
Hopefully—no one.
That’s how we’ll win this war.