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MARA

W e waited, hiding amongst the shadows of scraggly bushes—Javier and Matias on one side of the street, Wes and I on the other.

The glow of the headlights grew larger, intensifying in brightness as it neared.

My veins pulsed as my heart pumped adrenaline through them, sweat beginning to pepper my brow despite the chilled morning air.

Hot breath tickled my ear. “Ready?”

My eyes never left the vehicle as it loomed closer, the quiet hum of the electric motor drifting through the dark morning air. “Yes.”

Several heartbeats…

“Three…” Wes whispered.

The car approached, mere yards away.

“Two,” I uttered.

The van passed us, hitting the strip.

“One.” Wes was up on his feet as the car began to swerve and rolled to a stop.

I took off after him, already pulling my stunner from its holster and aiming at the car. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Matias and Javier pop up too, charging the van .

Wes came up on the driver’s side while Javier aimed his stunner at the passenger side window.

“Get out of the vehicle now ,” Wes ordered.

I reached the two double doors at the back of the van, wrapped my hand on the handle, and tugged it open. Matias came to my side as the door swung, already aiming his weapon at whoever was sitting in the back.

Zap, zap!

I heard a thunk inside as I opened the other door. Two men lay on the floor of the van. I heard the car doors open, and watched as the driver and passenger both stepped outside of the vehicle, hands in the air.

I didn’t wait. I knew we were in a hurry and there was no time to be wasted. I climbed inside, grabbed the worker by the arm, and started to drag his body toward the back. Matias reached in and pulled the man’s body the rest of the way out, slinging him over his shoulder.

Two more shots fired, and then subsequent plops.

I didn’t have to ask to know that the other workers had been stunned. I grabbed the second man and started dragging him. “What’s going to happen to them?”

Matias, now relieved of the first man, reached for the second. “Once the REG realizes something has happened at Apex, they’ll drive down there. We’ll make sure we leave them visible from the road so the REG can pick them up on the way to the facility.”

I nodded, relieved. It didn’t seem right to leave four helpless people, most likely District 2 citizens, wandering the desert without water.

Matias grabbed the man, lopped him over his shoulder, and carried him off.

I jumped out of the van. Javier and Wes were already stripping the uniforms off the workers—white, baggy jumpsuits with crimson red stitching over the chest matching the emblem on the side of the van.

Javier was climbing into one suit, while Wes handed me the other.

“ Carajo ,” Javier muttered. He didn’t need to translate for me. I remembered very well that that word was the Spanish equivalent to fuck .

“What?” I asked. The moment I caught sight of him, however, I had to suppress a laugh.

The suit was a size—maybe two?—too small. It was an inch short on the bottom and at the sleeves. But the worst part was his groin. He kept tugging on the material, trying to create space that truly did not exist. “How am I supposed to work like this?”

Wes looked, and unlike me, he guffawed. “Looks like you have a problem, de la Puente.”

“You’re going to have to tuck it in, brother,” Matias joined in, elbowing Wes.

Javier stiffened, glaring at them both. “Perhaps both of you are dainty enough to be tucked , but I’m too well endowed to tuck anything.”

The taunting humor in both of Matias’s and Wes’s faces disappeared so fast, I couldn’t help but giggle.

“Give me yours,” Javi demanded from Wes.

He snorted. “I don’t think so, de la Puente. I’m taller than you.”

Matias put both his hands up. “Don’t look at me either. I’m good with what I’ve got,” and then he started chortling again.

Another few Spanish obscenities left my cousin’s mouth as he tugged at the seam in his crotch once more. “I’m not even going to be able to sit in this thing,” he groused.

The evil humor in Wes’s eyes made me smile as he faced me. “Hurry up and get dressed. We’ve got to go.”

Not wasting another second, I did as I was told while the rest of the team tied up the maintenance workers and pulled them off the side of the road. Then we loaded up, and took off toward Apex Peak.

***

“Orders?” The Apex guard asked at the security window .

Matias hung his left arm out of the window, looking cool and casual.

The wrist of his right hand rested on the top of the steering wheel, his fingers relaxed.

Javier, sitting in the passenger seat, grabbed a document folded in half lengthwise and reached across Matias to hand the guard the paperwork.

That was one of the first things we did before driving off—search for the work orders.

They were tucked in the sun visor of the passenger side.

Wes and I were seated in the back, sitting on benches built into either side of the van, facing each other.

Spine ramrod straight, I watched cautiously as Matias chatted with the guard and the man reviewed the order.

Wes, on the other hand, had his knees apart, resting both elbows on them, rubbing his hands together lightly.

The guard handed Matias the paperwork. “You’re late. You were supposed to be here twenty minutes ago. Did you have any trouble?”

Matias pointed behind him with his thumb. “Damn flat on the back left. We took care of it.”

The guard took a step back from the van, eyeing the wheels with a narrowed gaze before stepping up to the driver side window again. “You never radioed in the delay. That’s a breach of protocol.”

My heart paused for a beat, chest tightening.

Matias spun on Javier, smacking him hard on the shoulder, causing Javi to jump in surprise.

“Ow!” My cousin rubbed his shoulder. I could only see the profile of his face, but it looked like he was two seconds away from punching Matias.

“Idiot!” Matias scolded. “I told you to radio the facility. What the hell, man?”

“I told the jackass”—Javi waved his hand back toward Wes—“to do it.”

Wes sat up, looking like he was also going to throat punch somebody today.

Oh brother …

“That’s your problem, man,” Matias kept going, never skipping a beat. “That’s why nobody wants to work with you. You’re unreliable. I’m reporting your ass to Jenkins when we get back—”

Jenkins? Who the hell was Jenkins? How did he always come up with stuff like this on the fly?

“Would you two just shut up?” The guard chastised. I leaned forward, snagging a peek at the officer. “ Damn …” he muttered as he shook his head in apparent disbelief. “Just… somebody radio in next time, okay?” He stepped away from the van, and then waved us forward. “Move on.”

“Thanks, man. It won’t happen again.” Matias gave the guard a half-salute and then drove us forward toward Apex Peak.

“Nice work, Matias.” I smiled as he shot me a quick look over his shoulder.

“Thanks.”

Javier, on the other hand, glared as he muttered under his breath. “Este cabrón…le voy a dar una patada por el culo.”

I covered my mouth, trying to suppress a laugh, but failed. The little Spanish I remembered from Javi as kids was coming back to me, and I was pretty sure he was saying something about kicking Matias in the ass in the near future.

“Shut up and focus,” Wes groused. I bit my lip to keep from goading him. Once upon a time, a pissed-off Wes scared me. Now all I wanted to do was piss him off more.

Apex Peak looked just like the photo in the War Room—a mountainous hill with a flat top, looking like it had been lopped off by a sharp blade.

A white building sat on top with a soaring radio tower that was all twisted silver metal.

At the base of the hill was the facility entrance, and five sets of elevator shafts built into the hillside rose from the building at the bottom, all the way to the top.

We drove through the parking lot filled with military vehicles and some civilian cars.

All of the spots by the entrance were full .

“We’re going to have to park out here,” Javi remarked, still sounding cranky. “Just take that spot there.”

Matias turned the van and pulled into a spot next to a Telvian Humvee.

“Hey,” Wes caught my attention as he reached for my hand. I faced him as the rest of the team unbuckled and started to climb out of the car. Wes’s eyes glittered like citrine in candlelight. “Remember what I said…stay with me, okay?”

I nodded.

He shook his head, jaw set in a hard line. “No. Say it . I want to hear you say that you’ll stay by me while we do this.”

My chest swelled. “I’ll stay with you, Wes. Promise.”

His eyes flickered, shifting back and forth as they bore into me. I squeezed his hand, trying to reassure him, and after a moment, his shoulders dropped and he nodded. “Let’s go.”

We both got up and scrambled to the back of the van just as the doors swung open. Matias stepped to the side as Javier tugged on the seam at his crotch. I suppressed a laugh in my throat, pressing my lips together to keep from snickering.

Matias offered me a hand, which I accepted as I hopped out of the vehicle, Wes right behind me.

The worst part about our uniform was there was no place to conceal anything.

No pockets. All of our weapons had to be stowed in rugged, thick canvas bags.

We buried the stunners and guns under the different radio tower equipment, hoping that if there was a bag check, nobody would dig around amongst the tools.

We each grabbed a bag, while Javier tucked the work order under his arm and led us forward.

Wes stepped alongside me as I scanned the parking lot, making note of the different armed soldiers patrolling the perimeter of the facility.

Stepping up to the building, Javier opened the door into the lobby.

Cool air hit my face in a burst as I stepped inside.

The room was plain, with polished cement floors that reflected the recessed canned lighting on the ceiling.

The first thing I noticed were the five elevators at the back of the room behind a security desk.

Two doors—one on the left and the other on the right—were marked with an image of stairs.

Those had to be the emergency exits Javi had mentioned during the briefing.

Walking up to the security desk, I made note of one other security guard standing like a sentinel by the elevators, armed with an automatic rifle.

The desk had a semi-transparent glass wall behind it that turned out to be a screen.

It cycled through camera footage of different areas of the facility.

A lab of sorts, a hallway with a guard walking by with a gargantuan dog on a leash, a computer lab, and then—

My heart plummeted. My steps halted in shock.

Shit.

Wes took two steps further before noticing my frozen stance. “Mara?” He spoke softly so that only he and I could hear as he came back toward me, but I couldn’t respond. All I could do was stare at the image on the screen. Wes followed my gaze, and when he finally saw what I did, he cursed.

I swallowed hard as I read the letters on the screen.

WANTED FOR TREASON

Underneath was a picture of a young woman—brown hair with coppery tones and brown doe eyes. Round face with petite features and full pink lips set like Cupid’s bow.

It was me . The woman was me .