Page 68

MARA

“ I ’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Matias mumbled as we waited for the elevator. The numbers above each shaft counted upwards, and it was a race to which one would reach us first.

“?Cállate!” Javier snapped at him under his breath. “Keep your shit together, Alvarez.”

Wes and I stood shoulder to shoulder, fingers grazing each other—an odd sort of gesture denoting love and comfort.

All of us had taken a moment to load and prepare our weapons, which now rested in our bags, lying on top of the rest of the junk we had to carry up.

I was the exception. Marty had a holster, and I happily slipped my stunner in it, grateful to have at least one weapon readily accessible.

Ding!

The elevator second to the left lit up, and the doors opened wide.

I took a deep breath, and we all filed in.

The doors closed, and the elevator car rattled gently for a moment before moving downward.

Nerves crawled in my stomach—worms caught in a tangled ball.

God, I hated the feeling, and I was freaking grateful I hadn’t eaten anything in hours, or it would have all ended up on the floor .

“Prima, when the doors open, make sure you stand up proud and act like you don’t know us, okay?”

“What if they recognize me?”

Javi shook his head. “Don’t worry about that. Acting scared or like you have something to hide will give you away faster than your face. I promise you that. And if anyone says anything about your clothes—”

“Tell them someone swapped out my uniform?” I said with a sly smile, remembering the line he fed the guard earlier.

He grinned, eyes alight with mischief. “Exactly. The REG officers are always pulling pranks like that with one another. They get bored, so messing around and giving each other crap is a given.”

“Got it,” I muttered, but his comment reminded me of the fact I’d been hit with so many times before—Telvians were just people…regular people. They were no different from Northerners, or Dissenters, or Libertarians. They were just people who had the misfortune of being born as Telvians.

They didn’t know any better.

“What are the chances we just walk out of here with no problems?” Matias tugged on his white uniform, trying to pull the collar away from his neck.

The smug look was back on my cousin’s face. “Right now, the odds look pretty good, actually. Just a quick stroll through the lobby, out the door, and a walk across the parking lot.”

“Sounds easy enough,” Matias muttered. “Do we need to check out?”

Javi nodded. “But I’ll take care of that. You three head out, and I’ll deal with the guard at the front desk.”

The elevator rattled and then halted with another ding sound.

Javi looked at me, pointing his finger at my chest. “Proud, cousin. Okay? Act like you’ve been given orders to get something from one of the trucks.”

I nodded quickly as the doors opened, revealing an empty lobby as before—just the man at the reception desk, the elevator guy, and one more individual standing by the desk, his back facing us.

Javi took point, walking out first, followed by Matias.

Wes glanced my way, tucking his chin into his chest as he marched out, and then I went next.

Elevator Dude looked rather serious, more so than he had before. Tension across the lines of his shoulders told me he was stressed out. I pried my eyes away, facing forward, pretending like I didn’t even notice him, and kept my eyes on those glass doors out to the parking lot.

Thirty feet. That was it. We could do that, right? We could walk thirty feet to freedom.

I noticed the third man—the one with his back toward us—stood up straight, shifting to look our way. I couldn’t help but shift my gaze to him. His uniform told me he was more than a grunt—a few badges and metals decorated his uniform. He had to be an officer of some sort. Someone in leadership.

His broad shoulders and overall frame gave me the impression that this man was built like an ox.

Just raw power and pure muscle. He had a round face and sandy blond hair that was combed back neatly and held in place with gel.

A small scruff of a beard attempted to hide his baby cheeks that made him look younger than I knew he had to be.

But what caught my attention more than anything was his storm gray eye.

The eye was lovely, much like clouds that had been hiding the sun back in the north, but he only had one.

The other was covered with a black eyepatch.

I had been so focused on this man that I failed to notice when Javi stopped dead in his tracks, ten feet away from the desk. The man stared at him, gaze locked, and a smile that could have curdled milk twisted that baby face into something darker.

“Well, well, well,” he said. His voice matched the rest of him, deep and husky.

We stood like a diamond—Javi in front with Wes and Matias flanking him on either side. I stood directly behind my cousin, several feet away, trying to look like I wasn’t part of them. We all froze in place .

The man clasped his hands, rubbing them together as he strolled forward, languidly closing the distance between him and my cousin. “Never did I ever think I would see you again, de la Puente. Never did I ever think I would be given the pleasure of seeing such an old friend.”

Javi stood up straighter, posture shifting—stiffening—preparing for something. “Tim Harris, Jr.” he growled out. And if the curled fist at his side and tense lines of his frame told me nothing, the way he said that man’s name did. They knew each other, and the history between them wasn’t good.

We’re toast , I thought to myself. This is it. We’re not leaving without a fight.

“That’s Sergeant Harris, Javier. No thanks to you, might I add.” The man stopped, leaving only a handful of feet between him and my cousin.

The officer at the desk had come around to flank his sergeant, and I didn’t have to turn around to know that the elevator guard was behind me, aware that something was about to go down.

Harris placed a hand behind his back, puffing out his chest. “Where is she, Javi? I’d love to see—wait…what was her name again? Huang?” He rubbed his chin for a moment. “ Le . That’s right. Liddy Le . How could I ever forget the bitch that did this to me,” he growled, pointing at his eyepatch.

Matias cursed under his breath while Wes remained completely quiet and still, like a pristine statue carved from beautifully polished marble.

Javier lifted his chin. “I think she gave you some character, Harris. You should thank her. The whole thing really improves your look.”

I clenched my jaw . Really, Javi? Now’s the time to egg this guy on? If I knew Wes at all—and I liked to think that I did—he was two seconds away from throttling my cousin.

The elevator bank dinged behind me, and when I looked over my shoulder, all five elevator doors opened, each one housing too many soldiers to count. And several had hellhounds, pulling on their leashes.

Oh my god…this is bad. This is really, really ba d.

I forced myself to face forward, noticing as my team became aware of the situation that was quickly deteriorating into a major clusterfuck.

Harris narrowed his eyes, pointed at Javier, and snarled. “Arrest this man and his crew.”

“That’s not gonna work for us,” Wes said, voice too smooth for his own good.

“Turns out,” Matias chimed in, “we’ve got a plane to catch.”

Harris roared—a deep guttural sound—as a hellhound lunged and the first shot was fired.