Page 80 of Tested

“Dillon?”

“He’s having a little nap,” I say, kneeling so my mouth is right above the pocket where he keeps his phone. “I think you should join us. Come inside.”

The guy laughs. “If you think your vampire juju can work through a cell—”

His voice is cut off, and a minute or so later, Sheena hauls him through the door. “There might be one more,” she says, and dumps her catch next to mine. I cuff him the same way I did the first one, then sit back on my heels.

“Yup.”

“These guys look like pros.”

“So professional one walked right into my arms?”

“You know what I mean.”

I shrug, because yeah, I do know what she means. Anger echoes in my heartbeat. “Connor asked if I wanted the Elites to place guards around the place.”

“Oh shit.”

“Yeah.”

“They can call it a training drill and their fearless leader will reprimand his subordinates.”

“Or not.” A man steps through the open sliding glass door, some kind of automatic weapon pointed in our general direction. “Get away from both of them.”

“Why?” I ask, lifting my hand so he can see the pistol pointed at his friend’s head.

He glares at me. I return the favor, with interest. Jacques had ordered me to kill Connor, and the man underneath me was very close to becoming a substitute.

“I’ll shoot to kill,” he says, and Sheena laughs.

“You wish.”

I bring my pistol closer to the sleeping man. I hate that I might have to kill him when he’s so vulnerable, but I will if his asshole friend doesn’t back off. “Unless that thing’s loaded with silver and you empty the whole thing into my chest, you’ll be dead long before I will.”

“Asshole.” Sheena launches herself in a standing swan dive. She hits him in the gut before he has time to react and knocks the weapon out of his hand. The spray of bullets he manages to get off hit the wall or the ceiling, except for a couple that tag me in the shoulder.

Now he’s pissed me off.

While I don’t like the idea that I might have to kill a sleeping man, I have no trouble at all with planting my fist in the face of a guy Sheena’s got pinned to the floor. Knocks him right out, too, which is good because he’d eventually have said something that made him dead.

I toss her a pair of zip ties and survey our accomplishments, keeping one ear out for a possible fourth visitor. The sleeping dude will be out for a while, and the other two for longer. We lay them side-by-side, working in tandem with very little discussion.

“Let’s go sit out by the pool,” she says.

I push the sliding door open the whole way and follow her out. I check my phone. David’s sent a text saying they’re on their way home. I tell him to look for us by the pool. “That way they’ll stumble over Connor’s friends before they see us.”

Sheena opens her mouth like she’s going to say something, then closes it and shakes her head.

“What?”

“You think Connor’s working for the Elites again?”

“Pretty sure of it.”But he asked you to trust him, a small voice in my head says, nearly drowned out by the memory of Jacques. “Shut up.”

“Excuse me.”

“Arguing with myself.”