Page 75 of The Order of Disorder

His eyes crawl over me, slow.

“Now maybe I can.”

He gives a thin, satisfied grin and then turns, boots grinding the gravel, and walks away without looking back.

The sun doesn’t reach the back wall. I curl against it anyway, trying to keep the wind off my spine.

My shirt’s too thin. The gravel digs through my jeans. My palms still sting from the fall.

On the other side of the hangar, engines start up, fade out, start again. Any one of them could be Wyatt.

He should be back by now.

Somewhere out there Jake and Damian could be planning our escape right now. If Wyatt sent his message. If Jake received it. And my voicemail to Leathernecks. They must know we’re here. Surely they’ll come get us.

But my chest won’t settle.

Wyatt would go straight to our room, looking for me, only to find I’m not there.

He’ll come out and save me.

Unless he can’t.

I press my back against the fence and pull my knees to my chest. My teeth hurt from how hard I’m clenching them.

There’s no way to sit that doesn’t hurt.

The sky’s darker now. The sun’s gone. The wind hasn’t let up.

I’ve got my eyes closed, just breathing, trying to block everything out, when I hear boots on gravel.

For a second, just a second, I think it’s Wyatt.

I sit up too fast.

But—

It’s Billy.

He stops just outside the cage, thumb tapping his phone. The flashlight clicks on, beam slicing through the mesh and straight into my face.

I turn away, but he doesn’t lower it.

“Report says a woman fled the scene,” he says. “Staff saw her leaving in a hurry. No name yet, but they’re asking.”

He tilts the light just enough for me to see his face, drawn tight and simmering.

“Our fucking bag is there with that stupid sticker on it. Apparently he had a list of our transactions sitting out.”

He watches me, seething, but I don’t respond.

“You know what Silas is saying? He’s showing me footage. Asking why Ryan took off by himself on the run. Where he really went. Why he didn’t answer his radio for two fucking hours.”

My stomach knots.

Billy’s smile doesn’t reach his eyes.

“I trusted that man. Let him touch my bikes. Gave him my lady. Now I’ve got the feds at my throat and Silas whispering in my ear.”