Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 98819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98819 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 494(@200wpm)___ 395(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Victor points out a room in the corner. The closer we get, the louder someone speaking gets.
Ted.
I reaffirm my grip on my gun and move closer.
“—never respected me.” He’s raving. “He was obsessed with her.”
In my mind’s eye, I can see the room through the dark haze. The walls are covered in faded photographs. Rex is there, sitting restrained on a hospital gurney, his clothes gone, his arms pinioned with cords.
He’s straining against his bonds, his muscles bulging until blood runs down his bare chest.
Ted hovers close, livid and holding a knife. “I’m going to carve you up. Then I’ll call her down here and kill her, too.”
Ted wants me? I’m here, and I’m pissed.
I signal to the men surrounding me. “I’m going in.”
One of the twins puts out a hand to stop me, and I shake my head at him. I’m wearing a helmet and armor. I’m as protected as I can be. Plus, I’m armed. Ted won’t know what hit him.
Before Rex, justice was an abstract concept, but now, faced with a threat to the man I love, I’m not waiting to do things the right way. There’s no justice on a battlefield. If saving Rex means spilling the blood of my enemy, I’m not just willing to spill blood; I’m willing to bathe in it.
When you love someone, you don’t hold back. Rex taught me that.
The guys pause in silent deliberation. I make a move toward the door, and Victor signals his surrender. He crouches by the door and pulls out a pick for the lock. I let him break in for me.
I raise my gun. I don’t need the door to open to know where Ted will be. I can sense him. My gifts crystalize the scene, and I know just where to aim.
Victor stands to the side, his hand on the doorknob. He counts me down—three, two, one—and throws the door open.
I step forward, and the scene I saw in my mind is there, laid out in shapes of black and green.
Ted turns toward me, his mouth falling slack in surprise.
And I blow him away.
* * *
***
Rex
* * *
One second, I’m fighting for oxygen while Ted taunts me, and the next, I’m showered with his blood.
A short, helmeted figure steps into the dark space. “He wasn’t wearing body armor,” a feminine voice says, observing Ted’s body. “That was a mistake.”
Gun drawn, she scopes out each corner of the room. “Clear,” she calls, and whoever was backing her up rushes in to help me while she covers them.
I blink back a sense of deja vu. It feels like I’m back in the Abyss with Jaeger and Kaiser. Only this time, I’m in the victim’s place. Ted’s place.
The woman steps in front of me, and my grasp on reality shifts. Maybe I’m imagining this, but I’ve seen the way I look when I’m in my body armor, and the small figure looks a lot like a mini-me.
I have to be hallucinating this.
The cords binding me loosen and fall away. The men on either side of me continue to work to free me, but I have eyes only for her.
Someone hands her a water bottle, and she holsters her weapon so she can hold it to my lips. An angel. She’s an angel.
I tip my head back and let the water relieve my parched throat. I shake my head when she offers me more.
“You okay?” she asks. I don’t recognize her voice until she pulls off her helmet.
“Inara,” I snarl. This is real. This is happening. She’s here. I can’t believe she put herself in danger again.
There are still remnants of the knock-out drug in my system that make the edges of my vision foggy, but fresh adrenaline pumps through me, clearing the cobwebs away.
“I’m here.” She moves to put a gloved hand on my shoulder but stops when she notices the blood covering my torso.
I’m lightheaded with relief and rage. “You shouldn’t be here!” I left her sleeping in our bed while I went out chasing monsters. I wouldn’t have left her if I wasn’t sure that she’d be safe.
“You left me,” she retorts. “You went to the morgue and then went missing.”
I gnash my teeth. I hate that Ted got the jump on me, but I refuse to let her shift the focus to me. “I left you at home, where you were safe. Who gave you that suit?”
“Hamish. He said this was a prototype. We had to retrofit it to my frame a bit, but it works.” She sees me seething and lays a hand on her chest. “Rex, I was perfectly safe.”
I can’t look at her, so I glare at the men beside me inside. Jaeger, Kaiser, and Victor.
I’m going to kill them. They were meant to keep Inara safe, not let her go gallivanting around the city in body armor. “You,” I snarl at Victor. “You let her come here—”