Olivia shrugged and grabbed a loaded extra clip from her top desk drawer. “I have nothing better to do at the moment, and since I have yet to replace my phone, I don’t anticipate any orders getting in the way.”

“Thanks, Liv.”

Kris glanced back and forth between us. “Aren’t you two on opposite sides of the turf war?”

Olivia shrugged. “With friends like Kori, who needs enemies?”

“Ain’t that the fuckin’ truth!” Gran called from across the room, and Vanessa burst into teary laughter.

“Okay, I have my phone. Let me know how it goes with Barker,” I said to Liv and my brother as I ushered Gran and Vanessa into the darkened bathroom.

Kris nodded and closed the door behind us as I took one of their hands in each of mine. Two steps later, we emerged in Meghan’s bathroom. “Nobody shoot, we come in peace!” I shouted, and Aaron stepped into sight in the hall, still clutching the broken arm he obviously hadn’t yet sought treatment for.

“Well, you can just step right back into that shadow and take your sister with you. If Tower tracks her here, we’re all as good as dead.”

“I’ll be back for her as soon as I can. For now, I need you to watch a couple of valuables for me while I go storm the castle.”

“No. No more women with prices on their heads…” Aaron started, shaking his head firmly, but his sister shouted over him from the bedroom.

“Bring them in here!”

I led Vanessa and Gran toward Meghan’s voice. Kenley struggled up from her chair in spite of obvious pain the moment she saw Van.

“This isn’t Europe,” Gran said as Kenni and Vanessa embraced. “You don’t have to kiss everyone you meet on the mouth, Kenley.”

I would have laughed, if I weren’t so close to tears.

“This is not a home for wayward women!” Aaron insisted.

“They’ll be out of your hair soon,” I said as Meghan gently began to examine Vanessa’s butchered arm. She obviously didn’t have the strength to heal three people at once—which explained Aaron’s persistent fracture—but most Healers knew more than a little about first aid, to supplement their natural Skills.

I took a deep breath, double-checked the gun I’d taken from Jonah, then marched back into Meghan’s bathroom, then into Jake’s basement through the hole I’d blown in the infrared grid. Vanessa’s cell was still dark, so I peeked into the hall cautiously. The bodies were all still there. Nothing had changed. I’d been gone less than ten minutes.

I spared a moment to grab extra guns from the downed men. Two went into my holsters and a third stayed in my hand, while I shoved their extra clips into my pockets. I’d never actually made an action-movie-style assault on a heavily guarded modern fortress, but I was pretty sure Hollywood was dead-on with at least two of the typical clichés: bullets would fly and blood would flow.

Properly armed, I walked right by the elevator—installed for easy transport of prisoners—and took the stairs instead. I didn’t want to be surprised by a room full of men aiming guns at me as soon as the doors slid open.

At the top of the stairs, I opened the door just wide enough to peek out. The foyer was empty, except for the usual guards, one at the foot of either staircase. No one in the basement had lived long enough to sound the alarm, but they’d be found as soon as Jake discovered he couldn’t raise Jonah on his radio. If not sooner.

I pushed the door open and stepped into an alcove off the foyer, my heart thumping painfully with each step. I glanced toward Jake’s office just as Julia pushed the door open and stepped out. A second later, movement from across the foyer caught my eye. Two armed men were getting on the elevator.

Shit. The elevator only went to the basement, and they would sound the alarm the minute they saw the bodies.

I turned back to Julia as she rounded the corner into the back hall, without noticing me—a blessing that would die with the first screech of the security siren. Then I stepped into the foyer.

“Hey!” the guard at the closest staircase shouted, drawing his gun, and I shot a hole through his left shoulder. He stumbled back onto the stairs as I shot his counterpart from across the room. But my silencer turned out to be pointless, because no sooner had the second guard fallen than the brain-skewering screech of the security alarm started wailing from everywhere.

Time was up.

Thirty-Two

Ian

“Won’t this look suspicious?” I whispered as Julia led me up the steps and into Jake Tower’s house, and I couldn’t help remembering the first time I’d walked that very path, only two days earlier. How could everything have fallen apart in such a short time?

“No, it’ll look like I’ve done my job,” Julia said, her steps bold and confident. “Jake sent me to pick you up, and that’s what I’ve done.”

“I don’t suppose you can sneak me in with a gun?”

She glanced at me in disdain, and I bristled even before she spoke. “You’re going to have to contribute something to this effort on your own.”

“You mean, other than pulling the trigger?”

“I mean finding a trigger to pull.” She opened the front door and marched inside like she owned the place. Like we hadn’t just been plotting the assassination of her brother, leash holder and the man who signed her paychecks. “I’ll take you into the office,” she whispered as we crossed the foyer, accompanied by the click of her heels on the marble. “But then I’ll have to go. If I’m there when you make your move, I’ll be obligated to stop you.”