“You’re gonna have to give that up,” he said, nodding to the gun on her hip.

“I know,” she said. She pulled the holster off her belt and tried not to let her nerves get the best of her as she laid it down on a nearby surface.

“I’ll carry it for you. I’ll give it back as soon as we breech Killean’s.”

Halo took her gun and snapped it one-handedly onto his belt near the small of his back. He could still pull the weapon if necessary, but a moment later he had two Desert Eagles strapped to his thighs that would be much handier for him to draw. Seeing the capable man armed to the teeth settled her nerves a little bit, but not by much. She saw Rafe taking off his watch and replacing it with another and she raised a brow.

“It has a microphone in it. Come here,” he said, crooking a finger at her. She obediently walked over to him and he wrapped an arm around her, hugging her tightly before letting her go. Then he reached into a small case and withdrew a pair of glasses. He put them on her face and adjusted them while looking into a computer screen. She glanced over at it and realized it was showing everything from her perspective. The lenses were fake and there was a camera in the frames. She looked at Rafe and the camera looked at Rafe. She grinned.

“Wow. Ain’t technology great?”

“It’ll do,” he said. “What it won’t do is work if we get separated. I’ll have the mic and you’ll have the video.”

“Maybe I should have a microphone too?”

“We don’t have another mic. And I can’t wear glasses. Killean would know they are fake. Vampires have 20/20 vision.”

“Lucky you. I get to go blind after forty.”

“Blind?”

“Well…sort of. Both my parents and my grandparents became incredibly farsighted in their forties.”

“Well, maybe it’ll skip you,” he said reassuringly.

She laughed. “Maybe. Okay so, let’s do this thing.”

“Are you sure? You don’t have to.”

“I’m sure.”

“You’re not ready,” Halo said. He knelt down in front of her and lifted one side of her jeans up. He strapped on a very thin ankle holster and slid a small .22 into it. “It isn’t much, but it’s better than nothing. And it has a small enough profile that it won’t be visible.”

“I have one too. For all the good it’ll do. We’ll both be tied up,” Rafe said grimly.

“I’ve snapped those ties before.”

“Yes. And I have the strength to do so as well. Strange, why would they depend on zip ties to hold me?”

“Maybe because they expected you to be unconscious the entire time. Just until they got you in front of Killean.”

“Maybe. But why take the risk? Handcuffs would have been the better choice.”

“No one said they were smart,” Renee said dryly.

“This is true,” Rafe agreed. But he didn’t look entirely satisfied. His mistrust of the situation was warranted, given that they were about to stick their necks out.

Halo came up to them. “We’ve got the gear for the follow vehicle. We’ll stay far enough back that we won’t be spotted, using the GPS and the camera and mic to keep on top of you. I don’t entirely trust that little weasel that’ll be driving you, so we’ll stay as close as we can.”

“Sounds good. Let’s get this show on the road before Killean gets suspicious and decides to move,” Rafe said.

As a heavily armed group, they left the armory and headed for the elevators. They stopped on the queen’s floor to fetch the phant driver and then went back down to the sky lobby and then the parking garage. Halo was going to be driving one of the follow vehicles—the one that would be closest to them. Danton would be in the back of the van keeping track of the input from their mic and camera.

Halo grabbed the driver roughly by the arm and physically shoved him into his seat.

“One wrong move and you’ll be an ink blot on the wall. Got it?”

The driver nodded vigorously. “Just promise me I’ll live through this.”

“I won’t make that promise. What you’re about to do is deadly and dangerous. Just try to keep out of the line of fire and maybe you’ll come out alive.”

The driver nodded again. Halo then came around to the side of the van and loosely zip-tied their hands behind their backs.

“No. Tighter. As tight as you can make them. It makes it easier to snap them,” Renee said.

“Looser is better. That way you can slip out of them without the struggle that would draw attention to your actions. Your wrists are small enough for it. Rafe can snap his easy, but your wrists are already damaged from the first time you escaped the ties.” Halo ran a thumb over her wrist where the tie had cut into it. There was an aggressive sound from her right and she realized Rafe was growling in warning. Halo leisurely glanced over at him and chuckled. Without a word he picked up the hood lying on the floor of the van and jerked it down over Rafe’s head. Then he turned to Renee, hood in hand. However, before he put it on her he wrapped an arm around her waist, pulled her close and kissed her soundly. He let her go and jerked the hood down over her head before she could work herself up into a protest. She heard him chuckling as he stepped out of the van and slid the door shut with a clang of metal.

Flushing furiously she sat down on the floor of the van next to Rafe. She took comfort in the warmth of his body and leaned into him.

“When we get there I’ll have to pretend to be unconscious. But I’ll be with you. We’ll make it through this in one piece.”

“You can’t promise that,” she said realistically. “But this is too important. We can’t afford to think only of ourselves. This is for the greater good.”

“I just wish the greater good didn’t have to risk your life as well as mine.”

“We’ll do our best to stay alive. That’s all we can do.”

He fell silent after that and they leaned against each other as the van went into motion. It was several long minutes of driving before he said softly, “You’re an incredible woman.”

“Really? I feel like a pretty dumb one at the moment.”

He chuckled on a soft breath. “True. This isn’t exactly an act of self-preservation.”