She barely noticed Gabe as he checked the underground garage entrance before manually shutting and relocking the door.
“He’s alone,” he said.
“Drew, it’s Rey. I’m here.”
“Rey,” he muttered, coughing up the same stuff Tye had inhaled.
“Yeah, it’s me. I’m here. You’re safe.”
“Hey man,” Gabe said, leaning forward. “How did you get here? Did you see anyone else?”
Drew pushed himself up on his elbows. His eyes were red and hazy. “I…I walked and…I’m alone.” He coughed again, so hard she thought he might cough up his lung. “Where is everyone else?”
“We’re trying to figure that out,” Gabe said.
Drew groaned and rolled in on himself.
“Hey, hey, are you hurt?” Reyna asked.
“Shoulder.”
Reyna looked down at his shoulder and cursed. “He’s been shot. We need to get him upstairs. He needs medical attention.”
“No,” Drew managed. “No, I need…Laura.”
“Laura?” Reyna asked, horror sinking into her stomach. “Why?”
“Rey, I’m sorry.”
“No, no, no,” she whispered. “Don’t be sorry.”
“Brian.”
Gabe radioed back to the conference room. “We need medical here. Carpenter has been shot in the shoulder. Plus smoke inhalation.”
“Laura,” Drew repeated. “I have to tell Laura.”
He tried to struggle to his feet, but Gabe put a hand on his good shoulder, pushing him back down to the ground. “Hold it there, buddy. You can tell her when you’re patched up.”
“I have to tell her,” he repeated, slipping in and out of consciousness as he collapsed back onto the floor.
“Tell her what?” Reyna asked.
“They got Brian,” he whispered. “They captured Brian.”
Then Drew passed out.
Drew was rushed to the medical wing, where Meghan and Washington both suited up to remove the bullet from his shoulder. Reyna sat in the waiting room with Gabe. She knew that she should tell Laura. That she should get Jodie. That anything else should probably matter at that moment. But…it didn’t.
All that mattered was that Drew was in surgery. And that Brian was gone.
Gone.
Her heart broke. Shattered into a million pieces and scattered all over the floor.Gonewas such a simple word. A word that didn’t mean half of what she was feeling.
When she joined Visage, she did it for her brothers. All of this had been for them, and in the end, she was safe and they were fucked. What the hell had she done? What the hell had she brought them into?
She didn’t know how long she sat there before Beckham suddenly appeared. Tears fell from her eyes as he picked her up and crushed her to him. She put her arms around his neck, and he wrapped his around her waist. She stayed like that, letting him hold her, giving him all her grief.
