Rebekah’s expression matched Dane’s.
“Carly did say there are different agendas going on,” I added. “Ten thirty is too fucking long to wait.” I wanted to blow the roof off the ranger’s station as desperation and fury commingled into an explosive energy ticking away inside me.
Tripp went over to his laptop and pulled up a satellite image of the facility. “If Carly is helping, we need to revise our plan slightly.”
“Son, are you sure you believe Carly, and it’s not a ploy to barricade you behind those cement walls?”
“She’s telling the truth, Pops. I heard the urgency in her voice. Look, it doesn’t matter if she is jerking my chain. We have a strategy. We keep to it, and as Tripp said, we can adjust slightly. I’ll scale the wall. Go in quietly. Once I’m in, I’ll give you the signal. We can have Rebekah communicate with Wyman on when to cut the power.”
The woman was Army Special Forces, so she could do just about anything.
“I can do that,” she chimed in. “I saw an all-terrain vehicle out back. We can use it to chauffer Layla once you get her out. Unless you have another way.”
“That’s a great idea,” Tripp said from where he was sitting in front of his computer at the table adjacent to the desk. “As it stands, our vehicles will be a good distance from entry points. You can transport Sam and Layla to one of the vehicles.”
“That frees up Ben to team up with Olivia,” I said. “Tripp, you can take me to the drop-off location before you get in position.” Tripp and I were supposed to cover one exit along the wall. We’d strategized on the plane ride, and the original plan was to blow each of the exit sites just as Wyman cut the power. Which would still happen, but not until I was inside.
“Basically, you’ll have a head start,” Tripp said to me. “Maybe luck is on our side tonight.”
I sure as fuck hoped so.
My dad was texting on his phone when it rang, and he answered. “Webb, anything wrong?” he asked. A muscle ticked in his jaw. “You think they’re headed here. We’ll keep an eye out. Talk to you soon.” He lowered his cell. “Junior and Jordyn are gone. Webb thinks they’re on their way here.”
“I agree,” I added. “Carly talked to Junior before she called me. I’m sure Junior is dying to see his wife.” I couldn’t blame him as long as he wasn’t leading Jordyn into the hands of her grandmother.
“If they are,” Tripp said, “they won’t be here for hours, since they’re driving, so we need to stay focused on the mission.”
My dad nodded in agreement as he gripped my shoulder. “Son, if Carly fails and your chip engages, you have to fight with everything you have not to allow it to pull you under.” Worry was evident in his green eyes.
“I got this, Pops.” My tone was confident until I remembered what else the chip could do—self-destruct.Boom. My brain would be burnt toast.
17
LAYLA
Iwoke to bright lights and an uncomfortable silence. I had an IV in me, electrodes stuck to my chest, and a blood pressure cuff around my right bicep. I was dressed in the T-shirt and pajama bottoms Barnes had brought into my room, and the only sign that I’d wandered the muddy forest terrain was the dirt beneath my nails.
After a quick glance around, I gulped in air and flew into a sitting position. Blood was splattered on the white sheets covering the row of empty beds across the aisle and on each side of me. As if that was the spark to light the fire, the inferno in my throat came to life. I needed to sate my craving like an alcoholic needed a drink. I rubbed my throat and swished saliva around in my mouth, but it was no use. I couldn’t focus on that right now though. The important obstacle in front of me was to find a way out of this godforsaken place, especially when the conversation between Rianne and me came soaring back.
You can’t have that baby. After we’re reborn, we’ll be sisters again.
Fear and panic seized my breath. I whipped my gaze to the IV bag and the yellowish liquid inside.Oh my fucking word.Surely, they didn’t inject me with the crazy juice. Normally, there was clear saline in IV bags.
Inhale. Exhale. Breathe, girl. Think. Run. Do something other than lie there.
I ripped the needle from the back of my hand as terror had me laboring for breath. I tore the rest of the medical crap from my body and examined myself, feeling my face and checking for fangs. As far as I could tell, I was still human.
On a long sigh, I refocused and hiked my gaze from one end of the spacious room to the other. Aside from the beds, IV stands, and heart monitors, I counted two exits. Where was Carly? Rianne? Hell, even my grandmother? Or Noah, for that matter.
My pulse pounded in my ears as the stillness in the large space seemingly echoed, pounded, and crawled along my skin, giving me the vibe that they’d left me for dead. Maybe the concoction had done something to me, and I only had hours to live. After all, the bloodstained sheets on the empty beds gave me the impression that the patients had bled to death.
I jumped up and stumbled, grabbing the IV pole to catch my fall. The dizziness came out of nowhere. I took in slow and steady breaths, zeroing in on the far wall. Sometimes looking past my immediate surroundings helped rid me of the spinzies, as my mom liked to call them anytime my sisters and I were dizzy. I blinked to orient my vision, and a door with an exit sign came into focus.
Freedom.That word packed an excited punch, my pulse racing like a greyhound at a dog track. Time to blow this joint. I put one foot in front of the other and was skirting the bottom of the bed when the door squeaked open. I froze, afraid to look, afraid to move. Afraid freedom was a pipe dream and I would never see Sam or my sister Jordyn again. I heaved out a ragged breath and saw Rianne sprinting toward me.
I laughed only to keep my nerves from making me pass out. Well, that and at the fury on Rianne’s face. She was probably mad that I’d almost strangled her to death. Or maybe Sam was in the building, and she was about to finally do as my vision had warned—kill my babies to punish him, since she believed the only way to see Sam suffer would be to hurt me.
That panic I felt a minute ago turned into rage followed by the familiar fluttering and swirling sensation right before I unleashed a banshee scream. I opened my mouth—but nothing came out. Instead, an electrical charge zipped down my arms and vanished when my gaze danced past Rianne.
