Dammit.“I understand.”
“Give your phones to Tristan King. He will install a special app he built for us to hear your calls and track your texts.” Her laser-sharp stare told him that she knew everything. “We wouldn’t want Rogue Security to get involved again.”
25
LOCKED
SARAH
Sarah clenched her fists. Her arms were tied behind her back, and if she pumped her hands enough, she might hulk up and shatter the pinching plastic.
The plastic bands bit her skin harder.
Blaze’s ankles were bound together once again as he sat beside her in the back seat of a Mercedes driven by Nemesis and one of the other Russian mercenary goons.
The car drove through the grid of city blocks, turning sharp angles as they crawled through the bottoms of steel trenches.
“I need to talk to you,” she whispered to Blaze, barely breathing because the Mercedes’ engine purred like a quiet cat. The thick windows clamped into the car’s frame, muting the city’s horns and bustle outside. “When we were on the plane, I heard—”
“Not now,” Blaze muttered.
“But they’re planning—”
His voice lowered, dropping into his throat.“Not now, kitten.”
The casual use of his nickname for her rankled, but her mouth snapped shut.
Whispering more to him seemed like a really bad idea, which was odd.
The restraint felt like Blaze was holding his finger to her lips and unbuckling his belt, but he was gazing out the window as they drove through the skyscraper valley of New York City.
But sheknewshe shouldn’t keep talking to him.
If Blaze had Pavlov’s-dogged her, they were going to havewords.
Outside the car, tall buildings rolled backward like they were on conveyor belts, and the car pivoted around a corner.
The skyscrapers on the right side of the car ended.
Trees bursting with full summer green replaced the gray slabs like the land had rewilded, seizing the soil back from the invading humans.
On the car’s left, the other side of the street was still Manhattan, like they were driving a boundary between worlds. A mirrored building was strewn with yellow tape.
And a dark gray polished-granite edifice.
And then a white tower like a stretched Aztec stepped pyramid pierced the sky.
Oh, no. That was—
The car turned, diving into a garage carved out under it.
“Ohheckno,” Sarah yelled, putting all her anger into theheck.“I amnotgoing back to Logan’s apartment.”
Nemesis said from the driver’s seat, “You could come with me instead.”
When she didn’t answer, his dark chuckle filling the steel car was as suffocating as his meaty hand sealed over her face.
In the gas-fumed tomb of the garage, the mercenaries hustled them out of the car, popping the zip ties around Blaze’s feet so he could walk.
