“I’m sure.” Honesty is the only thing present in Macy’s tone. “We’ve developed a weird bond over the past four years.”
It kills me, but I can’t say I trust her and not display that. “Okay. But stay in touch. If anything feels wrong, leave immediately.” I imagine her nodding when a whoosh sounds down the line. “I love you, freckles. Do what needs to be done, and then come home to us, safely.”
She exhales deeply before she replies, “I love you too. Always. Bye.”
The line goes quiet, and I stare at my father’s phone while silently praying for the takeover bid not to interfere with Macy’s mission.
My dad takes it a step beyond prayer. “From now on, we do things my way. Understood?”
Crew eyeballs my father through the monitor of the live feed before he sheepishly nods. What else can he do? He’s an intelligence officer, but the CIA has no law enforcement powers. They focus on the gathering of intelligence overseas. Their powers are restricted stateside.
Well, they were until my father jumped ship.
Now I do not doubt Macy’s safety. My father outranks everyone on Crew’s team, both in terms of seniority and experience. He will bring Macy home. I’m just praying like fuck Kendall returns with her.
MACY
After some hiccups from telling Maddox about the attempted coup of his sister’s fiancé’s sanction, I’m back on track. I can feel it in my bones. The atmosphere is charged with possibilities, and every step I take feels like it’s leading me toward something magical.
The bureaucratic snags and double-crosses are behind me now. I’m moving forward, and I am not alone. Grayson’s and his father’s confidence boosts mine, and their combined experience guides me through the endless mazes of the past twelve hours.
The scent of charred wood and dirty secrets fill my senses when I arrive at a compound with a team of twelve agents. It’s nothing but a skeleton now. Blackened beams and concrete pillars jut into the sky, while ash litters the ground.
The underworld’s murky fingerprints are all over this place, but tonight, it’s mine for the taking.
Grayson’s timber cracks through my team’s earpieces. “Watch your footing. Vladimir was infamous for booby-trapping his compounds.”
Nodding, I scan the perimeter, my flashlight slicing through the darkness. I send four agents to each exit, then join the front group.
“It’s quiet,’’ I murmur, the eerie setting off-putting. “Too quiet.”
Grayson’s hum of agreement sends a trill of electricity rolling down my spine, but his father’s commanding timbre keeps me focused. “An agent should be inside. He’s undercover. Make contact, but keep your guard up. Wraith’s stats are iffy.”
“Rogue?”
Grayson’s teeth crunching together bellow out of my earpiece.
It is extremely telling.
As my team enters the ruins, our boots crunch on debris. My heart pounds, but not in fear. It’s anticipation. I’m close. I can feel it. The answers I’ve been chasing for fourteen years are within touching distance. I just need to reach out and grab them.
Once inside the building and past any frequency blocks, I tune my radio to the undercover agent frequency. “Wraith, do you copy?”
Static.
I try again, my voice a whisper. “Agent, respond.”
Nothing.
A chill creeps up my spine this time. It isn’t the good type. Has he gone dark? Or is he rogue as accused? I’ve seen it happen too many times since leaving the academy. Good people get pushed too far, and then they get swallowed by the darkness. If you’re not strong enough to fight against it, it can occur in a matter of weeks.
Mercifully, it only took Grayson days to climb out of the rubble Cameron tried to toss on him. She thought a handful of tears and a sob story about being forced to be Diego’s scapegoat would have Grayson pulling strings to free her from charges. She even used my words against him, but Grayson saw through her lies as a skilled agent would.
Walking away from her while she was screaming like she did the night she was kidnapped must have been painful forGrayson, but not as much as the families’ reactions when they came forward to give victim impact statements at her trial.
Cameron didn’t take part in fetal abductions because of coercion. Years of infertility led her to seek a morally corrupt option to start a family. After selling her unwanted “miracle” for a tidy profit after one month of sleepless nights, greed set in, and she pushed the agenda with Diego.
Her unethical behavior resulted in her spending the rest of her life in jail, but her punishment isn’t harsh enough for what she put her victims through.
