“Nothin’,” I grunted.
His midnight eyes darkened in speculation. He wasn’t buying my shit. “You sure about that?”
I shifted on my feet. “Just want to get Silas’s sister back.”
His head tipped to the side. “You know you’re not alone, right? You can trust us with whatever you’re going through.”
I itched, feeling those flames once again burning me alive, the way they would do forever. “Yeah, I know.”
It was me who couldn’t trust myself.
TWELVE
CASH
I stoodin the cover of night on the backside of the building, hidden in the trees that surrounded the compound forty-five minutes outside of Moonlit Ridge.
We’d ditched our bikes about a half mile back on a beaten trail that I found during my surveillance.
The large metal building was in a secluded area, surrounded by an eight-foot-tall chain-link fence. Hazy lights glowed against the heavy darkness that reigned from above, a deep forest fog making it even more difficult to see.
The seedy operation going down inside was held under the guise of a logging company. Kent Ellison had run this charade for years, his reach extending all the way down into San Diego and up into Oregon and Washington.
The guy was dirty as fuck. Cruel and disgusting in his dealings.
Violence skimmed over the surface of my skin as I thought of Elena being held hostage inside. I wanted to take this piece of shit out.
Completely.
But that would only cause a shitstorm that we couldn’t afford right then. We just needed Elena out, then Silas could figure outhow he wanted to handle the Kent situation. Kent who would likely come for us.
It was a risk we always had to swallow whenever we came into these types of situations, but we’d dealt with the vilest of creatures since the beginning.
We didn’t shy or shirk when it came to the threat.
I glanced at Theo, who was ducked down in the shadows on the far side of the fence, then to Kane, who was on the opposite side, both standing guard in case things went south.
That thought no longer sat right with me. Could no longer even contemplate that worst-case scenario.
Couldn’t imagine having to go tell their families that something had happened to them.
To me, this thing only worked without attachments. Without the fear that by helping one person we were dragging someone else into the line of fire.
I didn’t know how long we could go on like this.
Cornflower eyes flashed through my mind. The soft feather of her lashes and the little wrinkle between her brow when she’d begged me to step into a position I couldn’t fulfill.
A disturbance blew through my conscience.
What the fuck was I doing? Inviting them into my home?
In my periphery, I saw Theo give me the signal that all was clear. The guard running the perimeter had just rounded back around the north side of the building.
I had seven minutes and thirty seconds to get in and get out before the fucker would be coming back around.
Dipping my chin, I shot into action. I knelt low and snagged my cutters from my back pocket. Breaths going haggard, I snipped through the metal wires of the fence to create an opening. When it was large enough, I bent the fencing back.
On a count of zero to this was fucking it, I squeezed through the opening, the bent edges of the metal scraping over my flesh.
