I whirled to face Mateo.
His visor was still flipped, dirt on his cheeks, face pulled into grim lines made worse by the scar carved into his skin. The mark was older than our friendship. Had I been in love with Locke before I’d known where it had come from?
I didn’t know the answer. Or maybe it was that I couldn’t clearly remember who I’d been before Locke. Which was it? I couldn’t think. Couldn’tbreathethrough my tight lungs, adrenaline binding my muscles so taut I pictured my bones shattering like that splintered tree.
We need to go.
Weapons be damned. I’d fight a tank with my bare fucking hands.
Folk sprinted out of the trees, a bundle tucked under his arm. Mateo tossed him a blade and he slit it open.
Firearms glinted in the moonlight, a sight that usually gave me pause, if only for a split second to wonder how the fuck my thirty-odd years on this earth had come to this.
Not tonight. I grabbed the strap Folk held out with both hands, my fingers closing around the cold metal with zero hesitation, solid as a rock astride my fucking hog.
I tucked the piece where I needed it and moved to peel away.
Folk caught my arm. “Weapons check.”
This fucker. With gritted teeth, I did every bullshit thing he demanded. Absorbed his unyielding instructions.
“Followme.” His grip tightened. “When we come up on that site, you do everything I say, Nash. Or we could all die night, including Locke. Are you hearing me?”
I heard him, and I forced my faith in our wisest brother to the forefront of my mind. Folk was a soldier and he loved Locke almost as much as I did. Aswedid.
Trust him,brother.
Cam had got filthy drunk once and treated me to an hours-long conversation about how entrenched Saint and Alexei were in his head. How, in his darkest moments, he heard their voices when he needed them most. A week later, Alexei had told me the same thing and I’d decided in that moment that the three of them belonged together because they were all fucking crazy.
Now I was the crazy one, but I didn’t give a fuck. Locke’s deep rumble filled my head, my heart, and every fucking limb and appendage I’d need to get through whatever was to come, and I clung to it like a drowning man, tipping Folk the nod he wasn’t letting go without. “I hear you. Let’s roll.”
We shot away, tearing up the miles we’d put between us and the prefab funhouse. Folk up front, Mateo at the back. Me sandwiched between them the same way I’d been all night.
My bike was faster than Folk’s.
Iwas faster than Folk. But I stayed behind him, letting him pilot us into pandemonium because he was better at this than any of us.
We slid our hogs into a ditch and dismounted, darting across wet grass to the building in the distance where it stood in darkness, no light or sound, as if death were already there.
Panic lengthened my stride, and it took everything I had not to hurtle past Folk, weapon raised, and kill every fucker that wasn’t Locke.
Trust him, brother.
Trust him. Trust him. Trust him.
Despite the unending distance we had to cover, the prefab came up on us fast. We circled it, taking note of the eerie quiet, waiting for Folk to make a decision, then absorbing his silent, pointed instructions.
We fanned out, following his lead as we eased around the rear of the building, slipping through the shadows, every sense straining for signs of life.
In the dark, Folk made us wait again, head cocked, listening for something I couldn’t hear before I realised he had the smallest earpiece I’d ever seen jammed in his ear.
Alexei.
It had to be, and a faint wave of comfort washed over the terror squeezing my heart.
Folk gave the order to move. He disabled the locks on the back door in record time and pushed it open, ducking low, braced for a reaction from inside.
There was none and he darted inside, signalling for us to follow as he hugged a dirty wall, slinking around the corner, leaving me to mirror his every step with Mateo at my back, my knee protesting the deep crouch, my pulse a skittering mess. My stomach a churning disaster as the air grew denser with the thick scent of iron—ofblood—adding to the boulder already lodged in my throat.
