Dex and I share a knowing grin. “You don’t need to worry about that,” I say before resting my head back against the wall. “Let’s just worry about Elias being able to convince the feds to let us go after her.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Sly mumbles as the van engine rolls to life and we start moving.
Eventually, we find ourselves escorted to a holding cell in the feds' local field office, where we’re kept for the next two days. I expected to be questioned, but we were left alone, aside from being brought three meals a day.
We keep asking what’s happening, if Elias is okay, and if they know what happened to Wren, but they refuse to tell us anything; they just eye us nervously and walk away.
“This is inhumane!" I yell through the bars. “These guys stink, we need showers!”
“Speak for yourself,” Dex says, doing another pushup on the hard floor. “I smell delightful.”
“Stop working out!” I yell in exasperation. “You’re just making it worse!”
“I need to be ready,” he says without stopping his set.
I let out a breath and sink to the cot beside Sly as we watch Dex silently.
“Besides,” he says, moving to one-armed pushups, tucking his left hand behind his back with a grin. “Wren loves my body. She’d be upset if I got small like you two.”
I narrow my eyes on him. “Rude.”
Several pairs of loud footsteps have us all turning toward the hall. Two familiar agents head in our direction, so we all stand and wait. They aren’t carrying food, and we just ate an hour ago, so this is about something else. Are they going to start interrogating us?
“Move back, and don’t try anything,” Agent Simmons tells us as he steps up to the cell door. We all take two steps back, and he watches us carefully as he slips the key in the lock and turns it.
He pushes the door wide as someone steps out from behind the other agent with a determined glint in his brown eyes.
“You boys ready for a rescue mission?”
“Elias! You’re okay!” I say, eyeing the white sling around his left arm.
He looks down at his hand as he squeezes it into a fist, then wiggles his fingers, showing he has full movement there. “Yeah, the bullet went straight through my shoulder, missed anything important, luckily. The sling is for support while it heals.”
“You aren’t in handcuffs,” Sly says, noticing that he is, in fact, not bound, nor are they pushing him in with us.
Elias grins, his eyes bouncing between us as he confirms what we’ve been waiting two days to hear. “I’ve made a deal. We go in and get them the list of associates, and they’ll let us all walk away.”
“Seriously?” I ask in surprise. “We won’t have to go back to prison?”
Simmons shakes his head. “No. Agent—” he cuts himself off, remembering Elias isn’t any agent anymore. “Mr. Sinclair is a very good negotiator. We figure you’ll either get us that info, which is more valuable than the four of you, or you’ll die trying.”
Dex frowns at him. “The only ones going down are Ivan and his lackeys.”
“Save your trash talk for your real enemy, Berserker,” Simmons says, taking a step away from the door. “You’re all free to go.” He gestures toward the open cell, and Dex and my eyebrows rise in surprise.
“Just like that?” I ask as I step forward first. “No trackers, no blood oaths?”
“Elias has been part of the bureau for years just to watch over that girl. So I have no doubt in my mind that the only place he is going is wherever Ivan is.”
“You don’t know where he is?” Sly asks in alarm as he follows me out of the cell.
Simmons shakes his head. “We lost him straight away. Looks like you boys have your work cut out for you.”
I follow Elias silently as he leads us to a set of stairs and down two flights to the ground level. Outside a black SUV very similar to the one we first started our adventure in sits parkedby the curb.
“This is our ride,” Elias says, holding up the key fob. “Who wants to drive? I would, but…” he motions to his arm, and Dex grabs the key from him and moves quickly to the driver's seat, with Elias sitting beside him and Sly and me in the back.
Elias plugs an address into the nav, and I recognize it as the safe house we were staying at.
