“This isn’t about your team, Jamie. Or about your family. This is about me having something you want. Or should I say, someone?”
Jamie stumbled onto Constitution Avenue NW, his feet refusing to move him forward as Stanislav’s words echoed like a broken bell through his head. He stood there, in the middle of the street, seeing nothing but the smile on Kyle’s face from earlier that evening, this morning, yesterday, and all the days before in the nearly two years they’d been together.
He couldn’t fathom a life without seeing Kyle again.
“You have Kyle,” Jamie croaked out, not caring about code names, because those were meaningless between them now.
Maybe they always had been.
“I do.” Stanislav sounded amused, as if Jamie’s fear and heartbreak were his own personal form of entertainment. “You seem to think you’re a businessman, Jamie. So let’s talk business, shall we? Meet me at the Supreme Court Building in twenty minutes. I’d say come alone, but I know how you think. You won’t find your powers working where you are heading.”
Jamie wondered, just for a second, how Stanislav had slipped past all the security in place to set foot in the United States. Precog or not, there were so many layers to account for that it seemed impossible. It didn’t matter though, because Stanislav washere. Jamie’s heart pounded in his chest at the thin shred of hope that Kyle might still be within reach and alive. Until he got eyes on Kyle, he wouldn’t believe it.
“I want to speak with Kyle,” Jamie said, trying not to sound like he was begging, when that’s all he wanted to do.
“You don’t give the orders here. Twenty minutes.”
The line went dead, and Jamie gritted his teeth against the scream clawing at the back of his throat. He blinked, his surroundings coming back into focus. Liam had signaled for everyone to hold position around Jamie while he dealt with the call, covering him. Jamie met Liam’s steely gaze and tried to draw strength from his oldest friend.
“Does that bastard have him?” Liam asked.
“Yes,” Jamie replied, the word a hollow sound between them.
“Where?”
Jamie swallowed thickly. “Here. In D.C.”
“What’s the plan?”
Jamie was notorious for always having a plan, but his ability to defend against oncoming threats had fallen apart beneath Stanislav’s power. All he knew was his own path forward.
“I need to meet with Stanislav.”
Liam nodded. “What do you need us to do?”
It took several seconds for Jamie to pull together his fractured thoughts into some semblance of order. The fight going on around them in Washington, D.C., became secondary to getting Kyle back. It wasn’t the professional decision—but it was the only decision Jamie could make.
“Hold the line here,” Jamie said, meeting Liam’s gaze. “The White House is still under attack. The president is still inside there. Our parents and other innocent civilians are still at risk. I need to know they’re safe.”
Liam was too polite, or perhaps, too aware of the tightrope Jamie walked with his emotions right now to point out that no one was safe at the moment.
“Don’t worry about them,” Liam promised. “Do what you have to do.”
Jamie sucked in a deep breath, desperately searching for a calm that had slipped away however long ago, and called out to Katie.Viper, link me to Inferno.
Do you have an update?she asked.
As much as Jamie wanted to lie, to do this on his own, he knew he couldn’t. He needed his team now more than ever, but he needed them to not do anything stupid.
Stanislav is in the field. He has Kyle,Jamie told her.Don’t tell the rest of the team. Not yet.
Apollo—
Trust me, Viper.
The second or two of silence in his mind was heavy with the years of unspoken words Katie had held back in the face of his decisions. And like so many times before, when she finally spoke, the trust she had in him to do the right thing never wavered.
Linking you to Inferno.
