Without her saying his name, I knew.
My vision tunnels. Every muscle in my body crackles with tension. She feels it, because she shifts in my arms.
I don’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse when my phone lights up on the night stand. I slip out somehow without waking her, drag on my jeans, and take the call in the hallway.
"Go," is all I say to Mako.
"We got big trouble. Truck just found a tracker on Jade’s car which means your location is compromised."
Simultaneously I burn with rage as my muscles are coated with ice.
"How the fuck? I checked."
"Found it in a full sweep. This one would have been easy to miss. Military grade, which is a whole other issue. It was tucked up behind the rear quarter panel. It’s been pinging a server every ninety seconds since before you walked into that donut shop."
I drove her car to the safe house. Right the fuck here with a live beacon on the frame.
I checked the underside in that parking lot.
"Fuck. FUCK!"
"Her belongings are being destroyed as we speak. Car, suitcase, everything that was in it. The only thing left is whatever you carried in yourself."
"Her phone has been already disabled," I reply, my vocal cords strained from the muscles in my neck clenching. "The house is clean. We’d know if anything came in."
"You need to move her now. I’ve alerted Luke. He’s expecting you at secure location seven."
"What’s Trevor’s position?"
"That’s the other problem. He’s gone dark. We’ve got nothing. No cameras, no phone pings, no credit card activity since yesterday afternoon. He dropped off the grid."
A sighting I can work with. A ghost is far worse.
"He knows we’ll find the tracker," I say, my fist clenching. "He’s expecting us to run."
"That’s my read too. My bet is he has someone watching and we don’t have the manpower to sweep every square inch of that county."
"And we have limited routes," I mutter, scrubbing my hand through my hair.
"Three options."
"He could have coverage on three."
"Yeah. That’s why I’m sending backup. Thane Hotchkins is in the area. Agile just brought him on board."
Thane? I stop moving for a second. "Hotch? You gotHotchkins?"
Mako chuckles, pleased. "He’s been freelancing since he left the Teams. Agile’s owners been trying to recruit him for months. He signed on yesterday. Timing’s either lucky or divine intervention."
Hot Shot Hotchkins. One of the most lethal operators I’ve ever worked with. Quiet. Patient. A walking fucking mystery, but the kind of guy who’d sit in a bush for seventy-two hours waiting for one shot. If I had to pick a man to have on overwatch right now, it’d be him.
"Where is he?"
"En route from Portland. ETA ninety minutes. I can have him intercept you if you wait."
Ninety minutes. With a compromised location and Trevor in the wind. The house is safe, but any move after is the problem.
"I can’t sit here for ninety minutes, man. If they’re watching the house, every second I stay is a second they’re setting up for an intercept."
