Chaosreignedaroundmeas agents dashed for their gear, then out the door towards the vans parked underneath the hotel in the sub-level parking. Owen and Marshall were barking orders that I couldn’t hear over the blood rushing in my ears.
I stood frozen in place, not knowing how to feel, my fist tightly clutched around Aegis and the wooden badger that I always carried in my pocket for some reason I didn’t want to think about.
Syntax had spotted Grayson at the museum again. Alone this time. And everyone was rushing to apprehend him. So I stood frozen, unable to move.
Someone grabbed me by my arm and pulled me towards the doors. It was Liam. He was talking fast, but I understood nothing, his voice muffled.
“What?” I asked in a daze, trying hard to concentrate on his moving mouth.
“Ava, focus!” We came to a halt at the back of a van. He turned me to look at him. He was uncharacteristically serious, a deep furrow between his brows. “I said to stay in the bulletproof van, no matter what.” He pulled a bulletproof vest over my head, strapping it tight. “You stay with Syntax. You don’t get out, unless it’s with me. Understood?”
I tried to nod as he strapped a helmet on my head. “Is the helmet really necessary?” I found my voice again. The van was already bulletproof. And I wasn’t allowed to leave it, apparently.
“I don’t know which one will kill me first if something happens to you,” Liam mumbled to himself.
Would Grayson really come after me?
Liam pulled the door open behind me. “You ready?”
I stared at him for a second, feeling my heart batter in my throat. “It wouldn’t be fun if it isn’t a little dangerous, right?”
He smirked at me, leaned closer and winked conspiratorially. “Exactly.”
The four vans came to a screeching halt before the museum and agents pushed out the doors.
“I lost visual. Last seen in the passage on the first floor,” Syntax said from beside me to the agents over the comms. She furiously flipped through the museum’s cameras, trying to re-establish her visual on Grayson.
The agents moved fast and precise, their actions perfectly coordinated. They secured each exit, before breaking off and moving into the building. People scattered out of their way, yelps of surprise raising over the comms.
I threw the helmet off my head and pulled at the vest. I couldn’t breathe.
“Close the doors! No one comes in and out of this building till our perp is in custody,” Owen blared over the comms.
Please. Please don’t let him get hurt.
Who I was even praying for, I didn’t know. I kept my eyes on Owen’s body cam, my insides in a sharp knot. Gods, I hated this!
“Found him!” Syntax shouted from beside me. “First floor. Room E7.”
“Almost there,” Owen whispered, out of breath.
“Right behind you,” Emerie said, her voice faintly echoing off Owen’s comms.
He peered around the corner into an empty corridor and moved forward. Halfway through the corridor, he stopped abruptly with anoomph, then I heard a sound that scared me more than anything.
Grayson’s laugh.
It came loud and clear over Owen’s comms.Gods, no!
“Let him go, Varon!” Emerie yelled, making me jump from my seat.
No!
Syntax pulled up Emerie’s bodycam and my heart stopped. Grayson had Owen in a chokehold, a gun to his head. Owen’s hands were raised, his gun on the floor.
“All available agents to southern passage on first floor. Perp has taken an agent hostage. I repeat, Agent Becket is in danger,” Syntax blared over the comms.
“You’re a lot shorter than I thought you’d be, Agent Becket,” I heard Grayson’s playful voice over the comms.
