“It seems your safety measures to keep our location a secret were insufficient,” Marley said in a droll tone.
“Impossible.” I’d walked him out of our way for over an hour. Even if he roamed the area aimlessly searching, we were one warehouse among many, no distinguishable characteristics to announce our presence.
“Nothing’s impossible,” Alina piped up in a too-cheerful voice. “Just highly unlikely. I would have agreed you’d done enough, but obviously not. He probably has an incredibly good sense of direction, or an eidetic memory.”
“He was blindfolded.”
“Maybe eidetic can translate into sounds and scents too.”
I shook my head, but her words made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. There was having a good sense of direction, then there was the uncanny knack of knowing where you’d been before without trying. I gripped Marley’s chair.
“What do you want me to do about him?” she asked as we all watched Landon skulk across the empty concrete yard, the bolt cutters now hidden in the small duffel bag over his shoulder. He looked good, like he hadn’t been shot a couple days ago. His movements were full of lithe grace, no indication he felt pain in his shoulder.
Theoretically, we could do nothing. He wouldn’t get inside. Not with just bolt cutters. Or we could let him in through the first door and trap him for as long as we wanted.
The last option churned acid in my stomach. It was something my brother would have no problem doing. I wasn’t my brother. Could I ignore Landon as he tried to find a way inside, knowing he was out there?No.Not when he was so close, and he must have come back here for a reason.
Do I want to know that reason?
As we watched, he knelt on one knee by the door, dirtying up his fine suit. He dug something new out of his bag. Big as a brick, it resembled one of those first cell phones invented. Next came a screwdriver. With a deft hand, he popped off the casing of the keypad.
“He’s messing with my stuff,” Marley cried, indignant.
“Well, isn’t it kind of his stuff too?” Alina offered. “Most of the tech in this place is made by Urick Enterprises.”
“Unhelpful,” Marley gritted out.
I narrowed my eyes at the screen. Could he get inside? We all held our breath as he attached the brick-phone thing to the keypad with two wires. The longer he messed with it, the more we relaxed. Marley’s security measures were solid.
Then the door clicked open.
“Holy smokes,” Alina gasped. “I have to admit I’m impressed. I thought he was one of those guys who only knew how to schmooze, golf, and shake hands with other boys like him. He’s resourceful when he needs to be, isn’t he?”
“Yeah.” I exhaled a slow breath. “I’ll go get him. You two wait here.” I uncurled my fingers from the leather of Marley’s chair.
“Are you sure you don’t want backup?” Alina asked with a hopeful tone.
I narrowed my eyes at her before making my way to the stairs. Punching the code into the keypad, I opened the door and jogged down. My feet hit the ground floor and I took a deep breath.
Landon was on the other side of the door. I’d resigned myself to never seeing him again, the likelihood that I’d fail in my mission to take down my brother and die in the process being pretty substantial. Now Landon wasright there. All those second chances I’d thought about could be a possibility—ifhe’d ever forgive me my sins.
That was about as likely as me shooting rainbows out of my ass.
I took another breath and punched in the code for the door. Pushing it open, I found him with his device attached to the keypad for the elevator. He froze when he saw me. My stomach swirled in appreciation. He’d cleaned himself up, his facial hair trimmed, and his suit looking like it came directly from the dry cleaners.
Straightening away from the wall, he smoothed his lapels and gave me one of those looks he thought impressive in the boardroom. “I was beginning to think this particular panel was impenetrable.”
“Likely,” I said, knowing to say anything else would be disloyal to Marley. We’d all thought the outside keypad was impenetrable too. “What are you doing here, Landon?”
He leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest like he had all the time in the world to chat with me between two thick blast doors. “I realized, belatedly, I should have asked more questions about your operation when I was here.”
I swallowed. “It’s better if you don’t know what’s happening. Safer.”
“Possibly,” he allowed. “But even if it puts me in danger, I need answers to what happened to my friends.”And your involvement.
He didn’t say those words, but I heard them anyway.
“Theydeserve answers,” he added.
