Page 110 of Never the Same

“A double-cross?” Gwen suggested. “He had to have been the one that took your chain off so your tracker would go back online. Left you in the Czech Republic so we could find you. But in doing so, he also—”

“Saved my life,” Hollis responded.

“Any chance you recognize the three-finger salute?” Gwen asked Julian.

“No,” he responded, “but maybe Gideon might?”

“Let me call Carter to see if he’ll bring him up here.” Gwen shot Julian a polite smile. “Better chance he’ll listen to me than you.”

We waited for Gwen to make the call, and within a few minutes, Carter returned to the room with Gideon.

Gideon’s dark eyes were fixed with regret on Hollis as she approached him.

“I know you didn’t mean to do it.” She crushed herself against him, forcing a hug, but he didn’t return the gesture. He was full of guilt and shame, eyes pointed at me over her shoulder.

“Hug me back,” Hollis cry-ordered as Carter gave them space and came over to the table.

“Here.” Carter slid a half sheet of paper over alongside Gwen. “Gideon gave me a list of his family’s protectors.”

Gwen poked Carter’s side. “Maybe you could stop giving me more errands before I catch up on the ones I already have?” she teased him.

I reached for the paper. “I can look into them for you,” I offered as Gideon and Hollis came back over to the table.

Gideon braced against the back of his brother’s chair and studied Gwen’s screen. “The hand gesture . . .” He cursed low under his breath. “That signal wasn’t for whoever he’s working with. That was for me.” He let go of the chair. “He must have assumed Julian would find a way to undo the footage and I’d see this.”

“What are you saying?” Hollis asked him, voice soft.

“That’s my protector, Kylo’s brother.” Gideon closed his eyes. “I know that sign. It means traitor among you.”

Chapter Forty-Three

Hollis

In the air

The jet engines roared as we cut through a sheet of rain, nose pointed toward Surrey. Julian had already warned our parents that our protectors might be compromised, so the decision was made among all of us—get to where my parents were immediately.

No one really knew what the hell had happened or why, and it seemed that was part of the design for whoever was behind this. If the very people sworn to protect us were traitors, then did that make us sitting ducks no matter where we were?

They’d know our every movement. They probably wrote the handbook on our fighting techniques, for all I knew. They could easily be five steps ahead of us, which didn’t sit well with me. We’d trusted them, placed our lives in their hands, and now this?

Mum and Dad had refused to involve the police or MI6 when Julian asked them to. They’d claimed this was a personal matter and they didn’t need anyone finding out there was a crack in our literal armor.

Dad alleged our enemies would smell blood and strike all at once, which would only make things a hundred times worse. Thank God for Delta Shield, Carter, and the others, or we’d have been completely screwed.

“Almost there,” Jason murmured in my ear, his hand firm around mine. “Lucky your family’s got a private airstrip five klicks from their estate.”

Nausea twisted my stomach. “That also means whoever is behind this will see us coming from a mile away.” Not that we had a choice. Time was of the essence, and we couldn’t risk diverting to a farther airport.

“I’ve got your back, I promise,” he reassured me, remaining a steady force so I could be the one to spin out, and I knew he’d catch me.

I scanned the cabin, working my ass off to be the warrior I’d been trained to be.

Gwen and Julian sat shoulder to shoulder, eyes glued to their laptops, sitting across from Ryder and Alex, as they combed through hours of footage in Rome to see if Kylo—or any other protector, for that matter—had made an appearance after the rave.

Alpha Team, Carter and Sebastian’s unit, were currently on board Carter’s personal jet, shadowing us.

“It’s a dead lead on the men with Gideon in Rome.” Julian interrupted my thoughts with his shit news.