Page 14 of Never the Same

And my heart was going to explode from my chest. “The chain was removed?”

“Must have been.” Gideon quickly rounded the desk to view the screen. “She’s in the Czech Republic.”

“At a monastery,” Julian shared, typing fast. “It’s abandoned. Seized by the government fourteen years ago.”

Gideon braced both hands on the desk. He said something in Aramaic to his brother, but all I could catch was Tristan’s name. “We no longer need your help. This is clearly a family matter.”

Is he out of his mind? I started his way, stabbing the air. “I made a promise to his wife”—I motioned to Alex—“to bring your sister home. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” Maybe because I also cared a lot more about her than I’d ever admit to myself or out loud.

Julian kept working like none of us existed, so I was surprised when he stepped up to bat for us. “Let them come with us. You and I both know Hollis didn’t go behind our backs to work with Tristan, which means she’s in danger. She needs us. All of us.”

I knew I liked you for a reason. “Does Tristan have one of those trackers, too?”

“No, but he knows about ours.” Gideon pushed away from the desk, standing tall while rolling his shoulders back. “But if he’s somehow connected to what happened to her, we’ll find him.”

“How?” I asked. “If your brother is the one who stole Julian’s program, then he can vanish off every digital mainframe on the planet and become as dead as Julian’s been pretending to be.”

And here I thought our team was done fighting dead men and ghosts after the op involving Audrey.

“There’s also a chance Hollis’s tracker was reactivated as bait,” Alex pointed out. “To draw you two out. What if whoever took Hollis is also hunting the rest of your family, and that’s why they removed her chain when and where they did?”

“In that case, it wouldn’t be our brother. Tristan could walk into any of our houses and put two in our heads before we’d ever see it coming,” Gideon grated in a low voice. “So if he’s tied to this somehow, it’s not to bait and kill us. Or our sister.”

“Fair enough,” I grunted in frustration. “Maybe it’s someone else you mistrusted. Either way, we stay on guard when we get there.”

“Obviously,” Gideon hissed, but at least he didn’t push back on the we in my statement.

From where I stood, if there was even a remote chance Hollis was in the Czech Republic, then that was where I was heading, and no one could stop me.

Not waiting for orders, I went over to my weapons’ bag in preparation to go after the only woman in my life who’d ever managed to get under my skin—the same woman I knew damn well I never wanted to live without, not even as the pain-in-the-ass friend of a friend she was now.

Chapter Five

Reed

České Budějovice, Czech Republic

“This is Delta One. Eyes on the target. She’s in a gray hoodie and black pants. Going eastbound. Appears solo,” Ryder reported over comms.

“Copy that,” I said, weaving through the late-night crowd of people spilling out of a tram station, probably heading to bars and clubs.

Hollis’s tracker had stayed stationary just outside the city at the monastery. Then, ten minutes before we were set to breach, it’d started moving, leading us to where we were now.

Was I relieved to see Hollis alive and mobile? More than I could put into words. But we weren’t out of the woods yet, because she was clearly running from someone, and we had to intercept her before they did.

From my vantage point, though, no one else appeared to be following her. No sign of this mystery half brother of theirs, either.

I moved in carefully, not wanting to startle her or draw eyes from anyone else potentially hunting her, then told my team, “Making contact.”

“This is Delta One, I’ve got you covered.”

“Roger,” I confirmed as I crossed the street to get directly behind her. “Hollis, it’s Reed.”

She didn’t flinch, not even a backward glance. Instead, she kept walking, even shouldering someone so hard she sent their takeout drink flying.

I said her name a little louder as I continued to follow.

No response again, so I set my hand on her shoulder, and she flew around fast.