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Ryker looked at her lying in the hospital bed and wanted to scream. He wanted to cry.

“She’s going to be fine,” Linc said. “You heard what the doctor said.”

Yeah. And Eddie was supposed to be fine, too, when they revived him on the beach. But he died later in the hospital.

“She only woke up for a minute, now she’s sleeping again. She’s been asleep for fourteen hours.”

“She had just been on painkillers, then she was in the fire and took in too much smoke and has a concussion, of course she’s asleep.” Linc put his hands on Ryker’s shoulders and turned him away from Amy and forced him to look at him. “She’s going to be fine.”

“This was all my fault. I shouldn’t have pushed at him. I knew the guy was a psycho.” Ryker’s whisper was agonized.

Amy’s hospital door room opened and Beatrice and Lark walked in, with Kostya right behind them.

“Let’s go outside,” Linc suggested.

“No,” Ryker said. “I want to stay with Amy.”

Kostya walked over to where Ryker and Linc were huddling. “You two come out in the hall with me.”

That wasn’t a suggestion, it was an order, so Ryker did as he was told.

“Walk with me,” he said as soon as they got outside Amy’s room.

“I don’t want to go far,” Ryker protested.

“Walk with me. We have a job to do.”

The hair on Ryker’s neck stood up. He and Linc both nodded and followed Kostya. When they got outside, Gideon and Nolan were waiting at the front entrance in different vehicles than they normally drove.

Rentals.

This was off the books.

Good.

Ryker and Linc got in the Escalade with Gideon. Kostya got in the other Escalade with Nolan and Landon.

“Gear in the back?” Ryker asked Gideon.

Gideon nodded. “We’re going on a road trip to Trenton New Jersey. Jada’s booked us one night at an AirBnB there so we can plan. Kostya’s going to lay everything out when we get there.”

Ryker nodded and looked ahead. He wasn’t up for any idle chit-chat. All he could see was Amy’s pale face resting on top of the hospital pillow.

By the time they got to the house he’d already texted Lark once to ask if Amy had woken up, and she said ‘no.’ He asked her to text him with updates, and she promised that she would.

When the six of them and their gear were seated in the large living room, Kostya got up slowly from his chair with a wince. He still wasn’t at peak performance.

“Gideon, do you want to tell them?” Kostya asked.

“No.”

“It was your idea,” Kostya continued.

“The others helped me.”

Must have been the Whiz Kids.