Page 22 of Hunted

Michelangela pressed her lips together, fighting herself, and then angrily pulled the antidote kit out of the secret packet.

She grabbed a piece of paper off the printer, cleared a spot in the middle of Gunn’s desk and left one mini-syringe of antidote in plain sight in the middle of the white sheet, with a scrawled note.

I’m still one of the good guys. That makes one of us.

Halfway down the hill from Thanatos’s house, Gunn stopped, sniffing the air to make sure no one was nearby.

When he was sure he was alone, he pulled his phone and dialed his friend Switch. Although he’d never been an official member of Gunn’s team, they were old friends and had worked together on many missions. Unlike Rex and Dobe, Switch hadn’t been there when Gunn bonded the Outlaw Ridge pack, drawing them into the bond as well.

Gunn had never been sure whether Switch was happy or pissed about that. He’d declined Gunn’s invitation to stay at the Ridge, but he still did some intelligence work for Gunn that he was pretty sure Thanatos didn’t know about. Switch had sources even Thanatos didn’t have.

After warning Switch that he’d seen his name on Dobe’s Wanted poster, Gunn said, “Listen, I need some help.” He filled Switch in on Dobe’s mission and how it had gone south. “Even if we get Dobe’s intel, it could be too late. Can you see what you can pick up? If they move the little girl, we need to know who has her and where they take her.”

Switch said, “I’ll give it my best shot. And listen…” He went silent, and then said, “Take care of Dobe, okay?”

It was about the closest Switch ever got to saying he cared about someone.

“I’ll keep you posted,” Gunn promised.

Gunn’s phone beeped then, and he said, “One fucking thing after another. Gotta go.”

He switched over to the incoming call. It was one of the relief guards on the bunker, just starting his shift.

“Bad news, Alpha. The prisoner escaped.”

For one brief second, elation soared through him. Mikey was safe.

Then he slammed back to earth. Because now the rest of them were fucked. Gunn swore. “How the hell did that happen?”

“Unknown. We did a routine check at the shift change. Holding cell door was open—electrics were fried—but the outer doors were still intact. We’re pulling up the security footage now.”

“I’ll be right there.”

“Oh, one more thing…”

Fuck. “What now?”

“She left the antidote. Right in the middle of your fucking desk, where we couldn’t miss it. Even left a note. Cisco ran it over to the infirmary, so Rex should be giving it to Dobe by now.”

Gunn didn’t know whether to laugh or howl. That was Mikey. Frustrating. Unpredictable.

Safe.

He cut the call and started to run.

Both shifts of guards were in Gunn’s office when he reached the bunker. He’d forgotten to tell them to hold the footage until he got there, so of course they were replaying it all, including the parts where Mikey was naked. In slow-mo.

“Skip those parts,” he growled. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“If you didn’t want her naked on camera, why did you take away her clothes in a place that has security cams everywhere?”

“Not so you pervs could get off on watching her.”

He fast-forwarded to after Mikey got dressed, watched her search the office. When she shoved the files in her vest, there were growls all around him.

Yeah. Losing those files was bad. How bad, he wouldn’t know until he saw exactly what was gone.

He knew that, as commander, it was his duty to send a team after her. But the rest of him was screaming at him to just let her go. Mitigate the damage how they could.