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Daniel gave her a slow, reassuring nod.

Becky wasn’t sure why, but some of the worry she hadn’t realized she was carrying eased. Coming from Daniel, that simple nod brought her a sense of comfort she hadn’t expected.

And right now, she welcomed it.

CHAPTER 3

Sloan cursed as he surveyed the vacant building. Blood was everywhere, and knowing some of it belonged to his Warriors pissed him the fuck off. He’d barely made it to the warehouse when the call came in. Becky hadn’t been sleeping well lately and had decided to come with him to the compound, hoping a change of scenery might help. Of course, he’d no sooner gotten there before he had to turn around and leave.

Glancing at Kent, his frown deepened. “Why are you still here? I told you to get your ass back to the compound.”

“I’m good,” Kent replied, nudging one of the dead rogues with the toe of his boot.

“I didn’t ask if you were fucking good.” Sloan’s gaze dropped to the blood still seeping through Kent’s white T-shirt. “You’ve got three bullets buried in you, and they need to come out.”

“When in the fuck did rogues start carrying guns?” Ronan grumbled as he walked past them carrying a box full of blood vials. “What happened to the good old days when it was just hand-to-hand combat?”

“I thought cowboys were all about guns and shit?” Jared snorted as he grabbed one of the dead vampires by the hair and started dragging him toward the door.

“Only if I’m the one with the gun,” Ronan shot back.

Ignoring Ronan and Jared’s banter, Sloan felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

Someone was watching them.

After centuries of surviving by being aware of everything around him, Sloan knew the feeling of being watched better than he knew his own name. Letting only his eyes scan the warehouse, he tuned his hearing to every sound around him instead of the back and forth from the men. A barely audible step to his left caught his attention, but he didn’t turn that way. Whoever was hiding expected him to. Instead, he focused, ready for whatever was about to happen. He couldn’t warn his Warriors without letting whoever was watching know they’d been spotted.

Jared walked past, heading in the direction Sloan had heard the noise. Slowly, Sloan turned his head, following Jared’s movement, but his eyes scanned right past him. That's when he caught the slight movement behind one of the rusted support beams. Whoever it was must've realized the exact second Sloan spotted them because they took off.

"Son of a bitch!"

The curse had barely left his mouth before Sloan was in pursuit, blowing past Jared. Whoever had been watching them wasn't some curious bystander. They'd stood there while his Warriors bled, and Sloan wanted answers.

The stranger never hesitated, cutting through the warehouse as though they'd already mapped every way in and out. Sloan stayed glued to their heels, refusing to give them the distance they were fighting so hard to create. They hit the old office area and, instead of wasting time with a door, launched straight through one of the broken windows.

Sloan never broke stride.

Glass exploded around him as he drove through the same opening, the remaining shards showering the pavement outside. He landed running, his attention never leaving the hooded figure racing ahead. The alley offered plenty of places to disappear, but Sloan wasn't about to let that happen. The figure suddenly cut hard between two abandoned buildings.

Sloan followed without a second thought. Instinct had him dropping into a slide just as a rusted pipe came whistling toward his head. The metal slammed into the brick wall with enough force to send sparks flying. Before the hooded figure could recover from missing, Sloan came out of the slide driving forward, wrapping an arm around their legs and taking them both to the ground.

They hit hard, rolling across the cracked pavement until Sloan came out on top, pinning the stranger beneath him.

"Who the hell are you?" he growled, yanking the hood back.

His frown deepened.

The kid couldn't have been more than twenty, maybe twenty-one. Terror filled wide golden eyes as he stared up at Sloan.

"I...I didn't do anything," he stammered.

"Then why'd you run?" Sloan growled, glaring down at the kid.

"Because you were chasing me."

Ronan and Jared reached them a second later, both scanning the alley before looking at them.

"I swear," the kid’s words rushed out as he looked from Ronan to Jared, then back at Sloan. "I just needed a place to crash for the night. I wasn’t there an hour before those guys came in. I hid, figuring they’d leave sometime and then I’d take off. I thought the place was empty, man."