Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 60768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 304(@200wpm)___ 243(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Service exit is two corridors down. The hospital’s a madhouse tonight—staff running everywhere, cops crawling the place, security trying to figure out why a patient just vanished in the chaos. Nobody’s looking at the quiet guy in the hoodie pushing a gurney like he belongs.
I shove through a stairwell door and take the freight elevator down. Every floor feels like a countdown. Arthur’s head lolls a little with the motion. His mouth hangs open slightly, breathing shallow. He looks older than he should, face drained and pale. He’s not the enemy here. He’s just collateral damage in someone else’s war.
The thought sends bile crawling up my throat.
Underground parking garage. I slide the gurney into the back of the stolen utility van I prepped earlier. Smells like motor oil and old fast food wrappers. The metal floor is cold as hell under my hands.
Arthur’s monitor keeps beeping. Steady. Relentless. A timer I can’t ignore.
I climb into the driver’s seat and pull out into the city traffic, keeping my speed boring and legal. Eyes on every mirror. No obvious tail. No flashing lights. Still, the back of my neck prickles like someone’s got a scope on me. Probably because they do. They’ve been watching me for months.
They watched me build something real out of late-night coding sessions and pizza with the crew. They watched me laugh with Ozzy, Arrow, Knight—like the four of us could actually take on the world and win. They watched me pretend I could keep Enley safe from all the dark shit that follows people like us.
Now they’re holding her like a knife to my throat.
The address dumps me in a warehouse district that looks completely dead until you know what to look for. One building has a faint glow bleeding around blackout curtains. A security camera up high swivels too smooth, too expensive for this neighborhood.
I park in a shadowed spot and kill the engine. Silence crashes in. Arthur’s monitor still beeps in the back. My burner buzzes once.
Walk in alone. Side door.
I swing the van doors open and pull the gurney out, wheels squeaking softly. Another text hits with the code.
7461
They love reminding me who’s holding the leash. I punch it in. The door clicks open.
Inside, the place smells like fresh paint over something older and rotten. Dim lights. Concrete floors scrubbed too clean, like they’re expecting company. My pulse hammers in my ears.
Footsteps.
A woman steps into the light.
Tall. Lean. Dark hair pulled back tight and severe. Black suit jacket over a fitted top that screams money. A fake-looking badge on her belt designed to intimidate. She’s fucking gorgeous in this lethal way—Asian features sharp and beautiful, like Lucy Liu decided to moonlight as an enforcer. My eyes catch on her mouth for a beat too long before I yank them back up.
She scans me, then Arthur, then me again, measuring. Her smile is small and cold. “Poe Cameron?”
I keep my face blank. “And you are?”
Her gaze flicks to my hands, then back to my eyes. “I’m the one who keeps you useful.”
A laugh tries to bubble up. I swallow it.
She circles the gurney slow, studying Arthur like he’s a delivery that arrived on schedule. Then her attention snaps back to me, sharper. “Your friends are busy tonight. Ozzy looks ready to burn Saint Pierce to the ground.”
My stomach clenches. “Leave them out of this.”
She tilts her head, amused. “That’s not your call.”
My fingers flex, itching for violence, for control, for anything.
Her smile widens. “You brought the package. Good. You can obey.” The word obey hits like a shove to the chest.
Something hot and dangerous sparks deep in my ribs.
A door opens at the far end of the warehouse. Footsteps echo, slow and deliberate, like the person walking knows nobody here would dare stop them.
The woman glances that way, then back at me, eyes bright with something like amusement. “She’s here. Try not to embarrass yourself.”
My spine goes rigid. Serafina. The ghost Maddox has been chasing for months—maybe years. And now I’m the pawn she’s using to tear my own family apart.
Dean Maddox took a bunch of broken vigilantes and turned us into something that actually fights back against the monsters. Arrow who started it all. Knight and Gage, my friends who have only ever helped me. Ozzy, the man who I’d kill for. And Render… a man who’s lethal in his own ways.
Without Dean, who knows where I’d be. Probably dead in a ditch somewhere.
My burner vibrates again. One new message. A photo lights up the screen: Enley. Tears streaking her face. A nasty bruise blooming along her jaw. Two words underneath.
Be good.
Blood turns to ice in my veins.
The footsteps stop just outside the light. A voice I’ve only heard in rumors speaks from the dark, soft and possessive.
“Poe.”
The woman by the gurney smiles wider as Serafina steps forward.