Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Kierse could hear her friend’s labored breathing on the line. It felt like everyone was waiting on bated breath.
“Gen?” she whispered.
“It’s almost down.” She sounded horrible. Kierse hated every minute of it.
“I’m sending Nate as soon as he finishes in that ballroom,” Kierse told her.
“Don’t…you…dare.”
“Nate,” Kierse said.
“We’re almost done in here,” Nate told her. “I’ll head to the basement.”
“I don’t…need…you.”
“I’m backup, and I say you do,” Nate said.
“Gen,” Walter said. “We’re running low on time. Vampires eat fast.”
“True,” Lyra said with a frown.
“Why aren’t your parents here anyway?” Kierse whispered at her.
“Oh, they don’t get involved,” she said. “One war was enough for them.”
“That’s not factual,” Graves came over the line. “Can we focus?”
Silence again. Fuck. This wasn’t good.
“Done. It’s down,” Gen said, her voice thin and strained. “Send…send Nate.”
And then there was a crash, followed by deafening silence.
Chapter Sixty-Three
That sound echoed through her bones.
“Gen!” she gasped, trying to stay quiet in her panic.
“I’m on it!” Nate said through the line.
There was nothing she could do about Gen, and she couldn’t jeopardize the entire mission. Still…she wanted to.
“What do you want to do?” Lyra said, fear in her face for the first time. This had all just become very real.
Kierse bit her lip. “There’s nothing we can do. We have to move forward. Four-and-a-half minutes are on the clock.”
Walter said, “Schwartz, fire at will.”
There was no answer from Schwartz on the line as he was too far from the Plaza to be online with the rest of the team. He was only directly connected to Walter, their eyes in the sky.
Kierse and Lyra glanced at each other as if any moment they would be able to feel Schwartz blowing up the Curator’s compound. Walter was the one who had found the location in the midst of all the coded details Laz had stolen at the auction. None of them had known what they were looking at until Schwartz had done recon to discover a residential front for some sort of warehouse drug operation. Schwartz had made sure the building was clear of people, and then he’d detonated enough explosives to cause the diversion they needed.
It was far enough away that the explosion would only be known to those associated with him. Which meant if they were still following the protocol Schwartz had been given when he worked their security…
She tensed, waiting to hear footsteps pounding on the ground outside of the bathroom. But there was nothing.
“What’s happening?” Lyra asked.
She didn’t know. They couldn’t see what was happening on the other side. There were no windows in the tiny bathroom.
“Walter?” Kierse asked.
He was silent a moment before saying, “They’re not moving. I’m checking in with Schwartz and trying to hack their system to see if I can get them out of there.”
“Fuck,” Lyra muttered. “How long will that take?”
Walter didn’t answer. Lyra shot her a confused look. Time was ticking away. They couldn’t wait.
“Fuck it,” Kierse grumbled.
She shucked her clothes back off and changed hastily into her pretty party dress and heels.
“What are you doing?” Lyra asked.
“Someone has to make them leave,” Kierse argued.
“So it should be me,” Lyra said.
“You’re the better actress, but you have another job.”
“This isn’t to script!”
“We’re not in a play,” Kierse countered.
Graves’s sigh was audible. “She never follows the plan.”
Kierse shot Lyra a cheeky grin and turned around so the mask could be retied. “See. He knows me.”
“Don’t die,” Lyra said as she cinched the ribbon.
“Walter?” Kierse asked.
“Security footage loop running in your section,” Walter informed them. “Go.”
Kierse pushed the bathroom door open and sauntered down the hallway. Both men tensed at the sight of her. They were both human. One of the problems the Curator hadn’t considered when he’d fired his band of monster mercenaries was that human men were incredibly vulnerable in this world. They might have weapons, but none of them were prepared for monsters.
“Ma’am, the party is the other direction,” the first man said.
She executed a drunken stumble. “I thought it was this way.”
“No,” the second guy said. He pointed the other direction. “Back the way you came.”
“Oh, sorry.” She might not be as good of an actress as Lyra, but she’d nearly reached them, and that was all that mattered.
“Ma’am,” the second guy tried again.
Kierse let her Fae reflexes take over as she launched herself at the first guy. She jabbed her hand into his throat, and as he was gasping for air, she brought her knee up between his legs. He doubled over in pain. While he put his hand on his jewels, she retrieved his gun and slammed it down onto the top of his head. The poor guy dropped like a sack of potatoes, unconscious.
She whirled to face the second man, who was still fumbling to react and draw his weapon, and trained the gun on his head. He raised both of his hands in horror. She ripped the earpiece out of his ear.