Her scream of surprise turned into a shriek of pain.
Even from this distance, I could make out the vacant expression in the man’s opaque eyes. He’s one of them.
A sea of officers in navy blue uniforms surrounded him, guns drawn.
At the same time, a large group of reporters rushed into the building.
“Get the media out of here,” shouted the blonde officer.
This is our chance. I tugged on Eden’s wrist. “Keep walking.”
Somehow I pulled her through the lobby and the mess of reporters.
Once through the glass doors, I forced out my anxiety in a rush of breath. We’d made it out of the station. Now our lives depended on us making it out of the city.
17
Hunter
“I don’t see anything,” Jen said, peering down at the empty road directly below us.
I sniffed the dry air, detecting no vehicles in the vicinity.
"This could take all day," she groused. Short tendrils of dark hair danced around her face, temporarily softening her harsh features. As she scraped the errant strands back into the tight bun under her combat helmet, I couldn’t help comparing the battle-hardened soldier to my mate.
They both shared the same dark hair and golden-hued skin, but that’s where the similarities ended. Jen’s six-foot-tall, muscular frame was closer to my hulking build than my dancer’s delicate and curvaceous one. And Jen’s gun-metal gray eyes were as inviting as razor blades, while Lee’s soft brown eyes could seduce a eunuch.
Just thinking of my mate made my breath come faster. My night with her had been spectacular—better than I could have ever imagined. How I wished I was still lying next to her right now. Instead, she’d wake with Reed in her bed.
Jealousy left a bitter taste on my tongue. That cocksucker better not put any moves on my mate. It was one thing for me to claim her while in his body, it was quite another for him to touch her himself.
Jen looked down the scope of her rifle. “Do you see anything?”
“No.” I stopped myself before commenting that her genetically enhanced vision was nearly as sharp as mine. Handlers never liked to be reminded that they were more closely related to us shifters than the humans they identified with.
I had no interest in pushing any more of Jen’s buttons when I’d barely escaped punishment for missing her deadline. Thankfully, her eagerness to recover Dr. Hurran superseded her need to discipline me. As soon as I’d relayed the intel, she’d stopped the painful shocks to my cerebral cortex and ordered me to find a suitable location for an ambush.
It’d only taken me an hour to identify a section of isolated desert road a mile north of Javier’s compound. Soon after, Jen met me on the side of the mountain.
As we’d waited behind an outcropping of sand-colored boulders, I braced myself for her interrogation. No doubt she’d want every detail of what I’d done during the time I’d been unmonitored. Surprisingly, as the minutes crawled by, she said nothing. Even stranger, she’d locked her emotions down tight.
If I concentrated hard on our bond, I picked up flickers of guilt.
What does she have to feel guilty about?
“Let’s go over the plan,” Jen ordered as she flicked a wayward ant that crawled across her leg. The desert combat uniform she wore blended perfectly into our sunbaked surrounding, rendering her nearly as invisible as me.
“After the vehicle hits the spike strips, I’ll take out the enforcers and grab Dr. Hurran.”
“I’ll handle her,” she corrected.
“Fine. You’ll get Dr. Hurran and then we’ll head back to base.” We’d take the Humvee Jen had parked out of view of the road.
Jen nodded. “It’ll be tricky getting through the city. Reports are it’s FUBAR.”
I grunted, remembering what I’d seen during my trek down here. Infected had been attacking unsuspecting humans outside urgent cares, grocery stores, and even day cares. I’d ripped an infected teacher off a toddler only to have the creature spin around and attack the child’s screaming mother. My intervention had saved both the mother and child, but it was doubtful they’d survive long. They didn’t have a fortified compound to shelter in like Javier.
I turned my gaze south to the Alpha’s fortress. The twenty-foot walls topped with electrified barbed wire were visible in the distance. The place was locked down tighter than the army base.
Maybe I should have let Miguel take Lee there.
I immediately rejected the idea. Jen said special forces teams were currently evacuating civilians. I just had to make sure my dancer made it out of the city with them.
I cleared my throat. “I need someone evacuated.”
Although she couldn’t see me, Jen rolled her eyes in my direction. “Let me guess? The stripper you’re obsessed with?”
When I said nothing, she scoffed. “So predictable. I’ll bet that’s who you ran off to screw while your scanner was being upgraded. Poor girl. Is there anything left of her?”
I stiffened. “I didn’t screw her.” Technically, Reed had. “I saved her from one of Javier’s enforcers.”
Jen shook her head as if she didn’t believe me. “While your self-control was admirable, it was all for nothing. The Colonel isn’t going to send a team to rescue Cherry or Lucious or whatever her name is.”
“Her name is Lee.” Annoyed, I made myself visible. It was taxing to cloak myself, and I needed my energy reserves for the upcoming battle.
Jen blinked as I suddenly came into view. She scanned my naked body with more interest than I was comfortable with. “What did you say?”
“My dancer goes by Lee. Although… Heaven is her first name.” I waited for some sarcastic comment about stripper names, but Jen surprised me by cocking her head to the side. “Her last name isn’t Walker, is it?”
“Yeah.” Something moved in my periphery. I turned to see a lizard darting under the shadowy silhouette of a cactus.
Jen threw back her head and laughed until tears leaked from her eyes. “This whole fucking time… you’ve been obsessing after… after Lee, of all people? Oh man, that’s like the definition of irony right there.”
I felt as if I was missing the punchline of a joke. “How do you know Lee?” It wasn’t like the Colonel allowed her kind much more freedom than they allowed us.
Her smile vanished. “That’s none of your business, but you can relax. Lee and her sister are on the evacuation list.”
Thank fuck. My mate’s safety had been weighing heavily on my mind.
“The Colonel even assigned Dominic to pick them up, so you know they are in expert hands.”
My relief morphed into anger. “So, the fucker is out now.”
Jen gave me a wary look. “I know you’re pissed at him, but you need to let it go.”
Pissed? She had no fucking idea. “How can you defend him after what he did?” When she said nothing, I went for her heart. “He doesn’t love you. You know he was willing to take a demotion to avoid the Colonel’s order to marry you, right?”
Although her expression didn’t change, sadness thrummed through our bond.