A Shadow's Embrace (12 page)

He tracked the soft movement of her throat as she swallowed a couple of times as though testing her ability to speak.
 

“Okay, I can look again, but these are the ones I found time stamped after the gunfire battle. I’m pretty sure I have them in the right order. I guess there’s only one way to find out.” She studied the monitors. “Are you all sure you don’t want me and Dare to handle this?”
 

“No. I want to know.” Trent stood beside Kaeden, darkness etched in his grim expression. “Are you okay?”
 

She nodded. “I’m fine.”
 

She was far from fine. She stumbled from the chair and collapsed into Dagan’s lap. He enveloped her in his hold as Kaeden settled a blanket over them both.
 

“Here we go,” mumbled Ace as he started the footage.
 

It was like watching a movie. The cameras tracked them all the way through the compound as Conver dragged them along like dolls.
 

“Why are they so docile? Did he drug them?” Rex asked.
 

“I saw him holding syringes in the footage earlier,” Kaeden said. “I remember wanting to shove them down his throat.”
 

They fell silent at the thought. Camera footage caught them stumbling into awareness, several cameras into the grim replay. One of the twins suddenly shoved the man dragging her. The man slammed against the wall with a splattering of blood that erupted across the tiny corridor.
 

Kaeden chuckled. “Sage always had a temper.”
 

“Oh, yeah, she did, almost worse than Nevada’s,” Trent said.
 

Conver backhanded Sage, who tumbled to the floor in a mass of limbs. Nevada drop-kicked him and yanked on her downed sister. The second guard grabbed them both, only to get slammed into the wall. Blood sprayed on the wall.
 

The women stared down at the carnage they’d created. Son of a bitch, Dagan hadn’t known they were capable of something like that. Judging from the silence and shocked auras around him, neither did anyone else. They watched as the two began arguing.
 

“No, we can’t go back, Sage. You know damn good and well what will happen. Those two are dead. Conver won’t kill us for it. It’ll be the guys. We will always be their Achilles’ heels. As long as we’re around, they’re slaves to that bastard.”
 

“Then we kill him now.”
 

“No. We kill him and they’ll never stop chasing us. We’ll be labeled murderers and every Shadow will be at risk. We break out, but we do it without a body count.”
 

Sage drew a weapon from one of the guards and fired two rounds into each of Conver’s thighs. "There. That’ll give us time to circle back, get the others.”
 

“No. We go alone.”
 

“Fuck me,” Ace whispered as he leaned back in his chair.
 

“You know I’m right,” Nevada said. “You know why we’re out of time. I can’t stay here, Sage. I can’t. It kills me to walk away from them, but I don’t have a choice. Conver might be down for now, but his men aren’t. Going back is too dangerous. Someone would die. I can’t have their deaths on my hands. We have go. Alone. Now.”
 

“I can’t stay here without you. Let’s go back, tell them everything. They’ll understand.”
 

“No,” Nevada shouted. “They can never know. You think they’ll be okay with what happened? What we did?”
 

“We didn’t do anything. We survived. There’s a big difference.” Sage wiped her face with her hand. “Fine, you’re right. I hate it, but you’re right. Let me at least say goodbye. Please. This is going to rip my heart into pieces. Let me at least make it easier on him.”
 

“We can’t,” Nevada whispered. “You know why.”
 

The two of them hugged, and their soft crying on the video footage echoed in the room. Dagan swore as the tone radiating from his teammates turned from grim to shocked and enraged as they stared at the monitors. Betrayal slammed Dagan hard. He bristled as the emotions of his comrades pounded his senses. Everyone in the room had thought Nevada and Sage were dead. The footage smacked of intent. They’d wanted to escape without them. They’d decided to leave Kaeden and Trent. The team.
 

As Dagan worked to lock down the growing sense of betrayal and resulting rage within the room, he thought back on their exchange. Something had forced their hand. Neither woman seemed fully vested in the decision to flee. It was as though they’d had no choice because of something that they’d done, something that had happened.
 

 What the fuck had happened?
 

Ace moved to pause the footage.
 

“Let it play,” Kaeden ordered, his arms crossed.
 

The footage continued on the next monitor as they made their way out of the corridor to the exterior. Tears flowed down both of their cheeks as they fled past the camera and out of the building before they appeared in the next monitor and sprinted across the southern edge of the compound and up the hill that led to the forested area.
 

“We lose sound after this, but I’m assuming you might be able to figure things out since you were there,” Devyn whispered as she started the final monitor.
 

The compound exploded. Fire engulfed the area they’d been in. Bitter rage chewed away at Dagan as he turned and charged out of the room. He couldn’t handle this shit, not now.
 

Son of a bitch.
 

They’d brought that building down. Overpowering the few guards they’d been surrounded by had been simple enough, but hundreds of them had waited in the bunkers—ready to be called up at a moment’s notice. The ordnance they’d set off was supposed to blow a hole in the wall so they could find Nevada and Sage.
 

Ace paused the footage and pulled up a few other cameras. “Well, that answers the question we’ve had.”
 

Oxygen tanks in the supply closet on the other side of the wall. Why would Conver store oxygen tanks? Fuck.
 

“Look, they’re all over the place.” Ace pointed at monitors. “That ordnance set off the place like dominoes falling.”
 

It had been his idea to blow that wall and go after the twins.
 

“Dagan.” Devyn’s voice chased him as he charged down the hall and out the back door.
 

Fuck. It wasn’t safe for her to be up and around this quickly after her recent power usage, and he knew she wouldn’t listen if he asked her to back off.
 

He charged back into the room as she approached the door. He headed upstairs.
 

“Dagan, talk to me. Don’t hold this in, whatever it was.”
 

“It was fucked up, that’s what it was.” Dagan slammed the bedroom door behind them. “We thought they died. All this time we blamed ourselves because we’d blown that wall and brought that whole compound down.”
 

“It wasn’t your fault.”
 

“It was my idea. I was the one who set that ordnance and blasted it. I thought I’d killed them.” He shook his head. “Why the hell would they leave without us? Why would they hide the fact they survived from us?”
 

“But they’re alive. That’s a good thing. I’m sure they had a reason for running like they did. We’ll find them.” She squeezed his arm, and the last of his control imploded.
 

“I don’t know if finding them is the answer. You have no idea how much this destroyed us, shook the foundation of every single thing we believed in.”
 

“They had a reason. I heard the love in their voices. What they had with Kaeden and Trent was real. Whatever went down must’ve been bad, real bad.”
 

“Yeah, and that doesn’t help.” He ran his hand through his hair and took a few calming breaths.
 

Maybe she was right. Conver was a ruthless son of a bitch. As horrible as it’d been for him and the guys to witness the atrocities committed on the women, it would’ve been worse to live them. Hell, they’d been tortured endlessly as well, but that had been in the name of training. Not punishment.
 

Devyn stood before him, shrinking beneath the heated anger he allowed to flow from him. He cursed softly and pulled her into his arms. “What I know for certain is that you just gave us all something we didn’t have before—hope. You’re right, babe. We can find them and figure out what the hell went down back then. And why. I just pray to hell they’re still alive.”
 

“I still don’t understand why any of this would make General Conver hunt me down. Why would he care if you found out about them still being alive? For that matter, how would he even know you’d see it, even if he did figure out I breeched his network?”
 

“Because you don’t leave a trail.”
 

“Right.”
 

“Damn Ace. This is all on him. I knew he wouldn’t wait until the recovery op to go through the footage. He always has to go that extra mile, be prepared for whatever may hit the fan.”
 

“And that’s a bad thing?” Devyn asked.
 

“In this case, yes. Now we’ve got Trent and Kaeden enraged over what happened back then and me wondering what the hell it all has to do with you.” Dagan wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Not now, not ever.
 

Devyn ran through her inventory one last time. Now that she had everything Dare and Rider would take on an op, she probably resembled Lara Croft. She’d even braided her hair to keep it out of the way.
 

All she had to do was convince everyone else she was in this op. She wasn’t sure who’d be a harder sell, Dagan or Dare. The latter had yet to speak to her one on one. A knock at the door drew her attention.
 

“Dare, think of the devil and out he comes.” She studied him a moment and decided to the point was the best recourse. “We good?”
 

“We’re always good.” Dare smirked as he sauntered into the room. “I figured I’d find you prepping for the op. I’m not sure you going alone is the best idea.”
 

“Really? So you know someone else who can control all the surveillance cameras, traffic lights, and anything else, including the pop-up toaster, if needed? Gee, I thought that’d be a pretty nifty ability to have since there are all sorts of electronics to bypass.”
 

“Your boy’s not gonna be too thrilled about you being in the line of fire, and I’ve gotta admit I’m right there with him. Conver’s too hot to trot where you’re concerned. It’s not safe for you to go in.”
 

“And it’s not safe for all of you if I don’t.” She allowed her guilt and pain to radiate from her when she looked him in the eyes, hoping her openness would help him get how important this was to her. “He’s there because of me, Dare.”
 

“I get it, Indy. More than anyone, I get it. I’m just giving you a heads-up. You’ve got an uphill battle with the crew in there. They’re wound tight and about to implode ’cause of the footage you uncovered. Emotions running this raw are volatile, and adding the need to protect an untrained female operative into the mix isn’t smart.”
 

“I’m trained. I’m going with them.”
 

Dare laughed. “You really think they’d consider the few hours of work Rider and I did with you training? No way in hell you’re going.”
 

Arguing with Dare about whether she was helping rescue Rider was stupid. There was only one way she’d know for sure. Ask Dagan and Kaeden. Not that it really mattered. One way or another, she was going. She charged past Dare and headed toward the door. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled firmly enough to make her look back.
 

“You did good, babe.” Dare’s voice lowered to a barely audible whisper. “No matter what comes from today, know you did right by them.”
 

She’d wanted to pay them back for helping with Rider. “I—I can’t lose him.”
 

“We won’t.” Dare hugged her to him. “We’ll get him back.”
 

She nodded, unable to get any words past the lump in her throat. Thank goodness Mia wasn’t here to sense the turbulent emotions overtaking her. As they entered the hallway, she turned.
 

“I’m sorry for, you know, not filling you in on what I found.”
 

“I get it. If I were you, I would’ve done the same thing. Just remember, even when I may not back your play, I’ll always back you.”
 

The solidarity strengthened her as she entered the war room. Every eye landed on her. Corbin and Cash both chuckled outright as their gazes ran down her. Rex and Trent looked away with jaw twitches.
 

“Damn it, you’re supposed to be a geek like me. Why does everyone have to go bad-ass?” Ace glared at Kaeden. “You turned her.”
 

“Rider’s her teammate. Not a single one of us would sit back and let another team pull one of us out without being right there, doing what we could.” Kaeden’s gaze slid down her in a slow perusal that made her tingle in all the right places. “You’ve got great taste, man.”
 

“Yeah, I do.” Dagan set his hand on her shoulder as he leaned in from behind and whispered, “You know how to make an entrance, babe.”
 

“Too much?” She looked down at the snug cargo pants loaded down with a KBAR and a treasure trove of gun clips and anything else she could fit into the pockets. Pockets were awesome. “Maybe I went a bit overboard squirreling stuff away.”
 

“It’s the girl scout in you.”
 

Dagan smirked as he took a tactical vest from the table and suited her up. When it was secured, he captured her gaze. “Walk around, get used to the weight.”