Page 123 of Burn It Down

“I’ve got confirmation from one of your plants,” she announced to Lance. “They’re coming. Samuel and Carson have sent a team of enforcers.”

“They’re leading it?” Asher asked.

“No. They won’t be here, so we can’t turn it to our advantage, unfortunately.”

“How many?” Lance asked.

“Three dozen.”

“We were all careful coming in and out of this place,” Aaron said.

“My mom said they’d known of this location for a while,” I pointed out. “So, it can’t have been us going out for supplies.” I looked at Aaron. “Or our mission with Drew.”

Something flickered in Lance’s eyes. “Fuck,” he cursed a moment later.

“What?” Asher asked.

He spun to Olivia. “Hand me your bag.”

She shrugged it off her shoulder and he snatched it, then put it down on the island. He was rifling through it in the next second, muttering, “Two of you were in their clutches. Aurora and Asher. Both of you were unconscious at some point during your time with Sam and Carson.”

“And?” Aurora asked.

Lance pulled out a device a moment later, something that looked a lot like a Taser. But as he strode to Aurora and fired it up, it merely lit up, making a static-like sound. He swept it over her and the static continued uninterrupted. “You’re clear,” he said, before then rushing back to Asher. He swept it over him, starting with his head, then moving down across his throat, his chest, his arms. A high-pitched beep sounded as he swept it over his lower left arm.

“Son of a bitch,” Lance grunted.

“They tagged him,” Olivia said.

“Sure did,” Lance confirmed.

Asher held up his left arm and Lance zoned in to a more specific location of his wrist, the beeping intensifying.

“They chipped me,” he realized in horror.

“A subdermal tracker,” Lance told him. He glared at the rest of us. “You didn’t check for this when you pulled him out? Jesus Christ.”

“We don’t have that kind of tech here,” Jonah bit back. “It’s barebones.”

Aaron bit at him, “You don’t seem surprised, so you knew it was a possibility. Why the fuck didn’t you say something, or check yourself when you got here?”

“I didn’t think there’d be this sort of oversight, for one thing.” He shook his head. “Then again, Asher was out of it for days after you brought him back here, so I understand why it was overlooked.”

“We didn’t know this was even a possibility,” Jonah said.

“But you obviously did,” I added, pushing Aaron’s point.

“Yes, Carson planted a subdermal tracker in me when I was held captive years back.”

“More fucking secrets that have now bitten us in the ass again,” Aaron muttered.

Aurora held up her hands. “Let’s just focus on the here and now. They’re coming, we don’t have time for this.”

Asher shrugged off his leather jacket and pulled out a blade, aiming for his wrist.

“Asher!” Aurora cried.

“I need to cut it out, or leaving here and relocating will be for nothing. They’ll be able to track me anywhere.”

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