Page 95 of Beyond Reason

He knew how I felt.

He nodded sharply, then turned his attention back to the phone. “Are you ready?”

Whatever Jensen said on the other end of the line seemed to be enough, because Kade hung up. When his eyes dropped back to his phone, I knew what he was thinking about.

Seth, cuffed in a hotel room and waiting for him.

“Call him and tell him you love him.” He stuffed his phone into his pocket as I said it. “You and I both know the last time kind of sneaks up on you.”

Kade didn’t say anything—he just turned to the computers in front of us and frowned. “Jensen said the complete facility shut down was only going to last for ten minutes once we got him access to their security system.”

Almost like his words had ushered it in, there was a soft humming noise and the screens in front of us all went blank one by one.

“Go time.”

He didn’t seem to care that they knew we were coming. Of course, Kade was armed, and confident that they couldn’t use their automated locks to keep him out.

We split off at the end of the hallway. I was pretty sure he had full intentions of starting his way from the front and making sure that every person in his path was dead. I’d heard him say it softly to Seth before we left. Every last one of them, I promise.

I didn’t care about every last one of them—I just wanted to get to Axel while I knew they couldn’t hide from me. He’d probably be angry that I’d just stormed the building without a better plan than shutting down their security and bringing a lethal killer as backup.

I didn’t care.

I just needed to find him.

I could almost feel him close by, like some tether drawing me deeper and deeper underground. Every second we’d been apart was slowly peeling away my nerves, leaving my entire body raw and burning.

I had to find him. He had to know that I remembered everything, that I understood the words he had tattooed on his back.

That I loved him, and I wasn’t going to let anything come between us—not this fucking facility, not time, not death.

As I stepped down the hallway, the eerie glow of backup lighting flickered to life and illuminated the white brick walls in a dull glow. It was enough for me to see where I was going, and it was enough that when a man came around the corner, I could see the way his eyes widened a second before I jammed a blade into his throat.

Somewhere behind me there was gunfire. Kade was being purposefully loud—his bravado would be the perfect cover for my stealth. With any luck, he’d chew his way through most of the people funneling up to him while I made my way deeper into the building. There really weren’t as many guards inside as there had been outside; it was apparently a much smaller location than the one where Marshall worked—the one that Kade had burned to the ground.

Jensen had been right. They apparently trusted their security system to keep them safe in lieu of firepower.

Mistake.

I cut through four people on my way to the stairwell, though they seemed more scientist than security.

It made killing them easier, and I didn’t give a shit if any of them were as innocent as Marshall Lister had been.

Every step I took was bringing me closer to Axel, and by the time I turned the corner of the stairs and pushed the heavy door open, I was practically running.

Maybe that was why I missed the body that I nearly bounced off of. The man was broad and big, and he looked like hired muscle. I wasn’t sure if he’d been heading up to find Kade, or if he’d been ordered to block off the area since their locks weren’t working.

“Any chance you want to get out of my way and make this easy on yourself?” I said it with a sweet smile, but I was already reaching for the gun at my side. I didn’t want to make noise, but I also didn’t want to get incapacitated trying to carve this guy down to size.

“Who the fuck are you?” His eyes flicked from the bloody knife in my hand to the open stairway behind me. Maybe he wasn’t here to guard the hallway, but if he hadn’t realized the lights had gone out and their security system wasn’t working, I wasn’t going to explain it to him.

“Just here to pick up my boy from daycare, sorry I’m a little late.” My eyes swept his frame, and I frowned—I was reaching for a gun, but he already had one.

Not exactly optimal.

“Oh? Which one? The twins in the backroom, or those three assholes Otto’s with? Or…” He tilted his head and looked me up and down. “Are you here for Axel?” The way he smiled told me he knew who I was here for, which meant he probably knew who I was.

No… not optimal at all.

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