Page 97 of Vicious Luna

This is it. In less than five minutes, we’ll be parking up on the access road a half mile from the safehouse and continuing our advance on foot. Matty came through and provided all the detailsfor The Guild’s ambush strategy. After corresponding with him some more on the encrypted server he set up, we were able to get a clear picture of their plans and strategize our own counterattack.

Thanks to Matty, we know to avoid the main driveway to the cabin, which they’ve blocked with two vehicles that are armed with explosives. Their play was to force us out of our own vehicles, then remotely detonate those bombs, but instead, we’ve come up with a plan to turn their own weapons against them.

Hopefully it won’t come to that. While a small team heads in to handle the explosives, the others will fan out to form a perimeter around the cabin. Then I’ll be going in solo, angling to negotiate a ceasefire with the man in charge.

“Phones off,” Sloane reminds us, picking up her bag from the floor and setting it on the center console. The music abruptly cuts off as she switches off her phone and tosses it in her purse, looking to all of us to follow suit.

One by one, we turn off our phones and drop them in, because The Guild has software that can pick up wireless devices within a five-mile radius of the safehouse and we don’t want to tip them off as to our arrival. The only way this’ll work is if we have the element of surprise on our side.

We’re swallowed up by an eerie silence as Madd swerves off the main road and onto the narrow access road, the uneven terrain jostling all of us as he navigates his way along it to our rendezvous point.

“Remember our deal,” Madd grumbles from the front seat, flicking me a glance in the rearview mirror.

“Remember your side of it,” I mutter back as I meet his eyes. The two of us struck a bargain last night- that as long as I play my role today to a T, Matty will be spared. Madd didn’t take kindly to helping out another hunter, but it was a non-negotiable for me. After all he’s done to help us, the kid deserves to walk away from this and start fresh.

Madd jerks a nod, yanking the steering wheel to pull the Jeep to the side of the road and hitting the brakes. As he throws it into park, Avery grabs for my hand and I thread my fingers through hers, lifting it and pressing a kiss to the back of her palm. The two of us share a long, meaningful look, and I hope that in it, she can read every quiet whisper of my soul.

It’s a look that says how much I’ve come to care for her. A look that says hey, don’t fuck around and get killed, because I need you more than I need air to breathe. But mostly, it’s a look that says thank you for saving me, and now I’m going to do my best to save you, too... and even if I don’t make it, as long as you do, this’ll all have been worth it.

The moment between us is cut short as Madd throws open his door and climbs out, the rest of us quickly following suit as the other vehicles park up on the road behind us. Everyone piles out of them, Nash and Andie passing out firearms and the squad leaders quietly murmuring instructions to the others. Nash passes me a handgun, and I check that it’s loaded and the safety’s on before tucking it into the back of my jeans, concealing the grip beneath my t-shirt.

I lock eyes with Javi, threading my way through the other soldiers to approach him. “Remind me how long you need to rewire those explosives?”

“Fifteen minutes, max,” he replies confidently, tipping his head to Cheyenne beside him. “Chey needs less than that to hotwire the cars, she’s a pro.”

“Living on the run teaches you a few things,” she adds with a wink.

I nod slowly. “I’ll try to buy you twenty just in case,” I say, glancing over at Lo as she stuffs some supplies in a backpack and hauls it up onto her shoulder.

“We good to go?” she asks, sauntering over.

I nod, dragging in a deep breath as I look toward the woods.

Here goes nothing.

Shoring up my resolve, I start in the direction of the cabin, but I only make it a few steps before someone’s grabbing me by the arm and yanking me back. I pivot around just in time for Avery to grab my face in both hands and crush her lips against mine, stealing my breath with a filthy kiss.

For a long, blissful moment, the world around us fades away. It’s just me and her; our lips sliding, tongues tangling. Then as quickly as it began, she pulls back, grinning up at me as she gives my cheek a little pat.

“What was that for?” I ask, still a bit dazed.

“For good luck,” she chirps, falling back a step and grinning up at me.

I can’t help but crack a smile of my own, taking a second to drink in everything about her appearance, just in case it’s the last time I get to. I hope it isn’t, but what I’m about to do is a huge risk. As a strategist, I know my odds, and they admittedly aren’t great.

She’s the first to turn away, blowing me a kiss over her shoulder and jogging off to join her battle partner. The scarred-up guy eyes me hesitantly as she takes his arm, and my gut twists at the realization of who he is. It’s the guy who was captured when she was; the one who was left for dead as a warning to the werewolves.Looks like I’ll have more amends to make if I get out of here alive.

Everyone starts to disperse, heading out to form a perimeter around the safehouse, and I share a long look withMadd before I turn to start toward the cabin, resolute in my objective. I center myself and get my mind right as I traverse the rocky terrain of the forest, finding that it’s easy to slip into the cold detachment of running a mission. This is what I was trained to do, after all.

Before long, I get a glimpse of the rear of the cabin through the trees, pausing at my rendezvous point and looking around for Matty. It doesn’t take long for him to peek out from behind a trunk, bounding out and jogging over to me like an excitable puppy, those eager blue eyes shining. “You made it,” he breathes, clutching the straps of his backpack on his shoulders. “It’s good to see you, Knox.”

“You too,” I murmur, cracking a smile. “Do they know we’re here?”

“Nope, I looped the feeds so everything here looks normal, then patched in footage of your convoy leaving so it looks like you just hit the road.”

“Good man,” I say, reaching out to clap him on the shoulder. “Where’s he now?”

“In his office. The others are upstairs strapping up since he just gave the word you’re on your way. Do you want me to…?”

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