Page 48 of Peaceful Chaos

"Don't do that."

"Do what?" I ask.

Ford takes my arm and makes me continue around the trail. "Don't punish yourself for not feeling bad for a minute. They're going to be fine. Sin, Lucien, and Ted are three of the deadliest assholes on the planet."

I nod, my head bobbing up and down several times. "You're right." I chew on my bottom lip, that nagging mixture of guilt and fear refusing to back down. "Can we swing by the guard's shack? I just want to see if they've heard anything from Javier's team."

"I'm sure we would have heard from them if they'd reported back, but if it'll make you feel better, let's go."

I take his elbow, and together we stroll down the walkway toward the front gate. We're the only people wandering around the complex. Even the birds seem to have fled. The quiet is eerie and unsettling.

"Ford," I whisper. "Shouldn't there be people around? How many soldiers did Javier leave here?"

He looks around. "I think at least a half dozen."

"Shouldn't a few of them be walking around on patrol or something?"

We quicken our steps. I practically have to run to keep up with his long-legged stride. Before we get up to the building, he pulls me behind a large boulder in the landscaping.

"What's wrong?" I ask.

He puts his finger to his lips to signal for me to be quiet. "The door is open. Every time I've been down here the guard uses a card to get in. I've never seen it left open," he whispers.

My chest tightens, and it's hard to breathe. "We need to get back to your apartment. I have a bad feeling."

Ford grips his hair and pulls. "This is probably going to be fucking stupid, but I think we should go make sure if the guard is okay."

I nod. "You're right. It is fucking stupid. Let's do it."

We step carefully, trying to make as little sound on the gravel as possible. The closer we get we see the door isn't merely hanging open, but the electronic panel is hanging by its wires and the door busted open.

"Ford—"

"I see it. Let's see if there is anyone still in there," he suggests and gets up to creep toward the building.

He puts his finger to his lips, then he signals for us to move forward. The shack has a door that opens outside the complex and another that opens on this side of the perimeter fence. Ford cautiously stands up and peers in the window on the door.

Dropping down next to me, he whispers, "There's a man on the floor. I can't tell if he's still alive."

Ford tries the door again, but the lock on this door is different from the outside door. Reinforced steel with a biometric lock embedded in the wall. "We can't get in this way. We're going to have to go out of the gate to check on him."

"I don't have a good feeling about this," I say again. "If he's down, and the door is open, that means someone is here. We need to find the other guards."

Ford shakes his head. "He doesn't have that kind of time."

He starts to rise, but I pull him back down. "I understand that, but we won't either if we get stuck on the other side of that wall with my father's soldiers."

"Do you really think that's what this is? Chaos has to have made a lot of enemies."

"I don't believe in coincidences, so yeah, I'm sure that's what is happening here. Look," I open my arms out wide showing the empty complex that is normally pretty active with people coming and going at all hours. "My uncle manages to finally get in touch with Brett, and this place clears out to go rescue him. I'm sure my father assumed Sin and Lucien would go with them."

I can see the conflict playing across Ford's face by the way his forehead creases and his eyes narrow. "I can't just leave him there."

Together, we creep slowly around the side of the building. Ford moves me behind him and steps around the building to get closer to the gate. Javier put our prints into the scanner for the pedestrian gate, so we could come and go from the complex in the case of an emergency.

Something catches my eye, and I freeze a few steps behind him. "Ford, stop." My voice is a bit louder than a whisper, but not much. He keeps moving so I repeat it louder in a voice closer to a shout when I see a shadow move across the window inside the building.

He turns to face me at the same time a loud boom rocks through the guard building.

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