Page 42 of Burn

Using the man’s face, he unlocked them. Then typed a few things before repeating the same process with the fourth man. He shoved all of the devices into a ruck I hadn’t even noticed and then he was striding toward me.

After stowing his gear, he slid into the driver’s seat and backed out of the garage. “Change of plans, Firecracker. We need to take you somewhere to see if we can find the tracker.”

“It’s inside of me.” Where else would it be?

“Probably,” Voodoo said. “But we’re going to make sure we get it out. Not taking you to base if you can compromise it. The point of base is to be a safe place.”

“What about the house in Pennsylvania?”

“It’s just a safe house. It’s set up like a faraday cage though, containing the signal while you were in it. We might be able to do that in a car, but I’d rather get the tag off you entirely.”

“Me too,” I admitted. I had my seatbelt on, the taser rested in my lap and I had my arms folded.

“Eat,” he ordered, leaning over to snag the bag of pastries from near my feet. The warmth of the back of his hand brushed down my calf. It was almost too much stimulation. He set the bag in my lap.

Not that I felt much like eating, but I still pulled out one of the croissants. It wasn’t warm anymore, but it smelled fine. I waited until I finished it and we were back on the highway to speak again. “Did you kill the other men?”

“Yes.” No hesitation. No soft balling it. “They would have killed me and taken you given the chance.”

“That’s what it sounded like.” I folded my arms again and rubbed at my biceps. I was so cold. “I killed that one guy.”

“You didn’t kill him,” Voodoo said. “The taser is non-lethal.”

“I shocked the shit out of him on the ladder.”

Voodoo shrugged. “If he hadn’t been trying to hurt you, he wouldn’t have been on the ladder. You might have facilitated his leaving the ladder swiftly, but you didn’t kill him.”

“How can you say that?” Had he done something when I couldn’t see what he was doing.

“Because how he landed killed him,” Voodoo deadpanned.

“Then I did kill him?—”

“No. You shocked him. He fell. He landed badly. How he landed killed him. It’s not your fault he didn’t know how to land it.”

I gaped at him. “Are you serious?”

“Yes,” Voodoo said, this time with a grin. “I’m very serious. You’re just going to tear yourself up about this. You’re a fighter. That’s important.”

After rubbing a hand over my face, I looked at my palm. There was still grit and dust on it from the loft. It was probably on my face too.

My nose burned. My eyes weren’t happy. “I hate this.”

“I get that,” he said, then bumped my knee with his fist. “Eat some more and drink some water. I’ve got people meeting us two hours away. They’ll find the tracker and we’ll get it out.”

Exhaustion draped me. I still hadn’t called Am’s place or checked to see if she was okay. This whole time, they kept telling me I had to wait. No wonder they found me so fast when I went home.

If I’d gone to Am, would I have been leading them right to her?

“It’s going to be fine, Firecracker. We’ll take care of this, then get you a phone and call your sister.”

Somehow, that just wasn’t the comfort it had been.

Chapter

Fifteen

ALPHABET

---