Page 41 of Anchor

“Hey, what’s going on here?” I said and jumped off my bike. “Who’s that?”

More guards came closer. “She snuck in,” the one holding her by the arm said. “We just caught her in the back of a truck that brought in supplies.”

I raised my brow. “Are you serious?” Who would dare get on an IDD vehicle and try to sneak inside Headquarters? The girl wasn’t soyoung as to not know how dangerous that was.

“Yep. She’s a feisty one,” one of the other guards who’d been laughing said.

I shook my head, eyes on the girl. “What’s your name?” I asked her because, even considering the day I’d had, she was still a kid.

The girl said nothing, only pulled her lips inside her mouth.

“Why did you climb in that truck? Was it an accident?” Because that’s the only thing that came to mind that would make a bit of sense.

But then the guard who was holding her by the arm said, “She snuck in to look for you, Agent La Rouge.”

I straightened up again. “Excuse me?”

“A lot of people have tried to sneak in to talk to you today,” said the other guard. “She actually managed to get through the gates without us noticing.” He grinned like he was impressed.

To be honest, so was I.

I looked at the girl again. “Will you let her go, please? I’ll handle it,” I told the guard.

“She’s a minor. Standard protocols don’t apply, but I can’t just leave her?—”

“I’m not going to leave her here—I’m taking her out. Let go,” I told the guard. Technically speaking, I was his superior, but if he deemed a situation threatening, he had the right to turn to his supervisor first.

“We will need her outside the premisesright away,” he said, and I was pissed off in a way that was very unusual, but the day I’d had was catching up to me, even though I’d actually slept on that bench in the locker room for a whole hour.

Still, I managed to keep my face as neutral as ever when I said, “Then you should help her up here, and I’ll take her out right now.” And I patted the seat of my bike. Plenty of space for her to sit comfortably.

“We don’t—” the guard holding her started but his friend cut him off.

“Just get her on the bike, man. You heard Agent La Rouge—she’ll take her out.”

I could kiss the guy for making this easier for me.

“Here, put this on her,” I said and gave him my helmet before I got on my bike as if to say,it’s a done deal now. She’s coming with me.

I couldn’t really tell you what I was thinking, but I didn’t want to leave this kid in the hands of that guard. That—and where would she go when they took her outside? Where did she even live? It was dark already, and she didn’t look like she’d have money for a cab or even bus fare.

It worked.

Still chuckling, the guard put my helmet on the girl’s head while she refused to take her eyes off me.

“Move,” the one holding her said, and he pulled her with more force than was necessary toward the bike.

In normal circumstances, I’d have kept my mouth shut by reminding myself that the more I talked, the more reluctant he’d be to let us get the hell out of here. The sooner that girl got on mybike, the sooner we could disappear outside those gates and be done with it.

Except today the circumstances were everything butnormalfor me, and I couldn’t have stopped myself if I tried.

“For fuck’s sake, watch yourself. She’s just a kid,” I said and actually imagined myself jumping off my bike again and breaking his fucking teeth. It would have probably felt great.

The guard looked at me like I was a two-headed alien. “She’sMud,” he told me, and the sound of his voice alone showed me how disgusted he was by that word without having to see his face at all.

Mud,he said.

The girl was Mud.

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