Page 116 of Savior

Cobra turned, and I was struck by Kate’s arm, dangling limply at her side. If I hadn’t seen her chest rising and falling, I would’ve thought she was dead.

“New Mexico. Place was used as a nuclear missile vault for the military back during the Cold War. We don’t have much time—”

I looked down the deserted hallway, suddenly wary of taking another step. “How do I know Saint’s boys won’t be waiting around the corner?”

“You don’t,” he stated flatly, keeping his back to me this time. “If you’d feel more comfortable staying behind, be my guest, but I gave you my word. I have no desire to kill a man who’s already broken—an opinion that Saint doesn’t share.”

I nodded, suddenly too tired to talk.

“The best games are the ones that get pushed into overtime. Evenly matched adversaries, if you will. No one wants to watch a game that’s won right out of the gate.”

“Not really,” I huffed. “Not really a sports fan.”

“Of course not,” Cobra answered cryptically. “Men like us prefer a different sort of playing field, don’t we?”

We moved at a slow pace down hallways and up flights of stairs. I clung to consciousness with everything I had and forced my legs to keep moving. When Cobra threw his back into a metal door, I went down to my knees, blinded by something I hadn’t seen in months.

The sun.

I dug my hand into the soft soil, letting the grains slip through my fingers. Everywhere I looked, I was met with vibrant bursts of color from the crayon blue sky to the green on the trees. I’d been surrounded by whites and grays for so long that it was almost overwhelming.

The scent of pine was everywhere, and I breathed it in, silently weeping at my first taste of freedom.

“You can cry later,” Cobra reminded me. “Right now, we need to get away from here.”

I composed myself and, ignoring the twinge in my shoulder, I pushed myself to my feet with a low grunt and took one last look at my prison. It was cleverly hidden in the side of a mountain, and I would’ve rotted away for decades before anyone ever came across it.

I followed Cobra through a narrow clearing, paying close attention to the sticks and pinecones littering the ground. One wrong step and I’d be finished.

Kate.

I had to stay strong for Kate.

A tan Jeep Cherokee straight out of the seventies sat just off a worn dirt road. Otherwise, the place was deserted. Not a motorcycle in sight.

“Where is everyone?” I asked gruffly.

He opened the passenger seat and slid Kate’s limp body across the bench seat. “I imagine they’re following up on the lead into your son’s death—”

“There’s a lead?” The ignorant sound of hope in my voice shocked even me. It wouldn’t matter if every single one of them was brought to justice, it wouldn’t bring him back.

Just like killing Donald hadn’t brought Ma back to me.

“False lead,” he corrected. “I just needed to buy us some time.”

Despite my misgivings, the Jeep fired up with a deep rumble. Cobra threw it into drive and branches scraped along the windows, pleading for us to stay. The tires dipped into a muddy rut, but he managed to get us back onto the road.

Kate cried out, not quite asleep but not fully awake, before sitting up with a sudden gasp. Her eyes were wild and frantic as she searched the cabin. “Mike.”

She relaxed again, but that one word was enough to detonate the bomb residing where my heart used to be.

“Kate was there,” Cobra stated, keeping his eyes on the winding road. “When they shot him. It’s why Saint wanted her—maybe he thought she’d reveal the killers with the right motivation.”

How far was she willing to go to save her old man?

“Thought you were all set to build your cult leader’s compound. What changed your mind?”

“Truthfully?” He glanced over at me. “He lost sight of what we were doing. Going after your in-laws instead of dismantling Silent Phoenix and killing you.”

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