Page 84 of Reckless: Collision

“It had to be Sterling Labs.” He grumbles.

“Quinn, what happened?” I try to get him to focus, to give me something concrete I can actually work with instead of these anxiety-inducing hints.

“Air filtration systems. Gas. I don’t know what the fuck it was because I’m no scientist. But my sensors went off just past midnight. The security for the humidifier for the building went off. Jumped from fifty percent to fifty-five.” He pauses like thisshould mean something to me. “It doesn’t seem like much, you know, but it woke me up and something didn’t sit right.”

“You put security on a humidifier?” The words come out before I can stop them. Though honestly, after Cayenne’s little hack-and-parkour exhibition, maybe we should all be a bit more paranoid.

“I put security notifications on everything after Cayenne’s stunt.” His grunt carries equal parts frustration and pride, which pretty much sums up everyone’s feelings about our resident chaos agent. “I got up and went to check it in person, which took me ten minutes to get there. When I got to the basement, there was a can attached to it. If I hadn’t followed my gut...”

He trails off, and my stomach drops. Quinn’s gut instincts are about as reliable as Theo’s ability to cause trouble—which is to say, extremely.

I don’t push though, because this is Quinn’s way. His brain works like a loading bar—you have to wait for it to process before you get the full picture. Push too hard and you’ll just crash the system.

Finally, he continues. “It only reached one omega. Her apartment was the first the air filtration reached. But she went right into a heat cycle. Our doctors had to sedate her.”

“Fuck. A heat accelerant.” I sit back, my chair protesting the sudden movement. “Is she alright?”

“No.” The word carries the weight of failure we all dread. “The doctors had to put her in a coma.”

I hear him swallow over the phone, probably downing more caffeine. “It was a direct attack. It had to be Sterling Labs. No one else on this godforsaken planet has the ability to speed up a heat cycle.”

Cayenne is going to take this personally. Hell, I’m taking this personally, and I just process the data. She actually lives it.

“What do you need from me?” I ask, fingers flying across the keyboard to pull up the doctor’s reports. Maybe there’s something there, some pattern I can find that will make sense of this mess.

“Two things. One, I need you to talk to Cayenne and find out if the Sterling name is a coincidence.”

“Can’t you ask Aria?” Her best friend would know, right? Though given how protective that pack is...

And by pack I mean those four best friends who would rather take their friend’s secrets to the goddamn grave.

“I did.” His growl carries frustration bordering on violence. “She isn’t talking, which means either Aria doesn’t know or she knows and is protecting Cayenne.”

I close my eyes and sink back into my chair. The name thing has been nagging at me too. Sterling Labs. Cayenne Sterling. It’s either the world’s most unfortunate coincidence or... well, the alternative opens up a whole new level of complicated I’m not sure we’re ready for.

“And?” I prompt because I’m not going to make a promise I can’t follow through on. Especially not when it comes to her.

“I need your team.” The words rush out like he’s afraid they’ll stick in his throat.

That gets my attention. He hasn’t needed us in a long time, and needing us means... oh. Oh no.

“You need someone crazy enough to do something stupid,” I translate, because that’s our specialty, isn’t it? The missions no one else will touch.

“Yeah.” His sigh carries years of friendship and shared regret. “I do. I can’t move on Sterling Labs legally without knowing if the accelerant came from them. It logically could be any other company.”

“Legalities.” I remind him, because someone has to be the voice of reason. Even if reason left the building about three crises ago.

“If we move legally against Sterling, they may destroy the evidence.” He sounds like he wishes he could have called anyone but us. I get it. We’re the nuclear option—the one you don’t want to need but keep around just in case.

Another thud from above interrupts my thoughts. What the hell?

“This isn’t on the books,” I say, already knowing the answer.

“Can’t be.” A pause. “Full support from Malachi but...”

“You aren’t issuing the order.” I finish for him. “Lay it out.”

“Infiltrate Sterling Labs. I need a sample of the accelerant for our labs to compare.” The words come out in one breath, like ripping off a band-aid. If band-aids could get us all killed or imprisoned.

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