Page 1 of Reckless: Corruption

Prologue

Ryker

Seventy two hourssince Cayenne disappeared into Sterling Tower.

Rain beats against my tactical gear as I shift positions on the rooftop, muscles stiff from hours of surveillance. The scope gives me a perfect view of Sterling’s underground laboratories—sterile white and gleaming chrome beneath the surface of his glass monument to ego.

She’s in there. Somewhere.

My comm unit crackles. “Northwest quadrant clear,” Jinx’s voice emerges, tight with controlled violence. “Security patterns unchanged.”

“Acknowledged,” I mutter. “Hold position.”

Seventeen minutes before the next security sweep. Seventeen minutes to find a weakness in Sterling’s fortress.

I pull out my tablet, wiping raindrops from the screen. For the hundredth time, I watch Cayenne slip through our defenses. Through my defenses. Three in the morning. The basement door. The tunnel beneath Theo’s greenhouse. The Mustang she hotwired without triggering a single alarm. The careful transfer to an anonymous Honda.

Perfect execution.

A tactician would call it brilliant. An alpha would call it betrayal.

I know better now.

“Still analyzing that footage?” Jinx materializes beside me, moving with the silent grace that makes him lethal. His eyes reflect Sterling Tower’s lights, predatory and focused.

“Look at her face,” I say, pausing on the frame where Cayenne looks directly at the camera. “That expression.”

Jinx studies it, head tilting. “She made sure we’d see her.”

“Exactly. She’s not running away from us,” I say, the words scraping my throat raw. “She’s running toward something.”

“Sterling,” Jinx growls, the name vibrating with barely contained rage.

The rain intensifies, drumming against the rooftop like an omen. In the distance, thunder rolls.

“New security shift,” Jinx observes. “Third in six hours.”

“They’re rotating faster than standard protocols,” I confirm, adjusting my scope. “Increased patrols around the lower levels.”

“She’s down there,” Jinx says with conviction. “I can feel it.”

The pain in my chest flares white-hot, a physical manifestation of our incomplete bond. She’s ours. Even without completed marks, we claimed her in our hearts. And she claimed us, whether she admitted it or not.

“Finn’s confirmed triple encryption on all their systems,” I say. “Military-grade. Almost like?—”

“Like they were expecting us,” Jinx finishes, his smile all teeth. “Or like Sterling’s keeping something valuable locked down tight.”

“Her.”

“You know what Quinn’s orders will be when he finds out we’ve gone dark.”

“I don’t give a fuck about Quinn’s orders.” I stand, stretching cramped muscles.

“Good,” Jinx says, grin turning feral. “Because I’ve found us a way in.”

My head snaps toward him. “Where?”

“Old service tunnel. Pre-dates the current building. They’ve sealed it off, but...”

---