Page 101 of Final Exit

“It’s called being efficient, MissStark. I may have enormous resources at my disposal for this little operation. But I still have to use them judiciously. Sanchez was a wastrel. Once I realized there was no point in expending the time to bring him in, I had him eliminated.”

“I guess I was too much trouble too since your men have been trying to kill me instead of going after my money like they did with other Enforcers.”

“Can you blame me? You’ve escaped one too many times. Definitely not worth the trouble. Now, if you please. Get moving.”

“But the building is on fire.”

“Then we should hurry before it spreads, don’t you think? Move.”

The field where they’d taken off in the helicopter was dark now, illuminated only by moonlight. But thankfully it was almost a full moon, so Kade could see much better than on another night. Still, even though he’d been looking everywhere for Bailey, he’d yet to find any trace of her.

He spotted a glint of metal not too far away, just inside the tree line. Friend or foe, he couldn’t tell, so he was as quiet as possible while he made his way toward where he’d seen that flash. He was about fifteen feet away when he realized that what he’d seen was moonlight shining off a piece of metal on Austin’s prosthetics. He stood with Devlin, Mason, and Jace and was apparently unaware that he presented an easy target.

“Austin,” Kade whispered loudly as he hurried toward them. “Get back, your legs—”

The sound of a gunshot rang out.

Austin flew backward, landing on a bush.

Devlin returned fire from where the muzzle flash had come. A scream from the other side of the field told of his success. Then they were all crouching over Austin, who was cursing nonstop as he pulled himself up to sitting. He bent over his right prosthetic, which now had a hole right through the middle.

“Damn it,” he said. “Do you know how much these things cost?”

“I’ll buy you another one,” Devlin said. “Are you hit anywhere else?”

“Only in my pride,” he grumbled. He looked up at Kade. “I’m guessing you were trying to warn me. Maybe next time you could do it more quickly.”

“Have any of you seen Bailey? I still can’t find her.”

Austin shook his head, for once looking serious. “Not me.” He lifted what appeared to be binoculars hanging from a strap around his neck. “These are night-vision goggles. I’ve been radioing in directions to our guys so they can take out the bad dudes. We’ve got most of them on the run. But I haven’t seen Bailey.” He pointed behind him back toward EXIT. “I’ve been watching the field and the rings of trees around it. But I haven’t been watching back behind us. That’s probably the only place she could be for me not to have seen her out here.”

Kade whirled back toward the direction of EXIT. The sky was lit with a flickering shade of orange that had nothing to do with the moonlight. The entire building was on fire. If Faegan had taken Bailey there, she was in worse trouble than he’d feared.

He tore off across the field, trying to ignore the throbbing in his thigh that had started right after the blast. If he hadn’t worn his brace, he wouldn’t be able to stand, let alone run. The pounding of footsteps sounded behind him as either Mason or Jace or both ran after him.

He headed toward the left side of the building, the same side they’d all escaped earlier. Black smoke belched from the rips in the outer wall. But the flames didn’t appear to have reached this part yet.

Jace grabbed Kade’s hand before he would have disappeared into the building. Mason was beside him, gasping for breath after their sprint.

“Wait, Kade. Let’s think this through,” Jace said. “We’ll only get one shot at finding her and getting out of this inferno in time, if we even have that.”

“Assuming she’s even in there,” Mason added.

“Someone should tell Devlin—” Kade started.

“He’ll watch out for her. He stayed back with Austin,” Mason answered.

Kade nodded. It killed him to wait to go into the building. But what Jace said made sense. “All right. What’s the plan?”

A scream shattered the night, a scream that sounded like it had come from inside the building.

“We improvise,” Kade snarled. He ran through the opening.

Smoke blasted him, making his eyes stream with tears. He had to duck down to try to find breathable air. Behind him, Mason and Jace coughed and cursed but kept pace with him down the hallway. The smoke was like a curtain, reaching out to them, sucking away the oxygen.

Kade ripped his shirt off and tied it over his nose and mouth, like a bandana, to filter out the smoke. The others did the same.

Flames lit up the far side of the hallway and crept closer to them. Kade figured the only reason the fire hadn’t already consumed the building was that Cyprian Cardenas had probably spared no expense buying fire-retardant carpets and paint. It was probably the only good thing the man had ever done.

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