Page 61 of Final Exit

Kade didn’t bother answering. His stomach was already sinking. Based on how Jace was twisting and turning everything else around, he already knew what was going to happen.

“Bailey, look at me. Please.”

She wasn’t looking off into space anymore. But she wasn’t looking at Kade either. She was staring at the GPS tracker disc that Jace had just pulled out of the lining of the brace.

“It’s a backup,” Kade said. “Remember, Bailey? I pulled one out of the brace in the hospital parking lot, because I didn’t want anyone finding us. Everyone has a backup. Right? But I didn’t use it. We’re on the same side. Jace, these men, they’re trying to trick you into thinking that I’ve been lying about everything all along. They want you to think that I’m using you—”

“Are you?” She was staring at him now, her arms crossed. Her face impassive. But it was her eyes that told him he’d already lost the war. They were cold, brittle chips of emerald ice without a hint of warmth.

“The disc isn’t activated. I’m not trying to lead anyone to you or anyone else. If I wanted that, I could have done it in Colorado Springs. Think about it. My own men were turning on me. I’m not conspiring with anyone against you. I want the truth, just like you. We’re a team, working to find out if the retraining facility is what Faegan says it is or if Enforcers really are being killed. Nothing has changed.”

He waited, hoping she would say something. When she didn’t, he tried again. “Before I met you in person, I wouldn’t have thought twice about tricking you so I could capture you. Because I believed in my mission. We’re way past that now. I’m not lying. And I wouldn’t lie, not to you, because Iknowyou.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You don’t know me, Kade. You don’t know me at all.” And with that, she shoved back from the table and stalked out of the room.

Kade didn’t move, barely breathed, as the disaster of the last few minutes replayed itself in his mind. All the trust and respect that had been building between him and Bailey had been destroyed in, what, fifteen, twenty minutes? By a master manipulator.

He didn’t dare look at Jace, or the others yet. He was too angry. So angry that he knew the chains wouldn’t protect the men sitting around the table. In the hands of a desperate man, those chains would become nooses around their throats.

Instead, he sat very still, thinking about everything Jace had said. The reports. The Google searches. All the questions that had been raised. And Kade did what he always did with information. He began piecing it together in his mind, looking at every angle, searching for the simplest, most logical explanation. And asking the questions that Jace hadn’t asked.

Like why his boss had really hired him for this mission.

And whether there was another reason Faegan was so intent on keeping the retraining facility’s location a secret from Kade.

Then he wondered about one of the questions that Mason had asked, because it bore thinking about. Was it really a coincidence that an Enforcer had caused his accident, and then Kade was later assigned to run the program to supposedlysaveEnforcers?

While he knew the conclusions that Jace had drawn were wrong, there was only one conclusion he could put together after looking at all the facts.

Someone was setting him up for a very big fall.

He shoved back from the table and stood. As one, the others jumped to their feet, guns drawn, aimed at Kade. Even Austin held a gun pointed at him.

Kade ignored them all, all except Jace.

He shuffled around the table, metal jangling against metal until he stood beside Jace. He held out his hands, wrists up.

“Take off the chains. I’m taking you to the FBI lab.”

Chapter Sixteen

Tuesday, 11:12 a.m.

Bailey wasn’t sure what she’d expected of the FBI lab, but the lone whitewashed building visible through the panel van’s windshield wasn’t it. She braced herself against the wall to keep from falling as Austin pulled to a jarring stop behind the building.

“All right,” Jace said. “Kade, you first. Everyone follow his lead and stay alert.” He slammed the side door back on its rails and motioned for Kade to precede him.

Kade glanced at her, but she looked away, pretending to be busy rechecking the loading of her Sig Sauer. She heard his sigh, and knew he’d assumed the worst—that she didn’t trust him or believe in him anymore. But that wasn’t it at all. She was ashamed. She owed him an apology the size of Colorado for stalking out of the interrogation like she had. But she needed more than a quick glance, or a stolen chat in a hallway to tell him how truly sorry she was.

“Bailey, get a move on. Even Austin’s faster than you.” Jace stood outside the van, motioning for her to get out.

She was startled to see that she was the last one to leave. And true to Jace’s word, Austin was in his wheelchair with the others, waiting for her. Which meant she needed to get her head on straight, focus. Whatever this... thing was between her and Kade had to take the back burner for now. She had a mission again. The Equalizers had misread her anger during their questioning of Kade, just as he had, and now believed she was fully one of them.

The hell with that. She was still Team Kade, even if she’d been stupid enough to falter for a few seconds before her common sense kicked back in. And once she had a decent chance to talk to him, she’d make sure he knew.

Kade led them around to the front, which was apparently the only entrance and exit. Everyone was dressed in black with bullet-resistant vests—except for Kade. At his own insistence, he’d showered and changed into his usual jeans and a T-shirt before they’d left the Equalizers’ hideout. If anyone else showed up at the lab while they were here, he wanted to be able to run interference and pretend he was just here for his usual—to run some reports. Of course that only worked if the Equalizers, and Bailey, weren’t seen. Explaining their presence would be pretty much impossible.

In spite of the lack of fencing around the building, the security wasn’t completely lax. For one thing, it was in the mountains, surrounded by woods and little else. But as far as technology went, Kade had to enter security codes and slide his badge through a reader to get them into the building. Then he had to repeat the process through countless other doors to reach the room he wanted to show them.

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