Page 52 of Pride
“Behind you,” he barked.
Alice whirled, tossed the phone cord around the first man’s neck and pulled him in to choke. Parker’s mate moved with lethal precision, striking and defending as though second nature. And there was nothing he could do but stare at the CCTV video footage on his laptop and watch, his pulse rapidly rising, his heart galloping in his chest.
This was different than with Mary. Far different.
She elbowed one in the face and then kicked at a man behind. Pride swelled in his body.Poetry in motion.
But there were too many. How did they get through building security? What if there were more?
He had to go.
Already in his suit, already at penthouse level, all he needed to do was fit the grappling gun gauntlets to his suit and then take a running leap from his balcony and hope his bionic arm would obey his mind. Whilst fitting the clunky devices over his forearms, he realized he could build this tech into the robotic side. He made a mental note to work on it later and took a running leap from his balcony, up and over into the void beyond. His grappling hook shot to the next building and latched on, tensile cord seamlessly retracting and pulling him forward when gravity tried to take him down.
His swing worked smoothly, but passage to the next building required his left arm and if he couldn’t activate the release button in synchronized time, he’d wind up slamming into a facade.
No time for mistakes.
But he made them. He slammed into five buildings like a drunken monkey, his irritation rising to boiling point each time. His only saving grace was that he’d been able to recover and move onto the next building before any tenants noticed him.
When he burst through the rooftop stairwell exit and into the Lazarus Tech building, only one word pierced the madness of his mind.Alice.
He imagined the worst, replaying the way more masked men had converged on her as she’d tried to fight off three at a time.
“AIMI,” he said into the inbuilt microphone in his hood.
“Yes, Pride?”
“Alert any of the team available to be on standby for backup.”
“Copy that.”A pause.“Done. Gluttony and Wrath are suiting up.”
He arrived at the landing to the executive floor and paused at the door, listening to the sounds beyond. Scuffling. Shouts. People. Too many. Were they running to escape or hide? He couldn’t make out anything definitive except that the danger was still present. He pulled the flexible computer screen from the forearm of his suit. It clicked into place.
“Show me the heat map for the top floor of the Lazarus Tech building on my suit screen.”
“Pulling building schematics now. Accessing thermal imaging map. Heat map displayed.”
Military grade thermal imaging flashed over the screen. Bodies moved around the top executive level. He located a huddle barricaded in their offices—his staff—and he located the hostiles encroaching from the elevators, down the corridors, and toward a singular office. His. “Shit.”
One body moved inside the office.One. He frowned. Still and prone bodies around the roving heat signature. Some of the prone bodies were going cold—dead. Had Alice managed to eliminate them and lock herself in the room? If so, she was trapped, but safe. She would need his help to get out.
“AIMI,” he said. “Call my office.”
Alice picked up after one ring.
“Alice?” he said. “Are you okay?”
“P—”
“Pride,” he said over her. While he was in his suit, it was imperative he be addressed as Pride to avoid his identity being compromised. Especially here. “Are you safe?”
She laughed, then made a wheezing sound.She was hurt.
Parker went cold. Empty. The urge to protect his mate, the only instinct penetrating.
“I’m okay. I took care of the ones in this room,” she said, “and I locked the office door, but…”
He exhaled in relief, but tensed after glancing at the heat map. “There’s more outside the office and closing in.”
