Page 121 of Burn Like An Angel

Warner clears his throat, gesturing to the huge man first. “Enzo Montpellier. Second in command of Sabre Security.”

Scanning us up and down, Enzo narrows his bright-amber eyes. “You’re all looking rough.”

“Charming, aren’t they?” Raine snorts to himself.

“Trust me,” Lennox whispers back to him. “If you could see us, you’d agree with them.”

Enzo gestures to his glasses-wearing colleague. “You’ve been speaking to Theo. Head of Intelligence.” He turns to wave a hand at their security detail. “This is Becket, Ethan and Tara. Warner’s teammates.”

With pleasantries exchanged, I run out of patience. It takes a moment to moisten my mouth enough to form words.

“There are bodies behind us,” I rasp. “Just outside Keyworth. Look for the maize field.”

“How many?” Enzo doesn’t even bat an eye, his attentive stare still locked on me.

“Four.” Xander eyes him suspiciously. “And another in the van we ditched several miles back. An unconscious hostage all trussed up too. He works for Incendia.”

Murmuring to each other, Warner’s teammates seem to be formulating a plan.

“Rae.” I glance at Warner, vision swimming with burning tears. “They killed Rae.”

“Oh, Rip.” His gaze fractures with sympathy.

“Harrison shot her. He tracked us down in the middle of the night.” My voice cracks. “We ran for our lives. They had weapons… an assault rifle. We barely escaped.”

“Are you injured?”

I contemplate our sorry states. “A little. Raine has a sprained ankle. And all our stuff is gone… Meds, clothes, everything. We lost it all.”

“Don’t worry; we can sort all that out and arrange immediate medical attention. What about Harrison? Is he alive?”

“Not anymore.” Xander lays a possessive hand on my shoulder.

I push past my grief, sucking in a deep breath. “Rae’s body is in the van. I couldn’t just leave her in the field. She deserves better.”

Cataloguing that information, Warner nods. “I’ll take care of her, Rip. I promise.”

He turns to his teammates. Weirdly, Warner defers to the older blonde guy, Becket, who seems to be presiding over the small group. I reluctantly match the smile he shoots me.

“We can locate the vehicle,” Becket assures me. “And it’s… contents.”

Theo clutches his laptop. “You’ll need help disabling the tracking software. I’ll accompany you.” He looks at Enzo. “Are you taking them back to HQ?”

“Hunter has a safe house lined up,” Enzo responds. “Brooklyn and the others are still at HQ. We’d like to keep witnesses separate to avoid evidence contamination.”

I perk up at the familiar name. The escapee from Blackwood. She’s still working with them. These people seem to be collecting Incendia’s strays faster than we can escape.

“Just hold on a minute.” Theo and Becket turn back at Lennox’s deep timbre. “Why should we trust you?”

“Nox,” Raine chastises.

“In the last twenty-four hours, we’ve been hunted down, shot at, threatened, beaten and damn near killed. I respect Ripley’s choice to make this call, but I still want assurances that my family will be safe.”

My head jerks in his direction, a swarm gathering in my stomach.Family.Lennox fucking Nash wants his family to be safe—including me.

His pale-green gaze snaps up as if he can feel my surprise. For a breathless second, we’re alone. Isolated by our locked eyes. Hatred bled into attraction a long time ago, but right now, it feels like something more. A destructive force.

The kind that ruins people.

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