Page 25 of Between Imminent Fates

“Disturbing. They brought in a dozen new people. Homeless, vagrants, runaways. Key, I’m not sure how much longer I can take being there. There’s a teenager there,” he shook his head, “can’t be more than eighteen. It took everything I had not to go unlatch the cell they’re in when Rayn left.”

Key stiffened beside him. By this point, he knew that she was experiencing a vision—it wasn’t a reaction to his words. When the tension ebbed from her moments later, he’d already tangled his fingers through hers.

“It must wear on you,” she whispered. “I can’t even imagine.”

Jax brushed his lips across her knuckles, hiding from the sorrow that her words evoked. He hated that his hands were tied, and the only thing that kept him going most days was that he was contributing to their downfall.

“If it helps, there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

“Oh?”

She took a deep breath, almost as if she needed to prepare herself for what came next. “I need to ask you a favor—two, actually.”

“Even better.”

“We need to retrieve a document from Torrin Scayde’s apartment,” she began, “but he’s outfitted it with tech that’d seriously injure an immortal.”

“How so?”

“His lighting is ultraviolet, which means any vampire who enters would burn immediately,” she explained. “Rayn has created a type of auto-deployment system that emits silver particles into the air, which automatically count the werewolves and Raeths out.”

“What about the Elementals?”

“Every time I foresee one of them enter, they die.” Her eyes misted. “Gideon, Jeremiah, Rukia: none of them come out of there alive.”

“What about if I go in? Will I survive?” At her nod, his mind was made up. “When and where?”

“It won’t be easy,” she said. “It’s dangerous, and the more I’ve tried to search for a way out of it, the less I see.”

“Key,” he tilted up her chin to catch her gaze, “I’m in danger every moment I’m at that facility. Putting my life on the line to undermine their plans would give me no greater honor.”

“Just tell me where. I’m yours.”

It seemed to lift a weight off her shoulders. “Tomorrow evening, I’ll bring everything we have on Torrin’s apartment, and we can walk through the mission together.”

He nodded, already running through what he would need to know to ensure the operation’s success. Absently, he turned on the television to the Hallmark movie they’d stopped halfway last night. While it played in the background, he grabbed a pack of Oreos—Key’s favorite—and set them down in front of her. Nabbing three, she snuggled in beside him.

A lightbulb turned on. “You said you had two favors to ask. What was the other one?”

Key grimaced and looked at the cookie like she’d lost her appetite. “The other is in relation to your commanding officer. If we succeed, it’ll result in the immediate dissolution of the facility where you work.”

A kernel of hope bloomed beside the adrenaline that kicked into his blood. Though he loathed Barlowe’s actions to the core of his being, he wouldn’t agree to anything that required torture or murder.

“How so?”

“Sobell will be out sick in a week,” she replied. “That night, I’m asking that you bring Barlowe to me instead of taking him back to base. I assure you: he won’t be killed.”

“Whatwillyou do with him?”

“Scrub his memories and erase the facility from his mind.”

Jax didn’t know whether to be impressed or horrified. “You can do that?”

“Ican’t, but I have a friend who can.” Her fingers tightened around his. “It won’t hurt him, but it’ll give us the in to destroy the facility where you work and free the people who’ve been kidnapped. Once you leave there that night, you’ll never need to return.”

Jax nodded, mulling through her proposal. The strategy would require him to put some skin in the game, and careful planning on their part would be a necessity. If they failed, he’d be subjected to a court martial if Rayn didn’t take vengeance first. At this point, it didn’t matter.

The screams of the victims inside the cages haunted his nightmares.

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