Page 102 of Reckless: Chaos

Smash and grab.

Easy peezy.

Right?

My palm sweats around the tire iron as I stare down into the darkness. Like mother, like daughter—both of us crawling through dark places to expose Sterling’s sins. Only this time, I’m not running away.

I’m running straight at him.

What could go wrong?

Chapter 23

Cayenne

Funny thingabout infiltrating high-security buildings—they all smell the same. Like ozone and recycled air and too many secrets. Sterling Labs’ maintenance tunnels are no different, though something about them feels... familiar. Like code I wrote in a past life, coming back to haunt me.

The service access panel yields to my mechanical picks with suspicious ease. Ryker’s voice echoes in my head—if it feels too easy, it probably is. But then, Sterling probably never expected anyone to come at him from below. Too focused on his towers, on building ever higher, to watch the shadows at his feet.

Just like he never watched for the beta baby growing up in his shadow.

Emergency lights cast sickly green shadows across concrete walls, turning every corner into a potential ambush point. The tunnels stretch ahead like arteries beneath the city, carrying the building’s lifeblood of water, power, and data. I’ve memorized these layouts until I could trace them in my sleep, but something feels off about the reality versus my memory. Like looking at your own reflection in warped glass—familiar but wrong.

“Getting paranoid in your old age,” I mutter, adjusting the emerald beanie. The wool catches on my fingers, Jinx’sprotection settling more firmly against my scalp. For luck. For courage. For the sister he lost and the family I’m trying to save.

A guard’s flashlight beam sweeps the intersection ahead. I press against cold concrete, letting shadows swallow me whole. Finn’s lessons in patience echo in my head—count the beats between sweeps, learn the pattern, find the gaps.

One-one thousand. Two-one thousand. The light passes.

Three-one thousand. Four-one thousand. Boot steps fade.

Five-one thousand. Clear.

I slide forward, every movement measured like notes in one of Theo’s compositions. The first security checkpoint waits ahead—cards, codes, biometrics. Sterling believes in layers. But I’ve spent two months learning from the best, haven’t I?

The guard’s pattern takes him east. I go west, hugging the wall where the emergency lights cast the deepest shadows. The mechanical lock picks feel cold in my hands, steady despite the adrenaline singing through my veins.

Three cameras. Two motion sensors. One keypad with wear patterns on specific numbers—amateur hour for a facility this secure.

“Too easy,” I breathe, but something in my chest tightens. Way too easy for a man who built quantum tracking programs into his security systems.

A distant echo makes me freeze. Metal on concrete, like someone trying very hard to move silently and almost succeeding. Could be the building settling. Could be maintenance. Could be?—

The beanie shifts as my hair stands on end.

Could be I’m not as alone down here as I thought.

My heartbeat kicks up a notch as I press deeper into the shadows. Another guard’s footsteps approach—heavier than the last, more purposeful. This one’s actually paying attention, scanning corners instead of just going through the motions.

Good thing Jinx taught me how to become part of the darkness.

I hold my breath as the beam cuts through the space where I was standing seconds ago. One sweep. Two. The guard pauses, and for a moment I swear he’s looking right at me. But Ryker’s voice steadies my nerves—they always look twice at the obvious spots. It’s the spaces between they forget to check.

The light moves on. I count thirty seconds before allowing myself to breathe.

That echo returns—closer now. Not guard boots. Something else. Something that moves like it knows these tunnels, like it’s hunting rather than patrolling.

Keep moving or retreat? Ryker would say retreat—live to fight another day. But mom’s letter burns in my memory like corrupted code. If I don’t end this now, how many more betas die?

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