Page 54 of Over the Edge

The room fell silent. No one breathed. I wanted to kick Flynn under the table, and cursed myself for sitting so far away from him. What did he think he’d achieve by jabbing at a wound Ethan hadn’t even begun to let heal?

Flynn leaned back in his seat again, folding his hands behind his head. “Seems like the problem isn’t the tactics, it’s that Lyric’s the one using them.”

Ethan’s face went pale, then flushed with anger. For a heartbeat, I thought he might actually hit Flynn. Instead, he braced his hands on the table and leaned forward, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. “I didn’t ask for your opinion, Shepherd, and you’re way out of line. You’re not even officially part of this team.”

“No, and that’s the way I like it.”

I watched Flynn’s face harden, those amber eyes turning molten with challenge as he stood and faced Ethan across the table. The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.

“Then why are you still here?” Ethan asked, still in that deadly quiet tone. “If you prefer being a lone wolf…” He jerked his chin. “There’s the door.”

Flynn’s jaw tightened. “Because a long time ago, I gave you my word that whenever you needed help, I’d be here for you. Andyouneed helpright now, E. So here I am.”

I found myself holding my breath, watching the silent standoff between these two men who clearly shared a history that went far deeper than I’d realized.

“You hired me for my expertise, E,” Flynn added quietly after a long, charged moment. “And my expert opinion is that Lyric did the smart thing by taking dangerous technology out of play. She might’ve even turned Sentinel to slag last night. Problem solved.”

“No, problem multiplied,” Ethan countered and straightened, running a hand over his face. His expression was still rigid but marginally less murderous. “The local authorities are involved. Interpol is sniffing around. And Moreau knows someone is targeting his operation.”

Ozzy cleared his throat. “Actually, he doesn’t.”

All eyes turned to him. He spun his tablet around, showing surveillance footage of the crash site. “I intercepted the comms from Moreau’s security team. They think it was the Chinese. Remember the buyers at the hangar? Wei Zhao? Apparently, you were watching their negotiations break down.”

“That’s... convenient,” Trent said, leaning forward with newfound interest. He looked at Ethan. “Could mean Lyric’s cover is still uncompromised.”

Ethan paced the length of the table, his anger morphing into something more focused. “Is Elisa Deveraux still viable?”

A fair question. I’d been wondering the same thing since we left three bodies cooling in that parking garage.

Even though he’d asked the room and not me specifically, I answered. “So far, yes. We killed all of the guards who saw my face, and I haven’t heard from Moreau. The invitation is still in my possession.” I pulled it from my pocket and placed it on the table. “If he suspected me, he’d have sent someone for this already.”

“Or he’s watching to see what you’ll do,” Alistair said quietly, speaking for the first time.

Flynn’s eyes met mine across the table. We both knew Alistair was right. Moreau was too careful, too calculating to leave things to chance. If he had even a whisper of suspicion about me, he’d be setting traps.

“Then I’ll give him what he expects,” I said firmly. “Elisa Deveraux will arrive at the auction with her security detail, ready to buy Sentinel by any means necessary.”

“And if he’s waiting with a bullet instead of an auction paddle?” Trent asked.

I shrugged. “Then I’ll deal with it.”

“We’ll deal with it,” Flynn corrected, his voice brooking no argument.

Ethan studied us both, his expression unreadable. Something passed between him and Flynn—some silent communication born of shared history that excluded the rest of us.

For the first time, I wondered about that history. Flynn had made it very clear he’d only taken this job initially because of Ethan.

“It gets better,” Ozzy continued, swiping to another screen, drawing me out of my thoughts. “Moreau’s people are in full panic mode. They’re moving the auction up. Tomorrow night, not this weekend.”

My heart skipped. “Tomorrow? Where? Still at the docks?”

Ozzy scowled at me. “Still working on that, but I’ve got algorithms scanning every communication channel Moreau’s ever used.”

Nolan raised a hand. “Uh, question. Why don’t I just fly over the hangar and drop a few high-yield thermobarics and…” He gestured with his hands to mimic an explosion. “… boom. Call it a day?”

“Because we need confirmation,” Ethan said, shutting him down with a look. “We need to verify Sentinel was actually in that truck. And if it wasn’t, we need to find it before Moreau sells it to the highest bidder.” He pinned me with his stare. “If that technology gets loose, it’s a global security nightmare. One rogue drone could assassinate a world leader. A swarm could take out an entire government.”

“And they already evacuated the hangar,” Ozzy said without looking up from his laptop screen. “You just want to blow shit up.”

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