Page 48 of Fight or Fly

“And the bastard wants me to come along on this so-called ‘retrieval mission’because...?” I asked.

Leona sighed. “To begin with, he apparently thought we were all mated. I think he wanted to use the bond as some sort of tracking aid, or... something. Now that he knows we’re not, I’m pretty sure he wants you there so Alex, Flynn, and Beckett won’t fight back against his people while they’re trying to extract them.”

“I’m supposed to be the fucking Judas goat?” I said. “No, thank you.”

Kam had been watching the exchange. At that, he spoke up. “Leo. You agreed to this. What are you seeing here that we’re not?”

“Or did he force you to agree by threatening us if you didn’t?” I added, since that seemed like an obvious possibility.

“Oddly enough, he didn’t,” she replied. “Here’s the way I’m looking at it. If we’re all together, we have a slightly better chance than if we’re separated. And while I don’t claim to know what game Nikolayev is playing, Iabsolutelyknow what game Sloane’s playing. If Sloane gets the name of Beckett’s mate, it sounds like that’s going to be a disaster for everyone.”

“And if Nikolayev gets it instead?” I asked.

She pulled out a chair and sat down. “I’m not sure. Sloane wants to burn down the world and rebuild it in his own image. I get the impression Nikolayev would prefer there to still be a functioning global society at the end of the day, because he knows that being the king of a smoldering wasteland isn’t much of an accomplishment.”

Kam, who’d been sitting on the bed, nodded thoughtfully. His hand lifted to rub absently at his left shoulder, where I’d bitten him. I wasn’t sure he was even aware he was doing it.

“The Committee only exists as long as it has an enemy to rally people against,” he said slowly. “As long as there’s a credible threat of alphomic rebellion bubbling beneath the surface, Nikolayev has a job, not to mention an infrastructure funneling money and influence in his direction. But if alphas and omegas no longer pose any sort of threat in the minds of his followers...” He trailed off and shrugged.

“He’s under pressure.” Leona met my eyes frankly. “I don’t know if the threat of losing his position would be enough to account for it, but I’ll stake my life that he’s fraying at the edges right now. It makes me wonder if there’s more to Beckett and his secrets than we know about.”

“So you want to try and get the others into the custody of the slightly less insane Committee chairman,” I said. “What if you’re wrong about this, and the fact that Nikolayev isn’t as much of a nutjob as Sloane means that he’s actuallymoredangerous?”

“It’s possible,” she said. “Here’s the thing, though. Nothing’s stopping Nikolayev from having Kam and me hauled out of this cell under threat of immediate death if you don’t do exactly what he tells you to. I’m wondering why he didn’t lead with that, personally.”

My lips twisted, old bitterness getting the best of me. “Easy. A willing slave is always better than an unwilling one.”

“There’s also Irina,” Kam said. “There was nothing stopping him from sending her to the executioner after she was arrested and tried. But he didn’t.”

I could feel my blood pressure spike at the mention of Alex’s traitorous mate. “Maybe that says more about her than it does about him,” I bit out.

“No,” Leo said flatly. “Itreallydoesn’t.”

“She wasn’t the one with the power,” Kam said. “Unless she had some kind of information valuable enough to use as blackmail against Nikolayev, he had all the leverage, and she had none.”

“Even if she did have something to use against him,” Leo added, “killing the blackmailer usually solves those kinds of problems. Also, if she were being kept alive because she’s got dirt on Nikolayev, it would make a lot more sense to pay her off and hide her away someplace safe and obscure, rather than putting her in a position of power within a private paramilitary force.”

My instincts clamored against collaborating with these assholes who were holding us prisoner, but Leona had a point that if Nikolayev decided to force my hand, he had two very good ways to do so.

“You both want me to do this?” I asked.

They exchanged one of those looks that contained an entire wordless conversation.

Leo was the one to answer. “We know the others are in a horrific situation right now—probably undergoing torture. No matter how strong Beckett is, you know he loves the three of you like his own pups. He won’t last forever before he breaks.”

The words were like a knife in the gut, twisting and tearing. I had to physically stop myself from hunching over beneath their force.

“If they’re here with us, it might end up being better and it might end up being worse,” Leo said softly. “But at least we’ll be together, and we can go from there.”

There was a painful pause.

“All right,” I managed eventually, well aware that I was a nerve-damaged emotional wreck who probably had no business getting within ten miles of a covert ops mission.

Leo nodded. “I insisted Irina be the one to command the mission. With luck, that will ensure Flynn and Alex get out alive, along with Beckett. Nikolayev won’t let Sloane keep them, but I’m not entirely convinced he cares all that much how they’re taken off the board.”

“Either we’ll all get out or none of us will,” I vowed, aware that might not have sounded terribly reassuring.

“We know,” Kam said. “Go and bring them back to us, okay?”

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