Page 43 of Truth or Lie

NINETEEN

Flynn

TWO FIGURES tumbledoff the raised stage and fell to the floor, twitching. One was a big guy—probably an alpha. I didn’t get a good look at the second before the clouds of gas billowed off the stage, obscuring the convulsing body. Then the beta woman who’d spoken before Kam staggered out of the obscuring vapor. She was limping but seemed otherwise unharmed as she ran toward the crowd in the auditorium, shrieking for help.

Irina’s hand closed on my bicep, dragging at me until I turned to look at her.

“Stop!” she barked. “It’s the VX agent. It has to be! Help the others get Alex and Leona out of here. If you go in there after Patel, you’ll die. I’ll get him.”

Leo’s terror and the others’ shocked disbelief battered at me through the bond. “You’ll die, too,” I said stupidly.

“Maybe not,” she said. Then she was gone—disappearing into the expanding fog.

I stared after her for the space of a heartbeat, my feet frozen in place. I knew I had to act. Jax would keep Leo from charging after Kam, but Irina was right—if Alex realized that both Irina and Kam were in the gas, she might do something irrational. Jax would need help to get both of them out of here safely.

The gas was only feet away, creeping in white swirls toward my feet. Right on cue, Jax’s wordless call for help echoed through the bond. I dragged my body free of its paralysis and sprinted toward the rest of my pack. Most other people in the audience hall were already running toward the exits, but Polonsky charged past me going the other direction... toward where Irina had disappeared into the gas.

For a split second I considered trying to stop him, but I didn’t have time and he was a beta. If Irina was right about this being the BLF’s experimental gas, he would probably be all right.

Leo was screaming. I thought it had only been inside my head, but no. It was in my ears, too.

“Let me go! Kam!Kam!”

Jax held her, and Nikolayev had a restraining hand around Alex’s arm—which wasn’t going to end well if he kept it there much longer. I charged in and knocked her off balance before she could break the Russian’s kneecap and punch him out cold.

“Out!” I snarled. “Get the others out! Polonsky’s a beta—he’s gone after Kam and Irina!” I gave Alex a shove, knowing that if she fought back with any sort of force we were all going to be screwed.

Beckett appeared, white-faced. “This way,” he ordered, in that tone we’d all learned over the years to obey without thought. “Now.”

The gas rolled through the cavernous hall, spreading outward. Jax picked Leo up and bodily hauled her after Beckett, who had Nikolayev by the arm and was leading him in the wake of a tight phalanx of dark-suited security goons escorting Prime Minister Fairbanks toward the nearest exit.

I tamped down the mating bond as best I could in an attempt to try and keep my wits about me, but first I sent a silent prayer in Alex’s direction—please don’t fight us. With my hand clamped on her shoulder, I followed the others into the crush of people gathered in front of the double doors. It was exactly like fucking Belarus, except this time the bottleneck at the exit might end up being fatal for anyone stuck at the back, if the gas caught up with them.

A moment later, Beckett’s strategy revealed itself. One of the UFNA bodyguards protecting Fairbanks roared, “Move!” When the knot of people in front of him didn’t immediately clear, he lifted an arm and fired off a single gunshot at the distant ceiling. “I said move!”

The crowd around the door heaved forward in panic, erupting through the exit like a champagne cork being shot from a bottle. Beckett stuck to the back of Fairbanks’ retinue like glue, and the rest of us followed suit. Bodies battered at me—other panicked attendees being tossed around by the tide of the crowd. I ignored them in favor of keeping a hand on Alex and an eye on Jax and Leona, while simultaneously slamming a heavy mental door closed on thoughts of Kam trapped in the cloud of experimental nerve gas.

If he was dead, there was nothing I could do except grieve him, and try to kill every bastard who’d ever given the Beta Liberation Front the time of day. If he wasn’t dead, there was still nothing I could do. Not right now. I had to keep the others alive, and anyway, it would have been physically impossible to turn back and force my way through the press of humanity squeezing through the doors.

Leo’s hysteria and Alex’s desperate, toxic self-loathing throbbed through the bond despite my best efforts to block them, nearly drowning out Jax’s cold determination to keep us safe. Beckett stayed right on the heels of Fairbanks’ team, probably assuming that they would be heading for someplace secure.

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