Page 94 of Risky Passion

"They’ll be okay," he murmured, his voice firm and steady. "I’m sure of it. Those men and women are the toughest people we know."

I buried my face in his shoulder as the weight of the world pressed down on me. But the gnawing fear in my chest refused to let up, whispering relentlessly:What if they weren’t tough enough this time?

I shook my head, forcing the thought away. My chin quivered as I pulled back to meet his eyes, desperate for some kind of reassurance. "She said two are still missing under the collapsed warehouse. You needto find them. You and Onyx. That’s what you do, isn’t it? You find people?"

He gripped my shoulders, firm and steady, but his eyes betrayed the storm raging inside him.

"Get in the car," he said, and before I replied, he sprinted around to the driver’s seat.

I slid into the back seat and shut the door, and as I fumbled with my belt, adrenaline surged through me, getting ready for the wild ride I knew was coming.

Jaxson yanked his seatbelt on and slammed his foot on the accelerator. The cruiser roared to life, lurching forward as Whitney reached up to brace himself against the roof.

"What are we doing, brother?" Whitney blurted.

"We need a phone to call Parker." Jaxson’s tone was clipped, his focus laser-sharp. "Then we’re heading to that warehouse. Me and Onyx are going to find them. Those guys might not have much time."

“Is there any more info on the radio?” I asked, and as Jaxson took a turn much faster than I would have liked, I gripped the edge of my seat, digging my nails into the leather.

Whitney held the handle over the door as he turned the radio from one channel to the next, finding nothing but music. Finally, he turned the radio down. “I’ll check again in a minute.”

The air in the car seemed to bristle with tension like an electric storm as questions spilled out from all of us, frantic and overlapping . . .

"Who was hurt?"

"Who’s missing?"

"Was one of them Maya? Or Viper?"

"I understand why B wanted to kill Grant Hughes, but why would she want to kill the Alpha Tactical Ops team?" I asked, my voice trembling with equal parts fear and anger.

Jaxson didn’t answer. Instead, he gripped the steering wheel as he pushed the car harder.

CHAPTER 24

Tory

The cruiser hitthe on-ramp for the Bruce Highway with a jolt, and Jaxson floored the engine. The car shot forward like a missile, veering into the flow of traffic with terrifying speed. He didn’t merge so much as dodge; zigzagging around slower vehicles at least fifteen miles faster than anyone else.

For once, I was grateful we were in a cop car. “You didn’t answer my question. Why would B want to kill Aria and her team?”

Jaxson waited until we’d thundered past a double semi-trailer.

"Aria and the Alpha Ops team have come closer to catching B than anyone," he said. "That's why she wants them dead."

I leaned forward, gripping the back of his seat. "Then that means we can trust them, right? If B's targeting them, then they can’t be working for her.”

Jaxson's eyes met mine in the mirror, and his expression was thoughtful, calculating.

His knuckles whitened on the wheel. "I think she's tying off loose ends and getting ready to vanish."

"But why now?" I frowned. "Nobody knows who she is. She could disappear before anyone figures out her identity."

Whitney twisted in his seat to face me, his eyes bright with realization. "She tried to destroy those boxes in that fire. So they must contain something that could lead us right to her."

"I agree,” I said. “This evidence is the key to bringing that bitch down. The fact that she came back for that body, too, is?—”

“Hey, lucky I kept all those specimen samples,” Whitney interrupted. “She may have taken the body, but with the photos and samples I took, I’m hoping we can still ID that body.”

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