Page 135 of Painted Scars
“You good to stand?” I lean forward and collect Katar’s weapon before Grayson trips on it.
“Yeah.” Grayson wobbles to his feet.
I steady him with a hand to his arm. “What the hell are you doing out here? Where’s Kate?”
He grunts and winces. “Proximity alarms went off, and we evacuated. They… took her.”
My ears ring. My vision tunnels to the point of Grayson’s face and the blood on his neck.
“How’d they find us?” My voice is stripped bare.
He doesn’t answer fast enough. My brain’s already filling in the blanks. Blackthorn’s men. Her wrists bound. Mouth gagged.That wild terrified look in her eyes. Cold fear rushes my system, readying me to cut someone for it.
I don’t need Grayson to spell it out. I know the sequence. Alarms, chaos, his panic spiking before he can catch his breath. He’s already got the noose of guilt tightening around his neck. I don’t twist it.
“We need to find her.” My voice is sharp like the metallic ping of the bullets that left holes in the cinderblock to the right. “Can you track her?”
I loaded a tracking app on her phone and added a backup GPS in the circuitry for this very possibility. Placed another tracker under the amethyst of her ring. Provided Blackthorn’s men didn’t toss either of them out, we have a chance to save her before they hurt her.
“Yeah.” Grayson blinks away the last edges of his anxiety.
I shuck off my jacket and shirt, securing the cotton on the wound. “First priority—stop the bleeding. Second—track her and save her. Got it?”
He nods, and I slide an arm under his shoulder, forcing his legs to do their job, getting him back to the bunker. The steel door slams shut like a vault closing. The sound grips my chest. I drop him into his seat and grab the med kit. He grunts as he peels off his ruined clothing, the wet mess making a sodden slap on the cold concrete.
I remove all the first aid equipment. Scissors, gauze, blood clotting powder, saline rinse, and tape. I funnel my focus into stemming the blood and letting my friend do his thing. I can’t afford to lose him too.
Jaw clenched, he stabs each key, fighting back the shock circling at the edge of his mind.
Phone cradled between my shoulder and neck, I patch through a warning to Katar. “Unicorn’s been taken. Stand by for orders.”
“Roger that.” His neck cracks loud enough to pass as a gunshot.
He ends the call, and I lower my phone to Grayson’s desk.
I flood my friend’s wound with antiseptic rinse, and he sucks in air like I’ve poured acid on him. The bullet sliced a shallow layer of skin. My fingers move with methodical precision, dropping powder on the wound, and stitching him closed in quick loops. Nothing pretty, just enough to stop him bleeding.
“You’re shaking.” Grayson brings up a map and zooms in on the location. A circle throbs outwards like a water ripple.
“Adrenaline.” The words taste like rust. I finish the bandage wrap and tug to test if it’s on firm.
Every second ticks past like a countdown. I need to get to Kate and ensure her safety. My eyes dart to the empty chair she occupied less than an hour ago. The ghost of her shampoo fills my senses. I’ll tear out Blackthorn’s throat.
Grayson turns to face me, face drawn and defeated as he delivers the bad news. “They threw out her phone and handbag, and we’ve lost signal.”
Fuck. I press my knuckles into the edge of the bench until pain clarifies into purpose. “Track whoever took her via traffic cameras. We can’t give up.”
His fingers hover over the keyboard. “What if there’s another way?”
“How?” I pace along the edge of his desk.
He shifts the monitor in my direction. “We stop being shadows and make you the most public man in Shadow Lake.” He swallows, but not before I catch it. The fear for me underneath it. “We hit the national feed. We go on record. Your name and face. Declare war the proper way.”
I stare into the small, unblinking eye. Every rule I made to keep us alive flashes back at me. I built this network, brick by brick, sleepless night after night, to expose the monsters in thedark. Not to blow it all up in one flare. Anonymity is what kept my small team and me alive.
I huff out a bitter laugh. “You want me to burn our anonymity?”
“Be the hero, August,” he urges. “Show those fuckers you’ll set yourself alight to save her.”
