Page 14 of Conquered Betrayal
With one last glance at Landon, I left the first-aid room and searched for Marley. I passed their bedroom on the left, mine on the right. The armory door was open, revealing Alina’s favorite spot in the warehouse. At any given time, multiple guns were laid out across the metal table as she cleaned them. She always said it relaxed her, put her in a place of zen, the same way as yoga. I didn’t quite understand it. Cleaning guns was only ever required maintenance to me, but everyone had their quirks.
I paused at the next door, what Alina affectionately called “the cockpit,” and surveyed Marley’s domain. The description wasn’t far off. Marley sat in front of a U-shaped desk with four computer screens. Her ergonomic chair might as well have been a pilot’s seat. There was a second, smaller chair beside her for Alina. The rest of the surface of the desk was taken up by gadgets and things I had no clue about.
Beyond the cockpit was the galley kitchen, then further along, our living room. Sunlight contrasted against the cold of the concrete walls. Alina had done her best to make it homey, placing tropical plants in all the corners, and swathing the floor with overlapping area rugs. Two chocolate brown leather sofas and one armchair faced each other, piled with bright blue and lime throw pillows, a coffee table between them.
I leaned against the cockpit’s door frame and crossed my arms.
“What happened to ‘nobody gets into this place except us’?” Marley asked, turning to me. Her words were light, but her frown intense. Black, coily hair topped her head, tied loosely with a green band. Red glasses complimented her brown skin and eyes. Her bulky knit, gray sweater was rolled up to the elbows.
“I made an executive decision.” Landon would like that phrasing. My stomach squeezed.
“Your decision could jeopardize everything.”
I tossed my hands in exasperation. “Everything was jeopardized the moment Landon entered the picture.”
My friend narrowed her eyes. “True. We should probably talk about that and his involvement in everything. You failed to mention him while we were planning this op.”
“I didn’t know he’d be there.” I crossed my arms again, squeezing them tight against my chest to release tension. “I haven’t seen or heard from him in four years.”
“Yet you two seemed to know each other quite well.”
I didn’t want to go down this avenue of questioning. Not now. Not when all my feelings were being pulled out from where I’d thought I’d buried them. “Is there anything on the news about what happened on the freeway?”
After squinting at me with pursed lips, she turned toward her monitors. “The local stations are calling it gang violence.”
I scoffed. Some gang we were, though it was a good description of Emerson’s goons.
“At least,” Marley went on, “it’s better than them putting an APB out on all three of us and sending our pictures to all the media outlets. I’ve scrubbed what I could of our participation from accessible servers, especially the traffic cams.”
“Thanks.” I rubbed at my temple. “Maybe Emerson has less people on his payroll than I initially thought.”
“We could hope.”
Alina came up behind me. I raised my eyebrows at her. “He’s sleeping it off. Seems fine. The easiest patient I’ve ever had.” She shrugged.
“That’s because he’s passed out.”
She grinned. “Yeah, but it doesn’t make it less true.” She handed Marley a phone and a slim, black leather wallet. “These were in his back pocket.”
Marley took them and looked at me briefly. Wincing internally, I nodded. Landon would be so pissed we messed with his stuff, but we needed to keep this place secure—all our lives depended on it.
“And the sedative won’t last forever,” Alina added, staring at me with a too-shrewd gaze. “What would you like me to do? I mean, now we know he’s going to be okay, we could drop him somewhere safe.”
My stomach plummeted. Dropping him off somewhere, unconscious and unaware of what was happening with my brother, felt worse than what I’d already done to him, including getting him shot. Before we could cut him loose, he should be informed of the danger—without giving away what we were doing here. Because that would put my friends in more peril than they already were in for helping me.
I rubbed a hand over my face. There was no right answer.
“Just…” I pushed away from the door on a long exhale, knowing no matter what I decided, it would be a mistake. “Keep him under until I can figure out what to do.”
6
LANDON
My feet wouldn’t move.My brain wouldn’t accept what I was seeing. Her condo was completely empty.I scared her away.
She’d sent a bullshit resignation letter to human resources. Hell. Shewashuman resources. She was everything. I’d hugged her to me and kissed her forehead two days ago.
But this…it would have taken planning.
