Page 58 of Red Marked

“Stay on the wall,” he mouths.

I nod.

I press my shoulder to the blocks and edge along behind him. We move slowly over the gravel to keep from making a noise.

Once we are through, he takes us across a yard to a door on the other side.

It’s a three-story block with lit windows on the upper floors. Flint presses his thumb to a pad beside it, and something clicks.

He pulls it open six inches and puts his ear to the gap.

He pulls it wider, and we go into a stairwell.

“Go,” he whispers.

I slip through. He comes in behind me and eases the door shut without a sound.

I’m inside. I look around, my eyes wide.

This is actually happening. I can hardly believe it.

21

Flint

“Stay close. We need to keep very quiet. Remember, hide if you have to.” I know I already said all of this, but Star is so awestruck now that we’re inside, I’m afraid she might forget.

“I will,” she mouths, nodding.

We go in through the side door by the debrief room and along the service corridor, up the back stairwell, and into the housing wing. Star moves behind me without a sound. I check over my shoulder twice to make sure she’s still there.

The hallway to my door runs off the main hall. It’s a dead end with six doors; mine is at the far end.

We’re a hallway short of my door when boots hit tile around the corner behind us. Someone is coming this way, and they’re moving fast.

Fuck!

I turn to push her back toward the stairs, and she’s not there.

Air moves above me.

She’s against the ceiling with her palms flat against one wall, bare feet braced against the other, her body stretched across the width of the hallway an inch below the plaster, above the light where the glow doesn’t reach. Her dark hair hangs straight down. The shirt pulls all the way up, showing her bare ass. Fuck me! I have to drag my eyes away. I can’t hear her breathe, which is good.

How is she doing that?

I take a few steps back, praying like mad he doesn’t find her hanging there.

Slate turns the corner. “Sir.” He stops short and straightens, looking at me like I grew a second head. “You’re still up. I thought after all the excitement that you’d be in bed long ago.”

“I went to check on the Draig females.”

“Of course, sir. It makes sense you would be worried about them because…given that… It just makes sense. And are they doing okay?”

Why’d I have to run into the chattiest guard of them all?

Fuck!

“They’re as fine as can be expected. They’re looking forward to heading home.”