And Reyes?
She turned onto her butt and pushed away from the rubble that slid through the opening. His remembered voice growled, vicious and low in her ear. Councilor Three killed your mother. But Reyes worked for the Council. He worked for Councilor Three. He was one of them, wasn’t he? Why had he helped her escape?
Councilor Three killed your mother. He was one of them.
Lena lifted herself up from the ground, knees and hands bloody. A fine dust covered her. She shook her head, trying to shake the worst of it off her skin and hair.
Councilor Three killed your mother.
She turned and limped down the street as quickly as her knees would allow, angling up behind the building next door, moving away from the shouts and activity behind her.
Councilor Three killed your mother.
Chapter 9
Grit filled Alex’s nose and coated the inside of his mouth. Hands gripped him, holding him in place as he tried to roll away. They snapped a neck brace around him and then counted off. He didn’t need a damn brace. He tried to tell them, but remnants of the ceiling gummed in his mouth and made him choke again when he inhaled. On the count of three, the techs rolled him to slide a backboard behind him. His bellow of pain became snorts and hacks that cleared the worst of the debris and allowed him to breathe easier. At least he wasn’t choking anymore, as he had been in the time it had taken them to get in the door.
Each breath burned agony in his chest, but it was infinitely preferable to choking. Every move lit a fire in his ribs. When he’d been thrown back like a rag doll in the last moments before Lena had exploded the wall, his left side had slammed into the end of the bed before he’d fallen. The toss across the room had protected him when the ceiling came down like a hinge, but his ribs were in misery.
And her explosion? He couldn’t wait to learn that trick—once he had gotten her back to safety. He groaned. Someone above him shouted some drivel about being okay. Yeah. Whatever.
They lifted him and carried him down the long hall to the old wing before handing him off to some waiting medics. He managed to crack his eyelids open. Grit fell past them and burned like cinders. He squeezed them shut and grunted in displeasure. Someone swiped his face with a cool, wet rag, carefully easing it along both eyes and then down and around his nose.
He tried again, fluttering his lashes and then lifting them. A nurse with a grim face but a gentle touch cleared the worst of the dust and debris from his face and ears. Someone else examined his chest and legs.
“What happened?” Alex frowned at them. He hadn’t lost consciousness after the second blast. But he hoped to pass for woozy and newly conscious. “Where are the others?”
The nurses exchanged a look over him. He could hear someone shouting in the hall outside. Though his damaged right ear muted sound, he thought it might be Lew Merritt, Councilor Three’s Junior Security Director, who served directly under Hernandez.
One of the nurses said something about being right back and stepped away. She called down the hall, informing someone of his status. A moment after she returned, running her hands over each arm in turn, he could hear Merritt’s heavy footsteps.
“I said, what happened?” Alex repeated, raising his voice for effect.
Merritt’s clipped voice sounded from somewhere behind and above his head. “We’re hoping you can tell us.”
Alex made a move as if to turn and see Merritt. The nurse hissed at him and held him still. Merritt came closer, standing behind the nurse. He was a big man, both tall and wide. Even his features were big—lantern jaw and long, wide boxer’s nose over a bristling blonde mustache.
Alex furrowed his brow. He needed to know who survived before he made a move. “Where are Hernandez and Lucas?”
“They’re working on prying Lucas out. He’s alive, but barely.” Merritt paused, the muscles around his brows tightening. “Hernandez was killed, along with one of the women. The suspect’s mother, I’m told. What happened?”
“We were interrogating the Gracey woman. Hernandez was charging, with Lucas questioning. I was observing.” Alex made a show of thinking.
With Hernandez dead and Lucas down for the count, things were easier. However, he had no doubt there was more going on within the Council than Alex or his people knew about. Without knowing the parties involved or being able to guess the end-goal, he’d have to tread carefully. Carefully but quickly. His mind flashed to the lost, broken quality to Lena’s voice in that dark room. His stomach turned over. He had to find her.