I nod, even though he can’t see me, and direct everyone on how we’ll achieve our part of the plan. I don’t know how Cain plans on rescuing the kids, and honestly, I don’t care. All of my energy is on Hadley.
It’s not long later when we turn off the main road onto an overgrown track that leads to the back entrance of the compound, and Hawk switches off the headlights. Following behind us, Mason does the same, and we drive in darkness for another few minutes, the car bumping over the uneven ground until we come to a stop. Squinting through the darkness, there’s no sign of anyone else around. We must be the first to arrive.
Grabbing my backpack, we get out of the car, and the others meet us at the hood. Unzipping the bag, I pull out the tablet and open the necessary program, getting ready to send the compound into lockdown once Cain and his men arrive. Once I’m sure everything’s in order, I pull up the map for the compound, and the others huddle around me so they can look as well. With the exception of Wilder, we’ve all been inside, and we’ve spent all week constructing the layout as best we can. There’s plenty of blank areas on the map—areas that weren’t pointed out to us on our tour, or that Beck hasn’t been privy to, but it’s the best we’ve got. We know enough to get to where they’re hopefully holding Hadley, and that’s all that matters.
“Currently, we’re here.” I point my finger to the back entrance to the compound, mostly for Wilder’s benefit, but it can’t hurt for all of us to go over the route one last time. “The last time we saw Hadley, she was here.” I move my finger to the interrogation sector where we’re hoping Hadley is still being held, and quickly walk us through the plan one final time. I’ve been over it so many times now that I could navigate my way to Hadley’s cell blindfolded and drunk. As I’m finishing up, the beam of headlights washes over us and the overgrown field we’re parked in, before they’re switched off, and several large vehicles pull up behind our own cars.
All of us watch tensely as a tall, broad man, covered in tattoos and looking like the last person you want to be meeting up with in the dark, climbs out of the nearest vehicle. I’m guessing this must be Cain. Beck moves to greet him and, despite his thuggish appearance and tight set jaw, he embraces Beck in a quick bro hug before coming to join the rest of us.
Casting my eyes behind him, I notice what I’m assuming are Cain’s men, climbing out of the vehicles and hovering nearby, eyeing us warily as they wait for further instructions.
“Guys, this is Cain,” Beck introduces as the two of them move to join us.
Cain gives a sharp nod of his head, running his eyes in an assessing manner over each of us. His gaze lingers on me for a second longer. “This one’s your brother?”
My eyebrows lift in surprise, not having expected him to know who I am, let alone be able to figure out in the darkness that I’m the brother. His voice is gruff, unfriendly; and combined with his hard, penetrating stare, I’m pretty sure he doesn’t like me.
“Yeah,” Beck confirms. “This is West.”
His eyes sweep over me once again, and I swear I see the corner of his lip lift in a small smile, but it’s gone in a second, and I’m left wondering if it was just the darkness playing tricks on me. In a surprising gesture, he holds his hand out for me to shake, and I notice every inch of visible skin on his wrist and the back of his palm, right the way to his nail beds, is covered in ink.
Placing my palm in his, he gives it a quick shake before dropping his hand back down to his side. “Well, we can do proper introductions after we get your girl back.” With a final look around the group, he asks, “Everyone ready?”
With my muscles tensed and my body coiled tight, ready for action, I nod along with the others.
“Alright then, let’s do this.”
Now that we’re all here, I pull up the program to put the compound on lockdown, and change all of the security codes. Checking everyone has the new codes, I turn on the signal jammer, and before we all set out, I lift the gun out of my backpack and tuck it into the waistband of my pants, slinging the bag over my shoulders.
As a group, we move toward the back gate. When we’re far enough away that we’re still hidden amongst the tall grass of the field, out of sight of any guards, but close enough that we will be able to see when the gate is opened, Cain signals for everyone to stop, and I slip the tablet out of the bag and put in the code to open the gate.
The creak of the metal as it rolls back sounds like thunder in the otherwise quiet night, quickly followed by the yells of guards as they realize something is going on.
Once it’s open enough for us to squeeze through, Cain and his men slip through the narrow gap, and a second later, we hear gunshots going off. Beck rushes through the narrow gap next, closely followed by Mason, Hawk, Wilder, and Cam and I bring up the rear as another gunshot echoes in the still night air.
Standing on the other side of the compound wall, I watch as a guard crumples in a heap on the ground. Following his body to the ground, I stare transfixed at the two other dead bodies in front of me. I knew there would be bloodshed tonight, but it’s one thing to think it, and another thing entirely to see it unfolding before your eyes.
“Go,” Cain insists in a whispered order. “Others will have heard the commotion. We’ll distract as many of them as we can.”
Giving him a sharp nod, Beck jerks his head for the rest of us to follow, and the six of us take off across the compound toward the main building. We stick to the shadows, crouching low and moving as silently as we can. We’re about halfway across the open space when a large explosion goes off, and the sky lights up.
“What the hell?!” Cam whisper-yells as we all turn to look toward the source of the blast. All we can see are the tips of flames as they climb toward the night sky.
“Cain’s distraction,” Beck explains, quickly turning his back on the fire and moving on. The rest of us quickly chase after him, not about to waste the opportunity. Now that we no longer need to worry about avoiding the guards, we take greater risks, running across the open space instead of moving from building to building, relying on them for cover.
When we reach the main building, where the open day was held, and where we last saw Hadley, I put in the new code, releasing a silent breath of relief when the keypad flashes green and I tug the door open. Once inside, we keep our eyes peeled as we move stealthily toward the control room. It wasn’t pointed out on the tour we received on the open day, but a guard had opened the door as we walked past, and I caught a glimpse of the room, with wall-to-wall computer monitors showing various camera angles, covering what looked to be most of the compound.
As we approach an intersection, with one corridor leading into the center of the building, and the other running around the perimeter, a guard appears in the hallway in front of us, and we all slam to a stop. Fuck.