Bingo.
Blood boiling, I pointed to the door. “Get out. Now.”
Features as cold as ice, he planted his feet. “Make me.”
I pushed him.
He didn’t budge.
I pushed again, harder, and finally, movement. He stumbled back a step. I could feel his heart racing under my palm. It was the only thing that kept me sane. He was affected. He might not want to show it, but he was.
“I’m only trying to protect you,” he said through gritted teeth. “Helen is going to betray you, and if it doesn’t get you killed, it’s going to break your heart.”
“I don’t need your protection, Cole. I need your support.” Why couldn’t he see that?
“You can’t have it. Not in this. I will always give you what you need, even if it’s not what you want.”
“Need, according to you.”
“You aren’t objective.”
“Neither are you!”
He wrapped his fingers around my wrist, squeezing just enough to hold me steady. At first, I thought he meant to bring my knuckles to his lips and kiss me. Wishful thinking. He let go, severing contact.
“I’m going with you to the warehouse,” he said.
Calm. “Fine. I can’t stop you.” Didn’t want to stop him. “Dress in black. We’re not stopping with a stakeout.”
He opened his mouth to say more, but closed it. Then he said, “Let’s try to force a vision. See what happens.”
Now he wanted to try? “No,” I said and turned away. I didn’t want to see our future. Not anymore.
He left the room without another word—and he was the one to break my heart.
Compartmentalize.
No. Just...no. I wouldn’t start that again. At best, it was a temporary fix. I’d pour my anger and hurt into destroying Anima.
I finished arming myself and marched to the foyer. River, Camilla and Chance were already waiting. As were Cole, Frosty, Bronx, Veronica, Gavin and Mackenzie. How had Cole gathered the troops so quickly?
I can do this. I kept my attention trained on River. “Bring everything we’ll need?”
“More than.”
Good.
We headed outside.
Frosty threw his arms around my shoulders and whispered, “This is hard for Cole. The situation scares him, that’s all.”
“He’s not the only one,” I muttered.
“Yeah, but you’re a girl. The braver species.”
“This is true.”
The lab was just outside of Birmingham. We parked down the street, watching the front doors, taking pictures of the employees who entered and left the building. River told Cole our strategy, and though the muscle below his eye started ticking again, he agreed it was sound.
Finally, darkness fell. Time to get to work. My adrenaline jacked up as we took our places around the building. Only two guards manned the reception desk.
“In five...four...three...” River’s voice whispered through the tiny bud in my ear. “Two. One.”
Camilla approached the glass doors in front and knocked frantically. Her shirt was soaked with fake blood, and she clutched the “wound” as if she was in terrible pain and even wavered on her feet as if she was about to faint.
Guard Number One popped to his feet. Guard Number Two grabbed his arm to hold him in place. From the shadows outside, I watched as One and Two engaged in a fiery conversation. Ultimately, Two picked up the phone to call...911? His boss?
Taking it up a notch, Camilla fell to her knees, then tumbled the rest of the way to the ground, where she sprawled, still as death. One ignored his buddy and rushed to the door. The moment it was open, and he was leaning down to help her, Camilla shot him point-blank with a tranquilizer gun.
Cole did a mad dash from the shadows to the doorway, leaping over Camilla and the guard to shoot Two with a tranq. He collapsed, and Cole swiped up the phone to listen.
“Hadn’t finished dialing,” he said.
Frosty and Bronx dragged One inside. The rest of us came in behind them. I made sure to lock the doors. As we tiptoed through the narrow corridor, part of me expected a million guards to rush out of hiding and Frosty to go bat-crap crazy and kill them. When would the visions come true?
We reached a thick, red door without incident. The ID pad on the left was like a neon sign flashing the words You’ll. Never. Get. Past. This. Point.
Could I? Even though Helen had said my prints would not be wiped from Anima’s system, eleven years was a long time. Anything could have happened.
Chance withdrew a bunch of equipment I didn’t recognize, hooked this to that, and that to this, pushed buttons, rewired and boom, it was Open Sesame. No fingerprint ID necessary.
Which was probably for the best. Cole would freak, and everyone else would claim Helen had done it to trap me in some way. To trap us.