I hated long stakeouts.
I wasn’t going to complain. Sitting on the top floor of a parking garage, peering at a building across the street through a pair of binoculars, was better than fleeing through twisty aisles while being shot at by human maniacs. And it was certainly better than sitting alone in a hotel room, waiting for something to happen or for someone to return. But after a few hours of nothing—seeing the same building, same street, same everything—I began to get restless. I wanted to get out and do something. Not something frivolous; I knew what was at stake. I knew I couldn’t be distracted from our mission. But I wasn’t good at sitting still for long periods of time without getting incredibly bored.
“What are we looking for again?” I asked Riley, who sat next to me in the driver’s seat with the windows halfway down, also peering through a pair of binoculars. Wes perched in the back with his laptop open, of course, and Garret had been sent to scout the other side of the building. I’d wanted to go with him, but Riley wouldn’t let me, saying that I was way too recognizable by Talon to casually stroll around the building, where any guard or security camera could pick me out of a crowd. Garret, while he wasn’t exactly unknown to Talon, was less familiar, and could blend into the throngs of humanity wandering the streets. He was also better at spotting undercover guards, cameras, concealed weapons and other threats. So he was down at street level, doing the soldier thing, while I sat up here with Riley and Wes and watched the office building, not really knowing what I was looking for.
Riley sighed and lowered the binoculars. “This is just surveillance, Firebrand,” he explained, giving me a sideways look. “We don’t want to go charging in half-assed, without knowing what we’re up against. I want to know when the security shifts change. I want to know where their guard posts and cameras are located. I want to know if anyone I recognize is working here now, because they’re sure to recognize me, as well. This is Talon.” He raised the binoculars again, peering down at the huge glass doors across the street. “I’m not leaving anything to chance if I can help it. Wes? Has St. George placed the camera? Do you have a visual of the other side yet?”
“Hold your bloody horses, I’m working on it.”
The side door opened, and Garret slid into the back, hoodie and dark glasses making him appear like a stranger for a moment. “There’s an entrance to an underground garage on the other side,” he announced, brushing back the hood and stripping off the shades. “But it’s guarded, not open to the public. I put the camera under a bench across the street from the garage entrance. So we should be able to see who’s going in and out.”
“All right, then,” Wes muttered, typing something on his laptop. “And...there we go. Huh, well not bad, St. George. I can see every bastard coming and going, down to the license plate numbers. And it’s not in a planter box where all I see are leaves.”
“One time, I did that,” Riley growled.
“There was also that instance when a dog peed all over the camera because you stuck it on a hydrant.”
“Shut up and watch your computer.”
I gave Garret a smile and turned back to the window, raising the binoculars. Below, the streets and sidewalks bustled with people like every other city. Cars and humans cruised blissfully past the office building, unaware of its true nature. Unaware that, right above their heads, their movements were being watched by a pair of dragons and a modern-day knight.
A black sedan with tinted windows pulled in front of the building and stopped at the curb. The front passenger door opened, and a large man in a suit and shades stepped out, looking distinctly bodyguard-esque. I was about to prod Riley, to see if he recognized whatever Talon hotshot was about to leave the car, when the bodyguard reached out and opened the passenger door.
And Dante stepped out of the vehicle.
I gasped, and for a moment, the world lurched to a stop. I hadn’t seen my twin since that fateful night I’d fled Crescent Beach, when Dante had sent Lilith after me and Riley. The night he’d betrayed us to Talon. I remembered him in shorts and a T-shirt, with a baseball cap perched atop his head and a backpack slung over one shoulder.
He looked different now, in an expensive black suit and tie, his previously longish red hair cut short. He looked poised and important and busy as he stepped onto the sidewalk, talking into his phone and ignoring everything around him. He looked...like a true Talon executive.
My heart ached, and I swallowed hard, watching as my brother hung up the phone and slipped it into his jacket pocket. I’d been secretly hoping Dante was unhappy in Talon, that he had realized his mistake and was regretting everything that had happened. But seeing him like this, watching him straighten his tie, gaze imperiously down the street and head briskly toward the office building...it was like he had stepped into the role he was destined for.
“Well, well,” Riley growled beside me, and I heard the anger in his voice as he peered through his own binoculars. “Look who showed up. The little snitch himself.”
“Dante is here?” Garret echoed as the lump in my throat grew bigger. He leaned forward, gazing through the windshield at the street as my brother and his bodyguards walked up the steps and vanished through the glass doors. “Why do you think he’s come?”
“Who knows,” Riley muttered. “But I’m guessing it has something to do with that evidence. If he was involved with what happened at the crash site, maybe he wants to see it for himself.”
My hands were shaking as I lowered the binoculars, but I wasn’t sure which emotion it was attached to. Grief, rage, excitement? Something else? All three? “I have to see him,” I said quietly, making both Riley and Garret glance at me. “I have to talk to him before he goes back to Talon. This might be my only chance.”
“Ember...” Riley began, his voice a warning. I turned on him with a growl.
“It’s Dante, Riley,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “I don’t care that he’s part of Talon now. He’s still my brother.”