“How much money did they offer?” Kyle flashed his pearly whites at me. “Always good to know the going rate for Charlie’s life.”
I flipped him off and his grin widened further.
“Three mil,” Ryder said.
My mouth actually dropped open. “Like … three million dollars? American dollars?”
Ryder gave a short nod of confirmation. Well, what do you know. For that ridiculous amount of money I should turn myself in.
The CB radio on the dash blared to life and all of the men stopped their joking and focused.
“This is command. Bring in all enforcers. The Hive has been infiltrated. I repeat, the Hive has been infiltrated. ETA on a secure channel.” It was Jason’s voice, a guy I knew and worked with. Sirens could be heard in the background.
My blood chilled. “Jayden!” Oh shit. I’d left my best friend behind. Oliver made a noise then and I spun around to lock him in my gaze. I knew I wasn’t the only one panicking about this attack.
Ryder grabbed Kyle’s hand mid-air as he was about to respond. “Five ash enforcers attacked me. Four of them were regular, run of the mill, but the fifth one, the one who offered me the money, had a fighting style I recognized. We were evenly matched, and before I could hurt him too bad he got away.”
The two shared a look that sent chills up my spine. “Don’t say it.” Kyle was looking as pale as Markus right now. And the Scottish ash was definitely on the fair side.
Ryder didn’t hesitate. “I think it’s the Sanctum.”
“The who?” I didn’t like being out of the loop. The entire car clearly knew who they were. The collective curses had told me more than enough. If they were worried, then I had no doubt that the Sanctum was not to be effed with.
Ryder was silent for a moment. “The Sanctum are an elite group of ash mercenaries. They offer sanctuary to any ash who does not wish to live within the Hive. But there is a price to pay. They have no morals, no loyalties, and no end goal. They are highly trained killers who do what they do for money. Glorified hit men. I think a price has been put on your head.”
The air whooshed out of me. “How do you know all this?”
The entire car was silent. Ryder looked out the car window as if reminiscing. His voice was hollow. “Because I was recruited by them. I was lost for a few years after I changed, and they offered me a way to focus through the pain. I trained and worked with them on a few jobs until I realized we were killing innocents. Then I left.”
Holy shit. That’s how Ryder had become so deadly. Something told me that if these Sanctum had trained Ryder, they were not people I wanted to meet.
“You’re sure it’s them?” Kyle asked.
Ryder nodded. “I didn’t recognize him, but his fighting style screamed Sanctum. He was there to see if I was susceptible to turning, to join them again. And if that failed, to put me out of commission before attacking the Hive. Should have sent two of them if they wanted to make sure of that.”
I wanted to roll my eyes, but he was really just stating a fact. They probably should have sent three.
Ryder continued: “I’m going to say, judging on that call from the control room, they decided not to wait and went looking for Charlie. Of course she’s not there, she’s here with us, so they have made their presence known. They’re drawing her back.”
A searing flood of panic filled every part of my jittery brain. This was worse than I’d thought. Jayden wasn’t just in the Hive while it was under attack, he was in there with highly trained mercenaries, who were after me and probably knew he was my best friend and roommate.
“Step on the gas, Kyle! Jayden is in there with those psychos!” I screamed. God, less talk and more driving to save my best friend.
Ryder turned and met my gaze. “Did you not listen to what I just said. The Sanctum won’t be seen unless they want to, won’t be heard unless they want to. They want us to know they’re there. They’re waiting for you to do something stupid like run straight into their trap. You’re not going back. I won’t risk you.”
I had to keep myself from full on freaking out on everyone in this car. No way in hell was I leaving Jayden. “I don’t care. My best friend is still stuck in there and I am going back.”
All six of the big, scary-ass men groaned then. What? Surely they hadn’t expected I would do this the easy way.
“We should just knock her out and stash her somewhere so we can deal with this.”
I almost fell over as I realized that that had come from Sam. He had finally decided to talk, his voice low and gravely, with a faint accent. Russian or something.