She and Enya used to have each other's back like that. Through Dad's desertion and Mom's withdrawal, through junior then senior high, through college and first jobs and first loves, they'd hung in there together. Loving without question-
Until Enya pledged her submission to a Dom.
And lost the rest of herself in the deal, too.
Crying over that train won't bring it back to the station. Don't be stupid.
Another stupid move: picturing what it would be like as the woman of one of these guys. To have all that devotion and passion showered on her …
Yep. Stupid.
Absurd. Impossible.
"Hey." Rhett gave Shay an affectionate shake. "We're going to get her back, man. You hear me?"
Shay dipped a hesitant nod. "Okay. Okay."
"Good. But we still need your help." He tapped on Shay's forehead. "This gray matter, all the way in this game. Got it?"
"Yeah, man. Got it." Shay clawed a hand through his wavy russet hair. Stared at the room's opposite wall, only this time in remembrance instead of remorse. "Since Royce is involved, we have to assume he's answering to Adler, since Stock and Newport are out of the picture."
Everyone tensed-and rightly so. Cameron Stock and Kirk Newport had been Adler's allies after the government caught wind of Adler's unorthodox methods and yanked funding for the Big Idea lab-at least until the guys' rescue raid for Shay, in which Newport was apprehended. A court martial and prison sentence had followed. Stock had eluded capture for a few months longer, but Dan-indulging a personal vendetta that also wasn't too popular on Brynn's "quirky boyfriend traits" list-had found him in Mexico, bringing him to Zoe and Shay's wedding as what had to be the world's most bizarre wedding gift.
Kellan hitched a hip against the easy chair. "So that rules out Area Fifty-One as their destination."
Shay commented on that with a dark growl. Again, nobody faulted him. Newport had abused his military clout to get Adler a lab in a clandestine bunker inside the famous military base on the outskirts of Vegas, where Adler had turned the middle of the Nevada desert into the Island of Dr. Moreau-atrocities Shay had witnessed before helping to destroy the lab. The experience had foreshadowed his own fate at Adler's hands.
"So they took her to the old facilities in D.C.?" Rhett ventured.
"Them." Arteries pulsed in Shay's arms as he fisted both hands. "Where they took them, damn it."
Wisely, Rhett withheld from responding.
Zeke lumbered forward, swarthy face focused. "When we were in Myanmar last week, Franzen mentioned that the D.C. warehouse hasn't been touched since the raid. It's still a possibility, though my gut says no. Homer baby is wily enough to know we'd consider it. He also knows we'd be able to request boots from Fort McNair faster than he could take a shit and Charmin-shine his ass. By the time he flushed, we'd have the building peeled open like a can of stewed tomatoes."
"Way to kill my appetite, Z-but yeah." Garrett sidled next to his friend but kept gazing at Shay. "There has to be another choice."
Everyone let out a collective breath when Shay not only nodded, but did so with assurance. "Yeah. There is."
"And?" Zeke prompted.
"Austin."
"Austin?" Garrett scowled. As in … Texas?"
Shay nodded again. "At the outskirts of town. The site of the old Verge Pharma building, or close to it. I learned the whole story last year, when Colton let us hide in the suite at the Vdara when everyone on the planet was looking for me."
Brynn couldn't help one small smile. Oh, how she remembered that week of holing up at the Vdara. It'd seemed like a luxury staycation, except for the times they were reminded that every law enforcement agency in the city-plus Stock, Newport, and Adler-were out to capture Shay any way they could. She didn't doubt that all the danger fed her attraction to Dan, the G-man just as commanding as his soldier friends-and mind-bendingly gorgeous, to boot. The feeling had been heady and heart-stopping …
And temporary.
But, as she'd come to learn over the last few months, not worthless. Despite the heartache of the relationship's end, everything about her journey with Dan had brought her to who she was now. Clearer about why she'd made that mistake. More resolved to never make it again.
That determination prompted her head up again. "Learned it from who?" she asked Shay. "You and Dan were pretty picky about the suite's guest list." The two of them had been so bossy about the issue, El and she had nicknamed them "the old ladies". Zoe, already deep into the "yes, Sir" and "no, Sir" thing with Shay, hadn't joined the fun. While their dynamic wasn't nearly as intense as the shit Enya had gotten into with her Dom, it had all still made Brynn giggle-and mightily razz her friend at every chance she got.
Get back here alive, Zo, and I'll never tease you again. I'll be too busy thanking God for you.
"Ghid Preston," Shay answered her. "You and Ry were watching a movie in the other room."
Zeke grunted. "Ghid. Yeah. Good man."
"He filled in some blanks for Tait and me," Shay offered. "About why our mother fell off the grid after the Big Idea project was discontinued. He told us about a site outside of Austin, supposedly the home of Verge Pharmaceuticals-but that was only what the building said on the outside. Inside, it housed Adler's new lab facilities. They abandoned the building after Newport got them cleared to move to Area Fifty-One."
As he spoke, El grabbed the laptop back, snapped it back open, and clacked at the keys like a teenager in chat mode. "Got it," she announced ten seconds later. "Right here."
She turned the device so everyone could see the screen, consumed by images of a building that had, at one time, likely been an architectural showpiece. In the pictures El showed, the giant glass and chrome building was closed off by chain-link fences, and was rocking the "overgrown decay" look. Rain had streaked the dirt from the roof down over the walls, and tall weeds rose up from the ground to meet the stains.
El scrolled to some links on the side of the page. "Looks like it's still registered to Verge."
"Only a two-hour plane trip from here," Kell filled in, "as opposed to the five hours required for D.C."
"Good point." For a second, Shay's face didn't look so ravaged.
"Feels like our best bet," Zeke concurred.
Rhett studied the screen more closely. "Especially because this complex isn't as helpless as it looks."
Rebel stepped in too. "You're right," he murmured. "The weeds on the fence have only grown as high as this break point. They'd have overtaken the top if the wires there weren't still charged."
"And look at this." Rhett spread his fingers to expand an image. "Around the loading docks, in the back."
Rebel shifted closer, practically pressing his cheek to his buddy's for the better view. Nobody in the room flinched-Brynn imagined they all operated under close quarters when on missions-though she wondered if anyone picked up the new strain in Rhett because of it.
"That dust has been scuffed recently," Rebel murmured. "A lot of it, too."
"And there." Rhett pointed at the screen again. "Fresh tire marks?"
"Or some huge fucking slugs, looking for a little shelter," Rebel countered.
"It's Texas," Zeke inserted. "You never know what Mother Nature's going to allow."
"No shit." The mutter was nearly indiscernible, issued from Rebel's thinned lips as he stepped away from Rhett-though Brynn wondered if he'd traversed a lot farther than that in his mind.
No matter what, the last minute had exposed a couple of truths to her. One, the waters of both Rebel Stafford and Rhett Lange ran deeper than the world saw-and maybe, as the team's notorious rule breakers, that was how they liked it. Two, she shouldn't be so curious about grabbing her psychological scuba gear for those waters-especially not now.
No. Not ever.
What the hell had gotten into her about both of them, anyway? Stay on the shore, girlfriend. Those waters are laced with your personal arsenic. Men like them are death sentences to your heart and spirit.
If only Zoe were here to lend her willpower.
If only Zoe were here, period.
Rhett's comment sliced into her rumination. "There's some very fancy security hardware here, too. The picture is fuzzy, so I can't catalogue it." He shook his head, making the red tips of his hair dance beneath the light. "This is going to take recon. Probably from the inside."