And stopped dead in my tracks. I watched as one of the locks on the back door slowly turned, unlocking itself.
That was the sound I was hearing, the locks on the door slowly being unlocked one at a time.
My heart was pounding in my chest. I watched and saw a shadow cross the door’s small window. I caught sight of something black.
Something like a mask.
I turned away and ran. I didn’t think. I just ran upstairs, back into the nursery, and shut the door. I locked it and began to pace around, my heart hammering, mind spinning.
What had I seen down there? The locks were opening one at a time, but that could just be Emory coming back home. But then again, I’d never seen Emory come in through the back, let alone wear a black mask.
I wasn’t even sure it was a mask. It seemed like it could have been, but I only got a quick look and it was so dark.
Everything felt wrong to me as I paced around the small room, terror running through my heart. I didn’t know if it was terrorists breaking in to kill us or if it was just Emory coming back from some late-night adventure.
And I had no real way of knowing without leaving the bedroom again. I couldn’t do that though and leave Mason behind. Waking up Mason was out of the question, since he’d just start crying again.
I tensed, terror running through me. I hated being locked up in this room, not knowing what was happening out there. I hated being so damn helpless, but what could a normal girl like me do against trained, violent terrorists?
I had to stay strong and not panic. That was the best I could do. I had to keep myself together for Mason’s sake and hope that it was just Emory coming in through that back door.
Because if Emory was missing and that was The Network breaking in, then I just might be dead already.
Chapter 22
Emory
I moved silently through the neighborhood, scouting out the quiet houses.
I hadn’t been able to get to sleep. I had tried, but I’d just kept hearing Mason crying upstairs. I could tune out loud, difficult noises, since I was trained to sleep under any condition, but there was something about him being in pain that kept me awake.
Tara didn’t seem interested in talking, which was fine with me. She’d gotten what she’d wanted, even though it wasn’t completely necessary. I couldn’t blame her, since it was my choice to go to the hospital in the end.
Still, I wished she could have been at least a little more grateful, or at least a little less pissed off. She didn’t seem to get how much danger we were in every time we so much as walked outside the safe house.
I had no clue if we had been spotted or not. There was just no real way for me to know. I moved silently through the neighborhood, sticking to the shadows, but I found nothing.
I was like a shadow in the night, deadly and swift. This was my element, my way of life. I was the stalker and the world was my prey. Nobody could stand before me and survive long if I wanted to destroy them. In the night, I was in control.
I moved across the street and crouched down in the shadows. A minute later, another shadow peeled itself from a wall and crouched down next to me.
“Captain,” Travis said.
“How’s it going?”
“Not bad. Quiet.”
“Sorry about earlier. The hospital thing.”
I could sense Travis’s discomfort. “I understand needing to take the kid to the doc, but was that the best decision?”
I glanced at him. He was staring out across the street. “No,” I said, “it wasn’t. I told command that I’m too close to this, but they insisted on keeping me in control of the girl.”
Travis nodded. “Blackfire knows his stuff.”
“He does, but I’m worried he made the wrong call on this one.”
Travis looked at me. “Are you too close?”
I didn’t answer at first. My mind wandered back over the past few days and stopped on the moment when I finally saw Tara again in person.
The excitement I felt, the fire in my veins, the heat. That hadn’t gone away, not one bit. If anything, it had only gotten hotter and stronger the more I got to know her.
Then there was the way I felt about Mason. Holding him, feeding him, I’d never experienced that sort of emotion before. I wanted to take care of him, to protect him above all other things. I’d only ever felt that way about my squad before, but never to that intense a degree.
“Yes,” I said. “I’m too close.”
Travis nodded. “I’ll relay that.”
“Have you seen anything tonight?” I asked him, changing the subject.
“Maybe,” he said. “Can’t be sure. Saw some strange car movement a few hours back, but nothing since.”
“What happened?”