that happened. Whether I’d stay and fight for Brooke, or if Brooke would actually go with her brother, I didn’t know. I hadn’t fully thought it out, mostly because I couldn’t. I wasn’t in the driver’s seat for this one, Kai was.
But what I didn’t expect was to not be involved at all.
At the glass wall, I looked down and saw two vehicles in the lot. Neither was the van we’d ridden in. They were SUVs. Kai gave me a pair of binoculars, and as I put them up to my eyes, I saw the doors open.
Tanner got out. So did I.
Not me, obviously, but someone who looked like my twin.
I was stunned.
She was wearing the scrubs I’d been taken in. Her hair was down, swept to one side. She was hunched over, purposefully hiding her face, and goddamn, she even walked like me. The bitch had studied me somehow.
Her/my hand came up and brushed some of my hair back, like I do.
Like I did just now—I caught myself, and cursing, I tightened my hold on the binoculars again.
She tugged at the bottom of her scrub top, just like I would.
She stopped, hesitating, and her shoulders rolled back, just like I do.
There, across the lot, was Blade. He was too far away to see it wasn’t really me as he got out of the Chevy truck. I was impressed that sucker had even made it the whole way, and it told me he was doing this off the books. 411 didn’t know about it. If they had, he would’ve been in an SUV.
“What are you doing, Blade?”
He paused, holding his arm up to his forehead to shade his eyes. He saw Tanner and her/me, then went to his passenger door. Opening it, a girl got out—a girl… She looked like Brooke, but it couldn’t have been. He wouldn’t have done that. I knew Blade. No matter how much he might want me back, he wouldn’t trade in someone who was hiding for her life.
It went against his code as a 411 operative.
Kai leaned forward. I could feel the intensity rolling off of him.
It looked like Brooke.
Same dark hair, same build, same height as the girl I’d seen in Brooke’s Instagram pictures. But…no way. It couldn’t be.
“That’s not her,” Kai growled. He snapped a radio to his mouth, pressing the side button. “Abort. It’s not her.”
Tanner’s hand went to his ear, then shot out to the girl beside him. We heard a shout over the radio before both turned and ran back for their vehicle.
I jerked forward, but there was nothing I could do.
Sixteen floors separated us.
I glanced around, but Kai was already in my ear. “Don’t fucking think about it.”
He motioned, and the guard grabbed my arm and began dragging me away from the window—but not before I saw all the guards who had come with us swarm into the parking lot below.
“Grab both of them!” Kai ordered. “Take them to the warehouse.”
“No!” I kicked, trying to get free.
The guard wrapped his arms around me. He held me up and dragged me at the same time.
“NO!” I squirmed. Fighting.
I needed to get free. Blade was in trouble. Whoever was with him, she was in trouble too. I had to help, despite what I’d said to Kai.
I had to.
There was no other option.
“Enough! You promised!” Kai was in my face.
I shook my head. “No, no. Not my friend. You broke it. You broke your word. You never said you’d take my friend. You—” God. I was so stupid, but I knew what I was going to do.
I was insane.
As he moved closer to me, I closed my eyes, reared my head back—and head-butted him.
“Shit!”
“Argh!”
Except I hit air.
Opening my eyes, I found Kai standing to the side, his eyes wide open and shocked.
“Jesus Christ, get her in check!”
The motion had upended the guard’s hold on me, and I broke free of his hands.
I dropped, my body going limp, but as soon as I hit the floor, I rolled to the side.
This was so bad, so bad. I couldn’t get away like this, so almost in one motion, I tried pushing up to my feet and running for it.
Except Kai was there.
He wrapped an arm around my waist and tossed his radio to the guard. Yelling over my head, he lifted me like I was a child. “Go ahead of us. Bring the SUV around to the side door. I got her.”