after everything you put us through tonight—or help me.”
His eyes narrowed, and Greer realized that in that moment, the crazy bastard was totally willing to die, just to spite her. So, she added, “And let me remind you, that if you die, Ellie will be on her own, and the general will keep coming after her, because she’s a loose end. Shifty government types hate loose ends, don’t they, Killian?”
“They do, indeed.”
“So, what’s it gonna be, Declan? Are you in?” She slammed him a little further into the sheetrock. “Or are you dead?”
It felt like an eternity, but eventually, he gave her the smallest-ever nod. She dropped him like a sack of wet dog shit and stared down at him dispassionately while he rolled to his knees, coughing and gagging.
“Great,” she said sarcastically. “I’m so glad we were able to come to an agreement.”
Ellie shrugged off Bryn’s hold and rushed to her brother’s side, helping him stand. “I could’ve convinced him to help,” she said through clenched teeth. “You didn’t have to do that to him.”
Greer shrugged. “Nope. Sure didn’t.”
“It was crazy hot,” Killian blurted.
She rolled her eyes. “You get turned on if the wind blows the right way.”
“Only when you’re around, Freckles.”
Bryn made a gagging sound. “Stop. You’re grossing me out. It’s like listening to my parents have phone sex or something.”
“What makes you think we can do anything to stop the general?” Declan asked, his voice extra raspy. Probably due to bruised vocal cords that Greer couldn’t bring herself to feel sorry about. “He’s surrounded by guards all the time. The most highly trained military badasses out there.”
“I have a plan for that,” Greer said.
“Is it a plan that won’t get us all killed?” Declan asked, snarky as hell.
She shrugged. “Maybe. But we’ll never know if we don’t try. And you’ll never be free if we don’t try. The risk seems worth it at this point, don’t you think?”
He pouted like a kid who’d just been told Santa wasn’t coming this year. “I think you’re insane, that’s what I think.”
“I’ve heard that one before. Oh, one more thing.”
“What’s that?” Declan asked.
And with that, Greer kneed him in the balls, putting her full weight into it. When he dropped to his knees, soundless, face turning a really interesting shade of purple, she said, “That was from Rio.”
“Aw, thanks, G,” Rio said in her ear. “That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever given me.”
“You’re welcome, sweetie. After all, what are friends for?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
THE COMPOUND where the general was holed up reminded Greer of an old abandoned prison she’d seen once in a horror movie. Dirty concrete, barbed wire, and mile-high chain-link fences as far as the eye could see. You could practically smell oppression and injustice in the air around it.
Beside her, hunkered down in the overgrown weeds outside the fenced area, Bryn uttered what everyone else was thinking. “This place is gross.”
Killian handed a set of binoculars to Greer and said, “Gross, but well-fortified. I count thirty-seven guards.”
“Forty,” Bryn said. “The general is inside and he has three guards with him. Armed like they’re going to war any minute.”
Declan raised a brow at her. “You can see that through concrete walls?”
“What, like it’s hard?” she shot back, channeling Elle Woods.
One corner of his mouth tipped up ever-so-slightly in an almost smile, and he shook his head.
Greer frowned. “Why so many guards for one guy?”
“It’s one guy now,” Killian answered, “but they intend to hold the new superheroes here once they find them. They’re just getting everything ready now.”
Greer tapped her cochlear implant. “Rio?”
“Yeah, boss?”
“Do you have the plans for this place?”
“I don’t, but E does. She’s the best hacker I’ve ever seen, G. No lie. When you go in, we can guide you through, no problem.”
That gave Greer pause. “’E’?”
“E” whispered something to Rio she couldn’t quite hear and he laughed. “Ellie’s cool, G. Don’t worry about a thing. We’ve got you.”
Well, if Rio trusted Ellie, Greer supposed there really wasn’t anything to worry about. Rio didn’t typically trust anyone, after all. “When we go in, we can’t have anyone calling for help. Rio, can you guys jam cell phones and radios and whatever other types of phones they may have for us?”
“Done and done. That place is a communication dead zone for ten miles in any direction.”
Killian pulled out his cell phone to show that indeed, he had no signal.
Great. Now no one could call for help. Which also meant that if she needed to call for help, she