Hale’s hand takes mine when I start walking away, and Clay walks over to one of the United hybrid officers.
“Until I can find a new captain to take his place, I’d like for you to stay here and clean this mess up. Make sure these kids are cared for,” he murmurs softly.
“You know I will, Sir,” the man obliges, and then he walks off to start directing the capable men where to go and how to start.
“You’re leaving?” the small boy asks as he tugs on my pants.
I smile as I kneel down, and I hand him my card.
“This is my number. You can call me anytime at all. I’ll be here if you need me, but this man isn’t like your old captain. He’s like us,” I say, making sure to whisper the last part.
The boy smiles big, and then he jumps to me. I pull him up in a hug, and tears sting my eyes when I lower him back down.
“Don’t lose that,” I say while stroking his hair, my eyes pointing to the card.
“I won’t,” he says with his adorable dimples shining through from the smile he so rarely has a reason to display.
“Let’s get going,” Hale murmurs against my ear.
I smile as we head out, and I lean over to rest my head on his arm. I can feel his proud breaths coming in and burning out as they brush across my face.
“I love you so much right now,” I say when we escape the crowds.
“I love you, babe.”
He jerks me to his body before his lips attack mine. I want so badly to jump up and throw my legs around his waist. It wouldn’t take much to make my dreams come true. All I would have to do is break the skin with my two devious little blood bringers.
Hale. Definitely Hale.
“Don’t even think about it, vixen,” he whispers into my ear.
My salacious smile grows, and I roll my eyes when he narrows his at me.
“I have to stay focused on this damn girl with a hood and her mysterious caretakers,” he grumbles.
“We’re probably too far behind them now, and our rides have been thoroughly fucked up. Any chance we can go by air?” I ask while dropping my seductress antics.
“It’s too risky. It would be far too easy for them to shoot us out of the sky. Besides, our drones haven’t been able to pick them up yet despite the direction we gave them.”
“They could have deliberately left those tracks to throw you off,” Brazen interjects as he walks up.
“If they did, then they’re damn good pros at it. I usually catch a fake trail pretty easily no matter how good the falsified tracks.”
“How are we going to get out of here with our rides being destroyed?”
“We’re not going after the hooded mystery people,” Clay asserts as he walks over.
“Why?” Hale and Brazen ask in unison.
“Because the storm took them out. One of our drones finally caught up with them, and now we’ve got these.”
He hands us his phone, and we look at the shots of the dark sedans and the armored truck left shredded in pieces.
“They couldn’t have survived that,” Hale murmurs while staring intensely at the pictures.
“Exactly. That’s why we’re going to jump in on Araya’s case. The Rising has just struck again, and this time they killed an entire colony of hybrids caring for a colony of humans. Both colonies were outside our jurisdiction, but now everyone else is panicking. I’m getting calls from every unaligned compound pledging allegiance to us if we bring our forces to aide them. I’ve already instructed an army to set up near the next two human colonies.”
“Was there an infected outbreak?”
