“Red?” Hyland exclaims.
Stretching out a trembling hand towards him, it drips with blood.
“I found her, Hy. I found Gracie.”
EPILOGUE
HOW TO BE ME – REN & CHINCHILLA
HYLAND
Unloading Sabre’sjet on a private landing strip in the barren expanse of Wales’s endless countryside is no easy feat. At least we’re a smaller group after separating in Estonia, sending the Falcon Team and intelligence department on a flight to London.
I hold the bag of fluids connected to Axel’s IV line high enough to avoid getting tangled while his wheelchair is carried down the metal steps. He’s groggy, thankfully. Unaware of the fact that Blaine Madden of all people is carrying him to safety.
“Easy,” I mutter.
Blaine sets the chair down with Warner’s help. “He’s fine.”
“He will be. Get Ember, please?”
Nodding, Blaine ascends the steps back up into the private jet. The fact that he doesn’t question my delegation of Ember’s safety to him speaks volumes of all we’ve survived together in the past forty-eight hours.
Warner fusses over Axel, checking that his feet are seated in the footrest and the IV lines aren’t tangled around him. All Axel can summon is a lopsided, drug-addled smile.
“You’re so pretty,” he coos.
I burst out laughing. “Oh, damn.”
“Shut up,” Warner snips back. “Thanks, Ax.”
“Such big, beautiful blue eyes…”
Axel trails off in a round of semi-lucid laughter. I’m fighting back a hysterical fit of my own. The doctor we paid handsomely with Sabre’s funds did his best to patch up Axel’s badly cauterised wound, but he faces a long road ahead.
Arguably, not much longer than the trauma we all must live with. I’m not sure any of us can scrub the image of crashing into a random, deserted restaurant only to find Ember slumped on the floor, covered head to toe in blood.
Next to a corpse.
Antonio Gael’svery deadcorpse.
My body shivers at the mere thought. Sure, I’m fucking proud of our girl. She didn’t need to wait for our tracking beacon to kick in and backup to arrive. Oh no. Not our Ember. That woman had it all handled long before we arrived in a panic.
Waiting for Blaine and Ember to emerge into the cool winter morning, I rest a hand on Warner’s shoulder. “Did you get some rest?”
“Nah.” He shakes his head.
“We can’t track Madden in this state. Leave it to the Falcon Team and everyone back at HQ. He can’t have gone far.”
“Nolan Madden abandoned his residence and slipped away. That’s unacceptable to me, Hy. This case isn’t over until he’s dead or behind bars.”
My head pounds just thinking about it.
“Can we take a small win?” I sigh. “Please?”
“Is there much to celebrate here?” He gestures at Axel.
“Injuries aside, I think there is. Our prime target is in a body bag. Gunnar Slaughter’s on his way to a holding cell in the bowels of Sabre HQ to be torn apart by Hudson. Gracie is goinghome. Even Nolan’s victim is alive in the ICU, set to be reunited with his parents.”
