Pain, sharp and relentless, started in my toes and fingers. It burst through my arms and legs to my core. With sudden intensity, my heart started to slam into my ribs and my lungs expanded. I sucked in a violent breath that propelled me to sitting position. I screamed out, and the agent put his hands on my shoulders and gently laid me back. I wrenched the mask off my face and sucked in several deep, long breaths.
“Just relax, Agent Hadden. Just relax.” He handed me a bottle of yellowish liquid. “Drink that. It will help.”
“No time for that, Hamil.” I tried to stand, but he pulled me down.
“You aren’t going anywhere. Drink that.”
I sucked the drink down hoping that would get him off my back. My stomach roiled. “Where’s my team?” I barked, grimacing at the bitter aftertaste.
The agent looked away, refusing to meet my eyes.
Then I wretched. Over and over. Hamil shoved a bucket toward me the second I started gagging and only a little bit hit the van floor. Once the desire to throw up subsided, I leaned back on the van wall and breathed deep. I was about to yell at Hamil for making me drink something that made me sicker than I was originally, but then I realized I felt pretty good. Way better than I had when I’d climbed into the van.
“Thanks,” I said, wiping my lips with my sleeve.
“Don’t mention it.” His lips were pressed together in a thin white line and his cheeks flushed. He looked at Summer. “You’re going to have to go to Medical when we get to Division. That cut is pretty bad and I think you may have a broken arm.”
What? Summer had been hurt badly? She had a broken arm? No wonder she’d been grunting and crying out while moving me. I couldn’t focus on that. Hamil was avoiding me. “What is it? What aren’t you telling me?”
He shook his head sharply.
“Hamil,” I growled, my voice both menacing and desperate at the same time.
He pursed his lips again, then met my eyes. “Your team went after you. There was a big crash. They got taken. They didn’t make it.”
Chapter 15
I gaped at him in horror. “What?”
Hamil looked miserable. “We were all listening to the audio feed through Agent McGinnis’s phone. We heard everything. They got intercepted and taken somewhere, then they were shot.”
“No,” I whispered. I wanted to scream, but my body had gone limp—I was powerless.
“I’m so sorry.”
“Where are they?” I swallowed hard. “What did Siron do with the bodies?” My ragged, rasping breaths strained my lungs. My heartbeat crashed in my ears, making it hard to concentrate on the people around me. And yet, it seemed everything was louder, faster, slower, and softer than it ever had been. I needed to move, but I was frozen to the spot. I forced deep breaths into my lungs. Move. Get going. Find Jeremy. My mind cleared, and my heart slowed. I realized that this threat was merely an echo of my own. I closed my eyes. A burning focus settled over me. I had to find him.
He shook his head. “They’ve been disavowed. Their bodies won’t be recovered.” Hamil laid me back down, and I didn’t fight him. My mind refused to work—I could not function in a world where my team was dead. Where Jeremy was dead.
We pulled into one of the hidden entrances to Division. I knew that hours of debriefing lay ahead of me, but I wasn’t about to let that happen. I needed to talk to Ace. I needed answers.
Hamil tried to help me up, but I pushed him firmly aside.
“I’m fine. I can walk now. You don’t have to baby me.”
He shrugged and left the van with the others. “If I were you, I’d go to Medical and get checked out.” Not even. Whatever had been in that drink had seemed to pull all the poison right out of me. I climbed out of the van last, leaving a gap between myself and the other agents, pulling my go bag over my shoulder. My mind churned, trying to formulate a plan. I refused to believe Jeremy and Halluis were dead. Not until I saw them myself.
I peeled off from the group and said, “I’ll meet you guys up there. I need to visit the bathroom.” I really just needed some time to digest the information.
Hamil’s eyebrows knit together, but he let me go. I guessed he wasn’t under orders to babysit me. Siron probably thought I was incapacitated. I rushed to the bathroom, making sure to keep my stride capable and strong, so Hamil wouldn’t feel the need to worry and wait for me. Or worse, come after me. Once in the bathroom, I took the moment to wash my face and arms, placing my forehead on the mirror and pounding my fists to the sides of my head. “You can’t be dead. You can’t be dead.” I spoke the words to no one. Then drank thirstily from the faucet.
When I dragged myself into the conference room, Rosabella was there to comfort me. I sobbed in her arms until I heard someone else enter the room. Siron. Immediately, I turned to her. “They can’t be dead. I have to see them for myself.”
“I assure you, they are gone.”
“Then I’ll go retrieve the bodies. Just tell me where they are. Let me make this right.”
“No. I’m sorry.” Siron left the room.
“Rosabella, you can’t leave me hanging. I know you have access to the recordings. Let me listen to them and form my own conclusions.”
“Not now, Christy.
