The plane lifts into the air.
My steps waver as I lift my head to watch it rise.
Cassandra is on that plane.
My heart is on that fucking plane.
I stagger to a stop and bellow my rage at the sky.
Not again.
Not fucking again.
I can’t do this again.
A hand grips my arm. “We’ll get her back.” Dom steps in front of me. “Hans, we will get her back.” He shoves me back toward the hangar. “Let’s go.”
I don’t want to look away from the plane fading into the distance.
I don’t want to, but I do.
Because it’s time to do the hard things.
It’s time to become the ghost assassin my enemies whisper about.
We’re still climbing through our takeoff when Karmine answers on the first ring. “Was it a bust?”
“I need the army.” My voice scrapes out of my throat.
“What happened?” Karmine switches to full alert.
“Marcoux has Cassandra.”
She hisses a curse. “Send me the coordinates.”
I watch the dot on my screen. “It looks like they’re going to Phoenix. They’re on a plane ahead of us.”
“She have a tracker on her?”
“Subdermal,” I tell her so she knows it’s not a phone that can be found and switched off. “Just last night.”
She knows what that means too. That the site of the injection will be visible.
“Where?”
“Her sleeves cover it.” It’s all I can bring myself to say. Because the words As long as they leave her clothes on won’t form.
I can’t say it.
I can’t bear imagining.
Because that would be bad enough. The absolute worst. But if they suspected the tracker… I almost heave. They’d cut it out of her.
“How far ahead are they?” Karmine asks, forcing me to think of something else.
The men went as quickly as they could, but we needed to refuel and lost precious time.
“About eight minutes,” I tell her, but we both know I can’t just jump off this plane and get her.
Even if we could land at the same airport, we can’t land second. We don’t know what sort of weaponry they have. They could take out our entire plane before we even touch ground.
So I have to make assumptions.
I assume, based on their trajectory, they’re headed to Phoenix.
I assume when they land, they’ll take Cassandra to Marcoux’s compound in the dessert.
I assume the satellite images King got are accurate.
I assume this is all a tactic to get me. And that they’ll keep Cassandra alive.
“We’ll get her, Hans,” Karmine promises. “I owe you this.”
She doesn’t owe me shit. But I need her help all the same. “Just head to Cain’s hangar in Phoenix. We’ll gear up there.”
“On my way.”
I hang up and hit on Cain’s contact.
It rings twice, and before he can speak, I start. “Change in plans. Couldn’t wait for the delivery.”
I wouldn’t consider us friends exactly, but he knows this life well enough to know that a last-minute change in plans is not a good thing.
“Where are you headed?”
“To your city.”
“What do you need?”
I tell him.
