of him was still waiting for me to bolt. For once I wasn’t sorry to disappoint. “As

long as Delacourt doesn’t revoke her invite, yeah, I’m in.”

His grin came quick and was filled with satisfaction. It softened the lines of

tension on his face. But it didn’t last. “Chances are high Bosch is working for Falcon Security.”

I waited for more since the name didn’t ring any bells.

“Falcon Security is a private firm of mercenaries,” Wolf explained.

“Legit to the public eye,” Rabbit chimed in. “The mercs are made up of ex-

soldiers and ex-operatives from every flavor of the military. Their recruits aren’t

just homegrown, either. They’ll provide top-level security for the right price.

Underneath all the spit and polish, we think there’s a core group used for shadier

deals. One we can’t prove exists. Think of them like PSY-IV’s evil twin.”

I recalled my initial conversation with Delacourt when she was explaining

who PSY-IV was and what they did. “So, Falcon has a group of psycho

psychics? Do you think Ellery works for them?”

Bishop shook his head. “We have no hard proof linking Ellery and Falcon, or

Falcon to the information, but it makes sense. Falcon tends to broker a lot of

dirty deals, and they have people that can get into places others can’t. From what I can tell, Falcon may have approached Ellery, but not to recruit. His ability would be considered a liability, no matter who’s recruiting. Ellery was just another tool.”

“And Bosch?”

“We know he’s a telepath based on what he did to you,” Wolf said. “If Bosch

is one of theirs, it means they’re using the same tactics as PSY-IV for recruitment, except they aren’t limited to just the U.S. military.”

And wasn’t that a scary ass thought? Pieces of this mess started to tumble into place. “By taking Ellery into custody, we screwed Falcon’s deal, and possibly opened them up to scrutiny. Especially if anyone could link Ellery to them. They won’t like that. It could be why they sent that shooter after us. Who,

may I point out, we still don’t have an ID on.”

“Delacourt’s still working on that,” Bishop said. “More than likely it’s

another Falcon operative. The sniper probably had two objectives, distract, or disable you and Kayden, and get Tito’s journals. There are some pretty heavy names in there, along with contact information. If Falcon’s people are in there, we’ll be able to tie Tito and Ellery to them. Delacourt’s got someone going over

them, trying to figure out the links.”

Kayden took over. “Ellery thinks the information will give him leverage with

Falcon. So long as he has it, they won’t touch him. Right now, he believes he’s

holding all the cards. He’s the only one who knows where he stashed the information. He can undercut Falcon’s price and sell it to whoever he wants.

Which in this case, it appears to be Hobbes who picked the winning number.

Making this deal allows Ellery to give Falcon the finger for hanging him out to

dry. Bonus for him, while he’s out running free, he can hunt down the ones he

blames for putting him in this position in the first place.”

I had to agree with their assessment, but Ellery didn’t strike me as stupid.

“He has to realize both groups are going to be gunning for him. Selling the information to Hobbes won’t get Falcon, or us, off his ass.”

“No, but it will give him enough money to wipe Reeve Ellery out of

existence and bring in someone new,” Jinx spoke up. “He’s killed, how many

psychics that we know about so far? Five? Every time he takes on another ability, his mental stability breaks a little more. At this point, attributing rational decisions to him may not work.”

“She’s right.” My voice sounded as grim as I felt. “Add in his psychopathic

tendencies, and he may not be looking to get out of this alive.”

That brought up Rabbit’s head. “You think he wants to die.”

“More like he won’t mind dying, if he can take everyone else with him,” I corrected. “Something we need to keep in mind as we’re laying out this plan. We

have to be ready for Ellery to try and take us all with him.”

“Delacourt wants him alive,” Kayden said.

“I want world peace and a shitload of chocolate,” I snapped. “I’m not so sure

he’ll give us that option. And if that’s how he wants to play it, I’m okay with that.” Especially if it let me face down Kelsey’s memories without choking on my guilt. “Besides, you can’t tell me if the choice is him or the info, the order

won’t be to go for the info.” Once the words were out, I tried not to grimace. It

was never smart to question your CO in front of the other team members, but right now my emotions weren’t the most stable where Ellery was concerned.

Before he could respond, Wolf stepped in. “Cyn.” He waited until I looked at

him, the eerie color of his eyes reflecting light as if lit from within. A gentle, but steady pressure built in my mind. “You still with us?”

Son of a bitch! “Get out of my head,” I gritted out, trembling with the effort not to leap out of my chair and attack him. I threw every bit of strength behind