the combination and a copy of the key to unlock it.
I got the thick door open, and my heart stopped. There was no reason to search Kelsey’s room. Sitting dead center, on the side-shelf where the case holding my McMillian TAC-308 sniper rifle rested, and in front of the boxes of
extra ammunition, perched a single sniper round.
Dread leached the strength from my legs and left a sour taste in my mouth.
Sinking to a crouch, I used the safe to keep from collapsing. My hand shook as I
reached out to gently picked up the round. Instead of the expected smooth surface, my fingertips rasped against something etched into the metal. I brought
it close and found a simple K carved into the casing. A rushing sound filled my ears. Realization slammed home, morphing fear into a cold determination.
The bastard had been here.
Curling my hand around Ellery’s unmistakable taunt, I rose, closed the safe,
and reset the locks. For a moment I stood there, reaching for the necessary detachment to analyze what I knew so far.
Ellery managed to violate both of my havens. He took what I most loved and
left behind a very clear message to prove there was nowhere he couldn’t reach.
Was he playing with me? Wanting me to suffer and feel hunted? If so, he succeeded. But was there more to this than revenge?
He hunted the other team members one by one, torturing each before sucking
down their abilities. Only three of us remained, Tag, Kayden, and I. Ellery killed
Kelsey because she was my Achilles’ heel, but I had two more weak points left,
my partner and my best friend. If Ellery got to either of them, it would be the final straw for me. At least Tag was in Vegas and out of Ellery’s immediate reach.
Rolling the round through my fingers, another question arose. When had he
left this? Before or after he went to the cabin? Was it a taunt or a threat? If the K
was for Kelsey, it meant he left it as he chased her north, leaving it as a way to
ensure his message was received. If it was for Kayden, then we were in deep
shit, because it indicated Ellery knew what we were doing before we did.
With a sinking feeling, I stared at the carefully etched K. Had we been chasing ghosts this whole time? If so, chances were high we were missing something. How many steps ahead of us was he? But there was a way to answer
one of my questions.
“You okay in there?” Kayden’s question startled me. I looked up to find him
standing in the bathroom doorway. My fingers tightened on the casing, catching
his attention. His face darkened. “What is that?”
Instead of answering, I let it roll into my palm, and held it out, so he could
see. The overhead lights caught on the dull gleam of Ellery’s message.
“Where was it?”
“In the gun safe.”
His fingers whitened on the edge of the doorframe. Instead of his expected explosion, he turned and left.
Slipping the bullet into my pocket, I followed, stopping only to retrieve my
Sig from the bed.
Kayden stood in the middle of the living room, clenching, and then
unclenching his hands. There was a cloud of tension surrounding him, one that
simmered on the edge of a storm.
I kept my voice soft, “Kayden?”
His head rose and his eyes were bright with fury. His jaw was clenched so tight the bone pressed against his skin and flexed under his goatee. “We need to
talk to Terrance and get the security footage. I want to know how he got in.”
