Annihilate (Hive Trilogy #3)(37)

GPS shows Ryder at a house near you on Maple Grove. The address was at the bottom with a map.

“We got him,” I told Kyle, jumping up as nerves and excitement thrummed through me. Ignoring the fact that Sam knew that the house was near me – I was tempted to look in the sky for cameras or drones – I clicked the map to open it. Ryder was only half a mile from where we were.

“We should drive,” Kyle said, glancing over my shoulder at the map. Good point, we might need our car. I literally had no idea what we were about to get into.

It took us only a few minutes and then we were parking in front of a small Craftsman style house on Maple Grove Street. Before I could say anything to him, Kyle jumped out of the car and began stalking up the front steps. Oh shit. I’d been assuming we would go in through the back and unobtrusively see what was going on. Or maybe have Sam tell Ryder we were here.

Nope. Apparently we were going in brazen as hell.

Kyle didn’t look back once as I scurried after him, and I realized then how much he was hurting too. Ryder was his best friend and those enforcers had been his men too. All of the boys were suffering, and each of them had been doing it silently and alone. This was one area we’d fallen apart as a team. The moment we saw that video surveillance of the slaughter, we should have dealt with it. Together.

Anger was bubbling inside of me again. Ryder shouldn’t have done this without us. He’d majorly fucked up and I was putting him on my naughty list this Christmas.

But first I needed to see he was okay.

Kyle banged on the door hard. “Ryder!” he shouted.

Since he was more than a little occupied in his pissed-off-ness, I kept an eye on our surroundings. There were no humans around; the neighborhood was almost too quiet for this time in the afternoon.

Unease filtered through me, and I took a step close to Kyle. This could be a trap; we didn’t know Ryder was here, just that his phone was. There were footsteps and then the door opened.

It was Ryder, standing there wide-eyed in black fatigues, looking hot as fuck and pissed as hell.

He was pissed? Oh no, buddy, not happening. I stepped right up into his personal space.

“That’s right. Operation Tie Charlie Up in the Basement With the Vampires failed!” Moving even closer, he backed into the doorway and I poked him in the chest. “We’re a team, dude! You don’t leave me behind EVER again or the only ass you’ll be sleeping next to will be Kyle’s.”

His lips quirked the tiniest bit. “You cut your hair,” he said softly.

Oh … yeah. I had forgotten about that.

Looking behind Ryder, I noticed we had an audience. A mishmash of a dozen Sanctum and a few of what looked like a human SWAT team. I recognized Lincoln immediately. Old Blue Eyes was in his element, surrounded by a wall filled with pin-ups of dozens of maps and pictures.

“Welcome to my home, come right in,” Lincoln said with heavy sarcasm. We stepped into the house and closed the door.

Ryder met Kyle’s eyes and it was a total staredown. Finally, Kyle spoke under his breath: “I understand leaving Charlie, but why me?”

Ryder looked vulnerable, his eyes shuttering as he fought for composure. “No one else gets hurt.”

Kyle chuckled. “Aren’t you a fucking hero.”

Ryder clenched his jaw. “I didn’t—”

Lincoln groaned, cutting Ryder off. “We don’t have time for this! Either get in on the op or get out of my house.”

Kyle brushed past Ryder and took his place with the rest of the men. Ouch. I was beginning to feel bad for Ryder now. Maybe we were being a bit hard on him; it was clear he only wanted to make sure none of us got hurt. But dammit I didn’t want him hurt either. He’d put me through hell over the past twenty-four hours, and all because he thought he was the hero and could do this all alone.

Before I could decide what to do, Ryder’s hand slipped in mine and he pulled me over to join the group. After scanning the faces of the newcomers, my eyes stopped on a tall redhead chick with huge amber eyes. She was completely sleeved with tats, gave off a don’t mess with me vibe, and if I was being honest she was hot AF. She was a human, so she must have been with Lincoln’s crew. Kyle had noticed her too and his eyes were definitely lingering on her.

Lincoln cleared his throat and we all looked up. “Ryder gave us intel late last night. I’ve been in briefings ever since and have had about zero hours of sleep, so don’t fuck with me.” A few of the Sanctum douches shifted in their seat, but strangely enough no one questioned Lincoln taking the lead. The SWAT leader continued: “Our orders are to help Ryder release one human girl, a Tessa Grace McNair from a place known as the pit, where she is being held in captivity.” He held up a photo of her from about two years ago, which I was pretty sure I took. How the hell did Ryder get his hands on that?

And … did Lincoln just say Tessa was human? I shifted on the spot, and Ryder squeezed my hand. Meeting his eyes, he gave the smallest shake of his head.

Holy hot damn. He’d lied. He lied to save my best friend and get him in the door so he could kill Fugly. It was brilliant and stupid all at the same time.

Lincoln was still in the midst of his update. The looks on the SWAT team’s faces were menacing. “It’s a direct federal violation to keep a human feeder against their will.” Then Blue Eyes gestured to the Sanctum and Ryder: “These ash enforcers have agreed to go in on the job with us, since they know the inner terrain better than anyone.”