Toxic (Denazen #2)(64)

Someone.

Alex was the next to let go. This sucked for Jade since she had his other hand, and now that he was visible, so was she. The enemy wasted no time, reaching from the darkness to make a swipe for her. With a wave of Alex’s hand, the couch jumped forward, knocking into a dark figure. Jade screamed and jumped aside as he lost his battle with gravity and fell to the ground in front of us. The man tried climbing to his feet, but Kale was there in an instant with a perfectly aimed kick to the head. There was a grunt, and the guy went down like a hundred pounds of coffee.

Someone down the hall screamed. Seconds later, a loud boom shook the floor and rattled the large shelving unit against the wall. The cordless shimmied off the end table on the far side of the room. Everyone scattered.

I didn’t see which way Alex or Kiernan went, but Jade ran toward the kitchen. Kale, still wearing his gloves, grabbed my arm and took off back down the hall toward the lobby.

“It’s Denazen,” I spat, flattening myself against the wall. I was glad I’d left my shoes by the car.

Kale turned to me, eyebrows raised. “Of course.”

“Rhetorical,” I snapped. Peering around the corner, I pulled my arm from Kale’s grip and took a step into the main room.

“Wait,” he whispered.

I ignored him and crept around Rosie’s desk. The phone was in the corner by the television. Unfortunately, when I brought it to my ear, there was no dial tone. I set it back down, not bothering to return it to the dock. “Dead. They cut everything.”

“Procedure. The first thing that’s done before a raid.”

“This is bullshit,” I mumbled. “Our first date, and Dad has to screw it up. I seriously hate that man.”

“We’ll try—” Kale stopped. Tilting his head to the side, wisps of onyx hair slipping into his eyes, he turned away.

One minute he was standing there, statue still beside me, the next he was twisting as another figure lunged at us from behind. Graceful and quick, he dropped to the ground and whipped the table leg sideways. It collided with the man’s knee in a sickening crunch. In a fluid move, Kale’s right glove was off, and his fingers curled around the man’s throat.

But nothing happened.

For a split second, I thought, Huh. Go figure. Someone else like me. What were the chances? But then I remembered…

“Jade.” Kale settled for slamming the agent’s head into the wall. The man crumbled to the floor, silent.

We scanned the room, but there was no sign of Jade. I was pretty sure if she were skulking under a desk or cowering behind a potted plant, she would have hopped out by now to lay a sloppy one on her big hero.

“Even when she’s not here, she’s in the damn way,” I mumbled.

Kale either didn’t hear me or ignored the comment. “She must be close.”

I shook my head and backed away a few steps. “I guess it would be bitchy of me to say let’s leave her here?”

The tiniest hint of a smile lifted the corner of his lips. “That would be a bad person move.”

“Depends on your perspective.”

A scream split the air, and the smile was gone, his expression darkening. “Jade,” he breathed and sprinted toward the kitchen.

I followed, trying to focus on the actual disaster of Denazen hitting us at home base rather than the fact that my boyfriend had just dashed off to save the girl who had a mad crush on him. It wasn’t easy.

We rounded the corner and saw another hooded figure moving toward the door. Jade was slung over his shoulder, unmoving. As the man spun to face us, her hair whipped and bounced like a Barbie doll’s, arms swinging daintily across his back. Like a damned fairy-tale damsel in distress. God. She was even annoying while unconscious. Somewhere in the world there had to be a law against that.

Kale sprang into action, charging the man like a runaway train. The guy dropped Jade and tried to sidestep the attack, but he was too late. Kale slammed into him, sending them both to the ground.

I took two steps forward, begrudgingly about to help Jade—even though a little voice was telling me to kick her body under a table and hope Kale forgot about her—when someone grabbed me from behind.

“Miss me, girly?”

That voice crept up my spine like an arctic chill, leaving goose bumps in its wake. One arm locked like a vice around my neck, Able used the other to clamp his hand down over my mouth as he jerked us sideways into the shadows. Out of Kale’s field of vision. A distraction. Jade was playing possum to get Kale out of the way. Again.

Worked like a damn charm, too.

“Daddy sends his love,” Able whispered in my ear. He smelled like Mountain Dew, and I had to force myself not to puke. Mountain Dew was the worst smell ever. Even worse than burnt popcorn.

“Maybe you’d like to send yours?” With each word, his breath disturbed my hair, strands fluttering back and forth to tickle my skin as he held me secure.

As if responding to his closeness, my shoulder began to throb, hammering an uneven rhythm of pain that sent pangs throughout my entire body. The sudden increase messed with my equilibrium and made my heart pump a little faster.

While I didn’t have a license in badass like Kale did, I wasn’t exactly helpless. I sucked in a lungful of air and stomped back, grinding the heel of my foot into the top of Able’s. It didn’t do crap to hurt him—he was wearing thick boots, and I was barefoot—but he did stop to laugh at me. And that was his mistake. While he was busy snorting over my pathetic attempt at freedom, I flung myself forward and threw him off balance. His grip loosened just enough for me to slip free and bolt across the room in Kale’s direction.