“Now would be a great time for you to work that magic, darlin’.” Reese told Iris. “Anything you’ve got.”

 

“Sorry, cher. You know I’d tell you something if I could.” Iris watched him pace the length of his truck like a caged tiger.

 

Reese let out a noise of frustration. He wasn’t used to feeling this helpless.

 

And if it weren’t for his fellow runners, and the obligation he had to the Renegade tag that hung from his neck, he would have been inside that compound building right alongside Jared.

 

As it was, all he could do now was wait.

 

 

“Bitch.” Declan lifted his pistol. “I fucking knew it.”

 

“Ah, ah.” Jillian cocked her head, a calculated smile on her face. “I wouldn’t. There is someone just behind you who can’t wait to put a bullet in your ditchbreed brother. You shoot me, he dies.”

 

Declan’s gun arm froze.

 

“Nick let us in to set us up.” Jared whispered.

 

“No, actually, Farrington is the bleeding heart that you were led to believe.” Jillian scoffed. “Took me a whole freakin’ year to get him to believe I was on his side.”

 

Rae turned her body, a centimeter at a time, to face the Agent who had his gun trained on Jared. “Declan.” She hinted.

 

“Got it.” Their guns fired simultaneously, and Jillian and the other Agent dropped lifelessly to the ground.

 

Declan rushed to the keypad on the wall. “Don’t suppose you can hack this one, Jare?”

 

Jared shook his head. “I never had to learn digital.” The software was new, advanced, and like nothing Jared had ever seen. “I don’t know how to-“

 

“I do.” A tall, dark haired figure stepped into the hall, two Agent issue rifles strapped across his back. He pressed a sequence of buttons on the keypad and the sound of a dozen locks clicking out of place echoed through the hall.

 

“Rae, get down!” Tate tugged her arm and pulled her out of the line of fire of three more Agents, guns raised and pointing straight at her and the dark haired guy who had just unlocked the rescue cells. The former Agent had one of his rifles off his back and in his hands from one breath to the next, firing squarely at their assailants.

 

He reached down a hand towards Rae. “Nick Farrington.”

 

“Rae Cooper.” Rae gripped his wrist and hauled herself up. “And you’re late.”

 

Nick gave her a wry smile. “Got caught in a meeting.” An alarm sounded loud and shrill over their heads. “That’s our cue,” Nick told them. “Everybody out.”

 

Declan and Tate coaxed the rescues out of their cells, taking the lead to intercept any Agents. They led the kids down the hall, Rae and Nick in the middle, two dozen teenage rescues following them up the stairs and out the rear door.

 

Jared skittered to a halt at the last cell. One rescue held back, huddled against the far wall of his room, his arms wrapped protectively around his body. Turning skeptical, worried eyes on Jared, he asked, “Wh-who are you?”

 

Jared looked into the wide, scared eyes of a young boy, something sick twisting inside him because there was no way this kid was even a teenager yet. “We’re here to help.”

 

The boy’s gaze dropped to the cuff around Jared’s wrist. Realization dawned in the boy’s eyes. “You’re one of us.”

 

Jared nodded. “I was.” He watched Nick and Rae gather the last of the kids up the stairs and out the door. Jared looked down the hallway behind that he knew wouldn’t stay empty for long, and held out his hand. “Come on. We will get you somewhere safe.”

 

The boy was frozen, his eyes darting from Jared to the staircase to the hallway door.

 

“Come on,” Jared pressed, raising his voice to be heard over the deafening security alarms. “I know that freedom scares you just as much as these damn Agents. But I will get you out, and take you somewhere you can be safe from these people.” Jared opened and closed the fingers of his outstretched hand. “You just have to trust me.”

 

Heavy footsteps sounded in the hall, outside the cell doors. “Please,” Jared whispered, knowing the sound of the word would be lost but hopefully not the desperation behind it.

 

The boy slid his hand into Jared’s and they made a run for it, clearing half the staircase before Jared felt a tug on his hair. “Where do you think you’re going, ditchbreed?”

 

Jared reached back to grab the hands of his attacker, but not before shoving the kid up the stairs. “Go!”

 

The Agent kicked his legs out from under him, causing Jared to fall to his knees. The moment he connected with the cold metal stair Jared heard the crack of bone, felt the shooting pain lance up his right arm. “Go!” He shouted at the boy, who stood frozen in horror at the top of the stairway. “Get out!”

 

“You goddamn Renegades think you can come in here and mess with our system.” The Agent let go of Jared’s hair, only to pull on his ankle and drag him the rest of the way back downstairs. Colored spots blurred Jared’s vision when his left knee cracked against the jutting bottom step. “Mess with what is right.”

 

“Nothing about holding people captive is right,” Jared spat out, rolling onto his back and cradling his broken wrist to his chest. “Neither is killing them just for being different.”

 

The Agent grinned at him, a sick, toothy smile that made Jared’s skin crawl. “Different. Damaged. Stained.”

 

“Human,” Jared argued. He leaned to the side, placing most of his weight onto his right hip.

 

The Agent fixated on the piece of leather at Jared’s wrist. “No one wears something like that unless they’ve got something to hide.” He lifted his rifle and pointed it at Jared’s chest. “Say goodbye, ditchbreed.”

 

Jared pulled his pistol and clicked off the safety. “You first.” He didn’t even break eye contact with the Agent as he braced his gun hand against his chest and fired.

 

 

“Dammit.” Reese’s heart leapt from his chest when he heard roaring buzz of the alarms sounding from the compound.

 

“Don’t do anything foolish.” Iris told him.

 

Reese palmed his gun. “Like hell I’m going to stay here while that shit is going off.”

 

Iris caught the keys he tossed at her, and winked. “That’s what I meant, cher.”

 

 

Jared stumbled outside the building, breathing in huge gasps of air to send oxygen to his brain, hoping to keep from passing out at the pain shooting through his broken arm. His knee that had crashed against the stairs wasn’t feeling so hot either. Most of the kids were already into the woods, where Tate had taken point.

 

“Jared?” Declan shouted his name over the noise of the alarm, making his way back through the rescues like a salmon headed upstream.

 

“I’m here.” Jared bit his lip against the pain, and cradled his broken wrist tight against his chest.

 

“You made it,” a small voice at his side whispered. Jared looked down into the eyes of the boy he had shoved up the stairs.

 

“Course I made it,” Jared forced out with a confidence he didn’t feel. He wondered why the hell the kid wasn’t up ahead with the rest of the rescues. “What’s your name?”

 

“Cody,” the boy whispered.

 

Jared tried his best to give Cody a smile, and then looked back in the direction of the building they had just escaped. With those alarms going off, it was only a matter of seconds before they had Agents on their asses.

 

“Please,” Cody reached out and grabbed Jared’s good arm. His eyes were wide with fear when he looked at Jared. “Please don’t leave me.”

 

Jared shook his head. “I won’t.” Jared shared a glance with Declan. “I promise.”

 

Declan cursed when he saw Jared’s wrist. “At least try to get the hell up front. Tell one of the others to drop back and help me cover.” Declan thrust Jared and Cody in front of him, looking over his shoulder every two seconds as they made their way to Gideon.

 

Jared grabbed Cody’s hand. “Come on.” Holding the scared boy’s hand in his helped to keep him focused, and Jared alternated between counting his steps and counting the small group of rescues he could see in front of him. It kept him awake enough that he didn’t pass out, the repetition giving him something to focus on other than the pain coursing through his body.  Rae and Tate had most of the teens drawn further up the path, along with that new guy whose name Jared’s fuzzy brain couldn’t remember right now.

 

Twenty steps forward, five rescues in his sight line, plus Declan behind. Jared repeated his count, over and over.

 

Twenty steps. Five rescues. One brother.

 

Jared stumbled on an errant branch, and swore as the jostling shot pain though his right arm sharp and hot.

 

Twenty. Five. One.

 

He grit his teeth, bit so hard down onto his lip that he tasted blood, his banged up knee protesting with every step he took.

 

Jared breathed through the agony, and restarted his count.

 

The bullets that struck the tree just to his left interrupted step number thirteen.

 

 

Reese heaved a sigh of relief at seeing the large group of people walking en masse to Gideon’s location. He cut sideways through the brush and headed straight for them, knowing any minute he should be able to see Jared within their ranks.

 

He pivoted at the ear-splitting crack of the gunshots, changing course as he took off on a run towards the sound of hailing bullets.

 

 

“Get down!” Declan shouted. Jared grabbed Cody and dropped into a crouch, their heads ducking low. His left knee screamed in pain at the movement, and for a split second the treetops above Jared swayed and danced within his blurring vision.

 

“Move...take them....get....the front...cover...find Gideon.” Declan’s voice faded in and out of Jared’s ears, and the leaves were so soft beneath Jared’s head, and he wished his brother would shut up for a second so he could get some sleep.

 

More gunfire sliced through the woods, quick and loud like firecrackers.  The noise, and Declan’s yanking on his left arm, jerked Jared from his haze. “Come on, Jared, move!”

 

Jared held tight to Cody’s hand and pulled, moving him forward with the rest of the straggling teens.