Chapter 1

Devolin

 

Present Day…

 

Come on. Come on. Come on!

“Come. On!” I bounced in place as I watched the progress bar run its course, and then punched the air in victory once it hit one-hundred-percent. “Gotcha!”

Disconnecting the thumb drive from my laptop, and slamming the top down on it, I scooted out of bed and proceeded to stuff the lot into my satchel.

There was no other option than to go straight to him.

This was life or death, and everything hinged on what I did next. I’d long since made a promise to myself that I’d never risk making contact with the team I’d bonded with after one night of mayhem. But promise or not, this information I’d just dug up wasn’t something I could relay to him over the phone.

It needed to be seen.

Analyzed.

Discussed.

That meant that I needed to see Dalton Kippers. In the flesh. Talk to him. Show him what I’d found, what he was in for.

Then, I needed to get far away from him, and move on already, because this crazy obsession I had developed over the man was getting out of hand. My best friend, Skylar, had told me as much on multiple occasions. And when Skylar deemed it fit to force her wisdom upon me, I needed to listen. It’s been nearly a year since I helped Dalton and his team rescue Jasper Lowell and Morgan Smyth for Christ’s sake!

On a snort, I shrugged off where my thoughts were heading and closed my bag.

“What are you doing?”

The breath in my lungs seized. “Sky!” Hand clutched at my chest, I turned to face the woman, waiting for my erratic heartbeat to calm. “You scared the living shit out of me.”

Skylar leaned against the doorjamb, dressed in wrinkled hot pink scrubs from a hard day’s work, smirking. “Well, at least we know one of us is capable of getting that ticker of yours up above a slow trot now, don’t we?” She breezed into the room, nodded toward my satchel, a glimmer of curiosity entering her gaze. “What’s going on?”

I bit my bottom lip, knowing the guilt showed on my face for what I was about to ask of my dearest friend. Then I blurted, “Sky, I need your help.”

“Do I need to worry that the cops will be coming in here to cart your ass off to jail?” she asked.

“I need to get out of here for a few hours.”

“Dev, you know I can’t—”

“It’s life or death, Sky.”

Skylar’s eyes widened. “Dev, what in the hell have you gotten yourself into?”

I headed toward the cabinet, that passed itself off as a closet, and grabbed the pair of jeans and t-shirt I’d been wearing when I had been admitted. My irritation at the lack of immediate support showed with each jerky movement I made. “Can you or can’t you help me out?” I turned to look at her from over my shoulder.

Skylar crossed her arms over her chest, taking a seat in the chair closest to my hospital bed. “You look flushed. How’re you feeling, and tell me the truth.”

Oh no, not that no-nonsense tone of hers. If I told my friend, who incidentally was a nurse, that I was feeling ‘off’ for lack of a better description, there’d be no way Skylar would let me walk out of there, say nothing of her covering for my absence with Doris, the nurse that was currently on duty. Damn woman was so old, she should have retired a decade ago, but seemed to find it amusing to torture her patients. That’s why Skylar and I had dubbed her Nurse Battle-Axe. Because of this, and the fact that I did need to get out of there, I went with, “I’m fine,” and hoped that my bad acting, let alone lying skills wouldn’t give me away.

Unfortunately, the lack of conviction my words held, and the pause I had to take to brace myself against the wall to wait out the wave of dizziness that hit me, didn’t help my cause.

“Uh-huh…”

“I’m not kidding, Sky. I need to do this.” I whipped my pajama top off and flung it at the bed, slipping my shirt on. “This case…it’s big.”

“Dev—”

“No!” I persisted, yanking down my pajama bottoms, then headed to the bed for needed support. Leaning on it, I slid my legs into my jeans, wiggling them up over my ample hips. “He’s in danger, Sky.”

Her eyes rounded as realization hit her. “He, as in he?” I nodded. “I thought we’d discussed this, Dev.” She sighed.

“No, you discussed it. I merely listened. You told me to move on and I will. Just…” My frustration came out in a huff. “I have to see this through. It’s my fault he took this case in the first place, so by default, it’s my responsibility to make sure he knows what he’s heading into. The people he’ll be dealing with…” Another sigh accompanied my shake of the head. “They’re not good, Sky.”

“Okay.” Skylar paused mid-thought. “Say I let you leave. How the hell am I supposed to keep Doris out of here?”

“She knows you come in here after your shifts. She never bothers to check in on me when you’re here, you know that.”

“So you want me to…?” She let her words hang so I could fill the gap.

“I know it’s not right for me to ask this of you, but can you stay here, as in this room, until I get back?” Biting my lip in that nervous tick of mine, I continued, “And I’ll need your keycard.”

“Devolin!” she scolded.

Both of us looked toward the room’s door and listened for a short moment to see if Skylar’s outburst had generated some attention.

“I’ll take the back way out and come in the same way. The emergency stairwell is just outside that door.”

“I can get fired for that,” she whisper-yelled, shooting the door another glance. Still, the woman pulled her access pass and handed it over.

I snapped it up from her hand then shrugged. “Just say you lost it if anyone asks.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re lucky I love you, woman,” she grumbled.

Knowing I had her where I wanted her, I grinned. “So you’ll help me out?”

On a curt nod, Skylar got to her feet. “Yeah.” Her eyes did a full head to toe appraisal before she shared my smile. “But we need to do something about your hair and makeup first.”

I blew out a relieved sigh, hoping my eyes conveyed my appreciation. I really would have left against hospital advice—sure, I’d return after my duty was done—because a life, if not lives, hung in the balance and it was all my fault.

 

Sneaking out of my room, and down the stairwell, proved to be easy enough. Nurse Battle-Axe was out on the floor and away from the nurses’ station. Heading down two floors, I exited the stairs, and made my way toward the bank of elevators that would take me the rest of the way down to the main lobby. When I got there, I jumped in the first cab that I spotted, rattling off my home address.

Upon my arrival, adrenaline running at an all-time high, I hurried to my vehicle. Finding it parked in its usual spot of my mother’s garage, I noticed the bay next to it was empty and thanked the powers up above that I wouldn’t have to deal with dear old Mom right away.

Hitting the fob, I opened the door, dropped my bag on the passenger seat, then settled into the driver’s side.

“Hello, baby,” I cooed to my newest acquisition, the leather upholstered finish and new car smell that had yet to fade, even after nearly a year of ownership.

Hitting the button that would open my bay’s door from the controller on my visor, I put the key in the ignition and turned it. Sending my destination from my phone to the car’s GPS, I took a few short seconds to enjoy the purr of the Charger’s engine. Then I shifted my ride into reverse.

 

Nightshade Security Investigations—Dalton’s company—was closed, so I made my way to the former corporal’s home to find that it too lacked the one man I was trying to locate. I did take the time to admire the two rockers on his front wraparound porch and the American flag hanging in a place of pride on one of the support pillars framing the steps.

I hope I’m not too late.

I wasn’t sure what I’d do if Dalton had already skipped town. Just as quickly as that thought popped into my head, another followed it.

Theo would know where he is.

Reprogramming my GPS for Theo and Morgan’s place, I reared out of the drive and floored the gas pedal. Fifteen minutes later, my lead foot caused me to nearly miss the entry to the driveway, as I reached my third, and hopefully, final destination.

It wasn’t until my finger released the doorbell that I realized how truly horrible I was feeling. To make matters worse, my nerves had also kicked in, and I had a fleeting thought that perhaps I should have given myself a quick cursory glance in the mirror before exiting the car. There were no do-overs on first meetings, after all, and I was about to meet more than just Theo and possibly Morgan today, seeing as it looked to be that they had a visitor, judging by the third vehicle parked at the front of the house.

As luck would have it, someone was home.

I would have cried out my relief at the sight of the pregnant woman before me, but a whispered, “Morgan,” was the only thing I could muster as soon as the door opened.

The woman’s eyebrows furrowed in apparent confusion. “Do I know you?”

I shook my head, indicating the negative, because that’s all I could do. I was too busy fighting the sudden bout of nausea and dizzying heat. Next thing I knew, my vision tilted, then dimmed, and my knees gave out.

 

At the feel of a cool damp rag sponged against the hollow of my throat, over my forehead, my cheeks, and then back again, some of my faculties returned. The sensation was like heaven on my overheated skin. I sighed at the same time a, “Mr. T,” escaped me.

“W-what, did she say?” I recognized Dalton’s voice immediately. Unable to get my eyes to cooperate and open, I heard a thump come from right beside me, accompanied by the heat of another body warming the side of my torso.

“Danger…Kip,” I mumbled, and then everything started to fade again.

Before I was able to embrace the darkness that swooped in, I felt the palm of Dalton’s callused hand gently cup my cheek as he whispered, “Huss?”