Crimson Highlander (Onyx Assassins 2)

“Race you there!” I didn’t waste a second before taking off, knowing I needed a huge head start to beat him. But that didn’t stop me from trying.

It didn’t matter. He beat me.

“Six guards are posted on the exterior,” Olivia’s whispered words cut into my thoughts, slicing the memory to ribbons.

My heart felt much the same condition—the memory had hit me full blast the second Olivia had wended us before the building. The same building I’d designed based off my many, many experiences visiting and playing in every facility of my father’s as a child.

“Two up front, one on either side, and two in the back,” she continued. “But they’re in motion. We have thirty seconds, then they’ll move away from the truck’s entrance.”

Our only possible entry point.

“There are likely a dozen more inside,” I whispered right back. “But we won’t know for sure until we’re in.”

“Olivia,” Avi said. “Do us a favor and incapacitate the guards outside. We’ll handle the rest when we’re inside. Maybe we can get in and out unnoticed.”

I flashed her a look that said otherwise, but I didn’t want to crush her confidence.

“On it,” Olivia said, and she was gone before I felt the wind from her exit hit my face.

“Fuck, she’s fast,” I said, shaking my head.

“You have no idea,” Avi said, eyes on the building’s entrance. “Wait until you see her showing off.”

“Olivia?” I tried not to laugh. “I’ve never seen her show off before.”

“She normally doesn’t. We tend to keep the extent of our powers concealed for obvious purposes, but sometimes when Ransom is ribbing her, she’ll unleash it all just to best him.”

“I didn’t think she’d let him get under her skin.”

“Try being friends with him for over a century,” she said, and I nodded.

“Wait, you said we conceal the extent of our powers—”

“Done,” Olivia said, materializing by our side so quietly I jolted. She arched a brow at me. “We’re about to infiltrate your psychotic brother’s heavily armed establishment, and you jump at the sight of me?”

“You’re as silent as the night,” I chided her. “And just as quick.” She flashed me a wink, and I breathed out slowly. Her joke had helped take off some of the nerves, but not all of them.

“Let’s roll,” I said, shoving down every doubt and fear sluicing through my veins.

The girls flanked my left and right as we hurried toward the front door and ducked to the left behind the corner of brick.

“That wasn’t there before,” I whisper-hissed, eying the camera positioned in the top corner, almost imperceptibly so. “Fuck.” I ground my teeth. Of course, Kyle would up security. “If he sees my face, all bets are off.”

“Leave it to me,” Avi said, eying Olivia.

I glanced between the two, but Olivia simply nodded. “What—” Avianna blinked out of sight. I turned to Olivia. “I thought you had to have seen the place to wend to it. There is no way she’s been inside this facility before, right?”

“Right,” Olivia said, nodding toward the door. “Just watch.”

I trained my gaze on the door, my lips parting open as it opened. I held my breath, terror shooting through me at the thought of another guard walking out and spotting us so close to the door.

But no one came through.

I furrowed my brow, but Olivia tugged on my arm, hauling me inside the facility, the door closing gently behind us. We hurried into a small corridor to the left, hitting another wall of steel and iron. I hurried up to the retina display, praying to whatever gods existed that my eye-scan would still work.

A few clicks, and the steel door groaned open. Olivia and I rushed through it, and I ducked into a small office I knew sat just to the right of the hallway.

“Where is—”

“Here,” Avianna said, materializing before us. I jumped again, glaring at them both. Avianna shrugged, then blinked in and out of sight right before my eyes.

I gaped at her. “How…but everyone said you didn’t have any power.” And this power? The ability to become invisible and walk through iron-laced walls? Fucking hell, she’d be more sought after, have a bigger target on her back if anyone knew.

“And I’d like to keep it that way,” she said, her blue eyes boring into mine.

I swallowed around the rock in my throat. This was trust…in its purest form. And she’d put herself at risk—they both had—to help me.

“I…” I didn’t have the words.

“We’ll hug it out later,” Olivia whispered. “I’d rather get out of here before the real threat shows up, and I don’t mean your fucking brother.”

Shivers danced over my skin. Lachlan and the Order. They would definitely kill us—Alek especially, if he caught Avi here. “Right,” I said, nodding. “Holding cells are a few hallways down,” I said. “I’d put money on it that Daphne is in one of them.”