Trying to keep himself from overthinking everything, he headed for Trey’s desk and thought about Stan’s chief shit—and was so glad the force didn’t have some disconnected bureaucrat sitting in that chair.
If that man was serious about leaving, too, José had another reason to be glad he was retiring.
Things were going to change in the CPD if Stan was no longer in charge.
And not in a good way.
Back at the prison camp, Rio’s mind was churning as she returned to those private quarters upstairs. As Mayhem entered the code again and sprang the lock, she walked in and stood over the bodies of the two guards. As an undercover officer, there were rules and regulations about things she could and couldn’t do, and she wasn’t exactly sure how many she had tripped up in the last twenty-four hours. Then again, everyone back in Caldwell no doubt thought she was dead.
Not that that gave her a pass.
“Just outside, then?” she said. “Where exactly?”
This gruesome task was necessary. She needed to get a sense of the exterior of the facility, and she was running out of time. They were liable to blindfold her on the way out when they left after dark, so if she could see the exterior of the building now, it would make it easier to identify and locate the operation, wherever it was.
“Just right outside.” Mayhem went over to the other door on the back wall. “All you have to do is take them down the shallow stairs and leave them right there—”
“This is ridiculous.”
As Luke spoke up, they both looked at him. Well, didn’t he seem happy. He had crossed his arms, planted his boots, and was the very picture of over-my-dead-body.
Ha-ha, Rio thought grimly as she glanced down at the guards. “Look, I can handle it, okay? You think these are the first corpses I’ve seen—or handled?”
“It doesn’t matter—”
“Yes, it does.” She had to check out the outside of the building. “And it won’t take me any time at all.”
When she went to hook her hands under one of the guards’ armpits, Luke stepped in. “No. I’ll do it. I’ll take them—”
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Mayhem blurted.
“There’s a little cover over the door. It’ll be okay.”
There was a tense pause between the two men, as if they were communicating telepathically. And then Mayhem shrugged as if Luke had won the argument with some really bad logic.
“I guess I’ll just make sure she gets out of here alive,” the guy muttered. “That’s all I got.”
“Don’t be so fucking dramatic.” Luke picked the guard up off the floor, and slung the dead body over his shoulder. “Get the door, will you?”
“You better hope it’s cloudy,” Mayhem announced.
“Like she said, I won’t be long.”
In the back of Rio’s mind, she tried to find a protest that wouldn’t make them suspicious. When she failed, she could only impotently watch Luke—and she couldn’t help but note how easy it was for him to lift a heavily muscled man up off the floor. And deadweight was tough because there was little resistance to get a grip on.
She couldn’t imagine being that physically strong.
As Mayhem entered a different code on the pad than the one at the other door, she memorized the pattern—and was surprised at the smell of fresh pine as things were opened. Light from an overhead fixture showed off all kinds of new construction, but as with everything she’d seen that had been recently added, nothing was painted or finished beyond the rough-in first stage of the work.
Luke descended four or five steps; then he paused at a second, reinforced door—and looked back at her.
For a moment that felt like an eternity, he stared at Rio like he was memorizing her face.
“You can trust Apex, too,” he said roughly. “The bastard’s a sociopath, but he feels like he owes you, so you’re safe with him.”
Dear Lord, he was saying goodbye.
“What the hell is out there?” she asked.
Mayhem drew her away and closed them in the quarters together. Putting his back to the panel, he squeezed his eyes shut.
Then they waited. And waited . . .
. . . and waited.
As time stretched out, Mayhem started to roam around, hands in pockets, hands out of pockets. He looked at a watch on his wrist—that was not actually there—and for the first time, Rio noticed what he was wearing. It was the same kind of loose sweatshirt Luke wore. And his boots were the same. Pants, too.