The Epilogues: Part I: Badge of Honor (The Potentate of Atlanta Book 6), Hailey Edwards [year 2 reading books TXT] 📗

“She’s well on her way.” I shoved her back. “She doesn’t need your help to get there faster.”

A thoughtful glint brightened her eyes. “Are you sure?”

“Get Sue medical assistance.” I pointed a warning finger at her. “Do not kill her.”

Four grumbled under her breath and wrinkled her nose but gave the impression she would behave.

“Then call Bishop.” I dropped my arm. “Tell him I’m heading to the lake…after you call me a Swyft.”

Good grief.

What a humbling reminder of how dependent upon cell phones we had become as a society.

“Call Remy.” A faraway look entered her eyes and then she hummed softly. “She’s already in her car.”

“If I had a phone,” I pointed out, “I wouldn’t be leaving you with a list of calls to make for me.”

“Take mine.” She reached in her pocket. “Three is a block over.” She handed me her cell. “I’ll use hers.”

A fresh wash of nausea rose within me before the gratitude hit. “Thanks.”

“Think how it feels to be trapped inside her and the car when she drives how Sonic the Hedgehog runs.”

“No thanks.” I placed a hand over my stomach. “I’m already plenty queasy for what lies ahead.”

Lake Lanier awaited us an hour to the northeast. With Remy driving, I could cut that time in half.

That gave me thirty minutes to form a plan, implement it, and pray everyone made it out alive.

Afraid of drawing attention, I walked down a few blocks before I broke into a sprint that carried me to the nearest major intersection. I was torn on whether wearing the balaclava made me disappear into the night or the running made me look like a criminal on the loose. Probably door number two.

About to dial Remy, I leapt back three feet when her lime-green sports car hopped the curb in front of me. The door swung open, and she waved me in.

Shucking my gloves, I jumped in then demasked. “How did you find me?”

Other Remys must be posted around the city to keep an eye out if Four and Remy reached me so fast.

“The phone.” She chuckled. “Bishop gave us fresh burner phones last week to test an app Reece’s been developing that allows me to track any phone it’s downloaded on in real time. It’s way more accurate than the old one. I was tracking Four, but then she passed the spare off to you.”

Six months ago, I would have balked at the cost of arming all the Remys with individual phones they lost with alarming frequency, but tonight proved why communication was critical between team members.

“How did Four know where I was in the gauntlet?”

“Magic.” She took one hand off the wheel to wiggle her fingers. “Why are we zooming off to the lake?”

This once, I was happy to let her inner speed demon out. Mostly. Though I still wished for Dramamine.

“Sue was attacked by Jefferies vampires. The one who eviscerated her was nice enough to tell her the bubbles in Lake Lanier are linked. Drop the ward on one, and the other will flood. He wanted her to know I would save Neely and leave her family to drown. That they would die for her failure to follow the rules.”

“Those special touches really do make all the difference.”

Unwilling to touch that comment with a ten-foot pole, I dialed the coven leader, Meredith.

“There’s a fail-safe,” I warned her. “A counterbalance will flood the second bubble after the first is breached.”

“Um, hello?”

“Sorry.” Smacking my palm on my forehead, which I instantly regretted, I backtracked. “This is Hadley.”

Gritting my teeth against the wave of nausea from jostling my head injury, I outlined the latest problem.

“Thank the goddess we held off on the Billiards.” She blew out a breath. “This will require precision.”

Had they sprung the family sooner, we would have lost Neely before we ever knew he was in danger.

“Linus wouldn’t have recommended you to us if you weren’t the coven for the job.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” She barked orders in the background. “We’ll see you soon.”

The phone rang the second the call ended, and I braced for bad news. “Hello?”

“Your mate is coming unglued on the sidelines,” Reece informed me. “Call him.”

The crowd must be too loud where he was positioned for a call to be smart. That, or he was too near the Grande Dame, and Reece didn’t want me to risk being overheard. Either way, I would do as I was told.

He ended the call without expressing surprise I was out of the gauntlet or zooming away from Atlanta.

“Does Reece ever freak you out?” I stared at the phone. “He’s not omniscient for real, right?”

Between the tracking apps, the surveillance, and his computer skills, he was an oracle of a different kind.

“He kind of reminds me of that super lame movie you made us watch a few months back. God is a Robot, and He’s Always Watching.”

“That one’s a classic.”

“Black-and-white film does not a classic make.”

“Did you see the twist coming at the end?”

“The part where the hero poked out God the Robot’s all-seeing eye?”

With a fountain pen of all things. The ink splatter was truly inspired. “Yes.”

“A better question is who didn’t see it coming?”

“God the Robot, that’s who. On account of his eye…” I sighed. “Never mind.”

None of my friends appreciated classic cinema.

Unlike ninety percent of my contacts, Midas’s number was one I could dial in my sleep. “Hi, Hot Stuff.”

“No matter how good, a plan is pointless,” he said calmly after the first ring, “if you don’t stick to it.”

“Surprise!”

A long, slow exhale was his response.

“Vampires came after us hard in the gauntlet.” I skipped the parts about how my ears still rang from the blow I took to the head. “They were on Jefferies’s payroll. They gutted Sue and expected me to leave her to die.” It made my headache worse to cobble together my thoughts. “They told her there was a fail-safe, a countermeasure guaranteed to cost us one bubble