J A X O N

I was at my breaking point with Marcella Krasowski. The sound of her voice made me want to hit something. And if she shot me one more smug, superior look, I was going to go insane.

"So Traversa is incapacitated now," she said and licked her red lips before pursing them together. "That's one more team member we've lost in a span of weeks."

"We did beat the Imperium soldiers and live to tell the tale," Finn said, trying to look respectful. Even his endless patience was visibly wearing thin.

"I wouldn't call it a victory if one of our own was nearly murdered and has now lost her memory."

"Delphinium and her men are powerful. More powerful than you seem to realize, if you think we can just grab her and bring her back here so easily," I said in my most sickly-sweet tone while staring daggers at her.

"I'm more than aware of how dangerous she is, Williams. Why do you think we need her gone so badly?" She shook her head. "After all, it is your job to protect our people from threats like these. You all said you would eliminate this problem."

I scoffed. "That was before you refused to listen to our side and our ideas." Arlo gave me a wicked grin of approval at my open dig.

"We almost had Delphinium," Finn said after shooting me a glance, warning me to not anger her. "She was blind and weaponless."

"She's not meant to be able to use her power without vision. Why, then, couldn't you capture her?"

"Exactly. That's where things went wrong. She was able to use telekinesis even while blind. And she was using more power than we've ever seen her use before."

"Orion did something to her," Jake stated tonelessly. His eyes were fixed in a predator's gaze on the director. "Something to make her able to do those things."

"Oh?" She raised an eyebrow. "And what do you suspect that is?"

Jake said nothing, probably not having the answer. So Finn spoke instead. "Do you see our problem? They were basically invincible before. Now that they have Delphinium, they're even stronger. We can't beat them."

"They think they're invincible," Jake corrected coldly. "I can work with that."

"You can work with that?" Krasowski's brows knit together. "What is that supposed to mean? Another plan that's doomed to fail?"

He gave her that withering look he'd become so accustomed to giving. I could have sworn the room became colder. "I'll have you know none of my plans have failed. They've always accomplished exactly what I said they would. My interests and yours just don't line up."

"None of ours do, really," I added, crossing my arms threateningly.

"However, our interests do come close in this case. Delphinium Tesla. I want her captured as much as anyone else. And I have a way to do it."

Krasowski wasn't impressed. "Is it going to fail as dismally as last time?"

The room got colder. I had a feeling Jake was waiting for her to shiver under his freezing power. "No. This time, we will be using my plan, not yours. Or need I remind you again that it was your plan that resulted in Riley's memory loss and our failure?"

Krasowski opened her mouth but this time Kane spoke. "I would listen to what he had to say." His tone was soft, but we all caught the underlying threat to his words. The way he was hulking in the corner like some silent guardian only helped further the idea that he might slam her face into the desk if she wasn't careful.

"That is no way to speak to your boss," she said coldly, still not wavering. Either she wasn't scared of us or she was doing a good job of hiding her apprehension. "I am your leader. Not the other way around. The council appointed me to give the orders."

"Careful," I said. "You're beginning to sound like a broken record." Taking a step closer to her desk, I continued in a harsher tone, "You'll get what you want. You will have Delphinium Tesla captured. But we decide how to do it, because we are the ones risking our asses out there."

"While you...do what?" Arlo asked, a vicious snarl. "Sit here and tell us what to do?"

Jake rested both hands on her desk, leaning forward. She finally leaned away, not wanting to share the same space as such a famous criminal. "It's fine. You can sit on your ass here. I'll allow it. But what Jaxon said goes. It's on my terms. Not yours."

With that, he left the room, the others turning to follow him without another word to Krasowski. I gave her a sharp smile before joining my crew outside.

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"You'd better all know what your parts in this plan are," Jake said, "Because it'll be any moment now."

"Last time was only an ambush because we didn't know they'd be there," Arlo said from the back seat. "What if they're not here now?"

"They'll be here somewhere. Imperium has been tracking us. If they weren't before, they are now that they know we're after them too."

"We've been driving for hours now, and there's been no sign of them." He sat back in his seat. "I'm already bored."

"I never said it would be fast," Jake snapped, keeping his eyes straight forward in the passenger seat. "But it will work."

"How many of us will it take to subdue her if what we've planned isn't enough to snap her out of it?" Finn asked politely. "She was able to take us all on last time and still win."

"Then let's be sure it turns her."

I rolled my eyes. "I would say that you're not acting as concerned as you should be about this issue, but I expected nothing more."

He shot me an icy stare over his shoulder. "I put you in the middle of the action for this battle. I could just as easily take you out."

His threat having hit home, I turned to the others. "No, he's right. This will work and we'll have Delphinium back. I'm sure of it."

"You're laying it on a little thick," Arlo told me matter-of-factly. "You're starting to sound like Finn."

Finn threw up his hands. "Again, why is that a bad thing?"

I shrugged. "Wherever it takes for you all to stop putting me on the sidelines."

"You do know you lost an arm, right?" Finn asked, raising an eyebrow. "At the fortress, you couldn't-"

Waving my hand in the air dismissively, I said with a smirk, "It didn't stop me from stopping that truck full of Imperium soldiers and carrying Arlo's good-for-nothing ass to victory."

"My ass is not-"

"Oh God." Finn pinched the bridge of his nose. "They're starting again." Kane sighed from the front seat.

"I only have one arm and I was still able to do more than you," I told Arlo, ignoring Finn. "If I were you, I'd be thanking me for saving your life."

"Saving my life? All you did was-"

"Shut up," Jake hissed. "All of you shut up or I'll freeze you to your seats and let Tesla do what she wants with you."

All of us shut our mouths. For a moment, there was silence and Jake turned back in his seat.

Then, Arlo broke it. "For the record, you didn't-"

"Everyone be silent," Kane spoke for the first time from behind the wheel—he'd been allowed to drive because he was the least erratic driver and not prone to aggressive driving. "That's them."

"What?" Arlo craned his neck to look out the front window. Perhaps if he hadn't been trying to fight a losing battle with me, he could have used his superior eyesight. "You really see-"

"That's them," Kane said, louder this time. He threw open the door and jumped out. The rest of us did the same as gunfire began to ring out toward the car.

As I squinted my eyes against the burning sun, I could see a few figures standing in the distance. Delphinium, Benny and a few other soldiers. The survivors of the other day's battle.

"Remember the plan," Jake said, pulling out both his guns. "Finn and Jaxon, go."

I exchanged a glance with Finn before running for the Imperium agents. Halfway there, I went invisible. Bullets soared past me, but none found their unseen mark. I felt the heat from Finn's flames on the entire left half of my body, but didn't turn my head to look. I had a job to do.

Their military vehicle was parked behind them. Finn, and now the other three, drew them away from it so that I would have access to it. I made it without injury. Whipping open the door as fast as I could, I leaped inside. The door shut behind me with a slam. My heart skipped a beat or two, but no one seemed to have heard the sound over the battle.

I crawled to the back portion, where two benches lined the walls. Unslinging my backpack from my shoulder, I reached around for the bombs I'd stored inside. There were thick panels on the floor that could be lifted up. I checked underneath and there was enough room for an explosive or two. So I got to work, stashing them inside—not so many that everyone inside would be incinerated, but enough to overturn the vehicle and injure whoever was in the back.

When my work was done, I jumped out the way I'd come and went to join my teammates. They were fighting Delphinium, holding her off until I was through. One of the other assassins was dead, but the other three were doing more than their share of making up for him.

Kane fought against his brother, pounding blow after blow into Benny's smug face. Kane had made sure he didn't hear the plan so Benny wouldn't read his mind and ruin it. As long as he kept his brother properly occupied, the Imperium agent wouldn't have the time to read the rest of our thoughts. It was a long shot now that Benny and Delphinium stood as an even greater threat together. But we had to do what we could.

I turned just in time to see Delphinium drop down and drag a blade across Finn's leg. With a cry, he staggered back, flames still flickering at his fingertips. I reappeared and went to help him, but Arlo caught him and dragged him out of Delphinium's path.

As soon as Arlo's gray eyes met my own, he knew I'd succeeded in my part. "Move out!" He yelled loud enough for the assassins to hear. It needed to look like a retreat.

Dodging thrown knives and bullets from Benny's gun, we barely made it to the car alive. We were hardly all inside before Kane pulled away from the assassins, tires screeching on the asphalt. Curses filled the car as we were thrown into each other.

As I glanced backward, I saw our enemies' car pulling away to chase us. That was what we wanted, but they were gaining on us, getting closer and closer...

Finn was watching as well. "We need to go faster," he said, a hint of desperation in his tone. He sat beside Arlo, trying to staunch the blood flowing from his leg.

"This thing can't go any faster," Kane said with remarkable calm. A cut across his cheekbone was trailing blood down to his jaw.

Arlo's gleeful gaze swept over all of us. "I bet you all are wishing I was driving now, don't you?"

Finn looked up from his wound long enough to say, "No, we'd rather not die. We prefer Kane over you." To that, Arlo made a noise of disgust. A small smile curved on Kane's lips, but he focused on the road.

We were barreling down a secluded backroad now, nearly swallowed by the overhanging trees on each side. No other cars or people were close. It was the perfect time.

"Cover your ears and hope for the best, gentlemen." I raised the detonator, preparing to set off the bombs. "It's about to happen." Up ahead, I saw the trees becoming sparser, revealing the ocean far below. It had to be now.

Just then, a tire popped with a bang. Kane cursed and the vehicle swerved, causing the detonator to soar out of my hand and into the back corner. No.

I reached down to get it as Kane struggled to control the car. My arm couldn't stretch out long enough to grab the detonator. If I still had two arms, it wouldn't have been a problem, but my fingers could only barely brush the device.

"Come on," I strained forward, not letting myself think about what would happen if the bombs didn't go off.

"Any day now," Jake hissed, knowing as much as I did that the perfect chance was gone. Now we had to take what we could get.

Kane turned the unsteady car around a sharp corner, throwing me forward. The world was a blur of the blue sky and sea and the brown cliff to our right. I caught the detonator at last and slammed the red button down. An explosion sounded behind us. I let out an imperceptible breath of relief.

Our car came screeching to a stop at last. I peered out the back window, only to see the military vehicle—wreathed in flames—go careening over the side of the cliff and toward the wild waters far below.