11. Ward

One call, and SPAM mobilized.

Within an hour, we had a new plan to get Hallie to Washington, and new escorts for her. She wasn't happy with the change. To be honest, I wasn't, either, and Dev looked downright heartbroken over it. But it was the right thing to do. Crimson was coming after me, not her, so the smartest thing was to separate us. He wouldn't pursue her.

Damned if I could convince Dev of the same thing. He'd be safer if he didn't stick with me, but he refused to listen to reason.

We'd moved to a hotel room, with two cops stationed at the door and two SPAM agents inside with us as we had a conference call with April. As always, her image was simply a large A on the computer screen. Thankfully, our gear had been rescued, undamaged, from Dev's ruined truck.

"I'm not going back home. Not while Ward is in danger," Dev insisted for what felt like the tenth time.

April was silent, but Agent Emile Paterson, a bald and beardless Black man close to my age, sighed. "Agent Campbell, I appreciate your dedication, but—"

Dev crossed his impressive arms, which bunched up his pecs and strained the seams of his flannel sleeves. That was hot enough, but the scowl on his usually smiling face? The way his eyes narrowed behind his taped-up glasses? Why did that make my mouth water?

Senior Agent Kathleen Xu, codename Flicker, leveled a look on me. "Ward…"

"Kathy," I threw back at her. We'd been colleagues—quasi-friends?—for years, though I hadn't talked to her since she visited me in the hospital after my last battle with Crimson. My fault, of course. She'd left me messages, but knowing she had her powers still, while I never would again…yeah, I'd been an envious fuck. She looked the same as always, petite, delicate, but dressed in tactical gear rather than a suit. Her hooded eyes were dark with concern and her pale golden skin was more washed-out than I remembered. "What do you expect me to do? He's a grown man."

"I expect you to encourage him to—"

I held up a hand. "I tried. He said no, he wanted to stay with me at the safe house." Which I truly hadn't expected. I thought he'd push to be one of the folks to accompany Hallie to Ottawa and the States, but he seemed to think I needed someone to watch my back.

He wasn't wrong.

"Look," Dev huffed. "The night before we left my place, I thought I heard something outside. I didn't see anything and assumed it was an animal since my cabin is isolated, and we had no idea this Crimson guy was out and hunting down Ward."

"Did you check for prints in the morning?" Kathy asked, her voice urgent.

Dev shook his head. "It was still dark when we left. But I had no reason to think it was anything but an animal, so it wasn't a high priority."

"Completely understandable. Don't beat yourself up." With his sympathetic tone of voice and soft look, it was easy to see Paterson was totally under Dev's spell. I didn't know him, though I'd heard his name bandied about by people at SPAM. His codename was Conduit, and he could boost another agent's power. Which is how I assumed he and Kathy had gotten here so quickly. She could teleport, though normally only short distances. With Conduit's support, she was able to teleport from Ottawa to North Bay, as well as bring the other two agents who'd already left with Hallie. If Hallie's powers hadn't been so untested, Kathy might have even been able to teleport her to DC. But SPAM liked to err on the side of caution with new cadets.

"If it was Crimson, that means he knows where you live." April's resigned voice finally came through the laptop. "No, you're right, Campbell. You're not going home, not yet."

"Thank you," Dev said, clearly relieved.

"I'm not sure you'll be thanking me after a week in a safe house with Sullivan."

Dev shot me a look that I couldn't quite decipher, except for the flare of heat in his eyes. I tried not to blush, but I could feel warmth blooming in my cheeks. What the hell was wrong with me? I was fucking forty-five years old, and so far removed from being a virgin it wasn't funny. But there was something about that look…

"Sullivan," April barked at me.

"What?" I shot back.

"Be nice to your partner."

"Yes, Mom."

She ignored my sarcasm. To be fair, she'd had plenty of experience in doing so.

With Paterson's help, Kathy moved us to the safe house. I'd been expecting another isolated cabin, à la Dev's place, so I was shocked when we flickered back into reality in an alley. Snow was softly falling from the pre-dawn sky, enough to look lazy and pretty, but not enough to mess with the morning commute of the citizens of whatever town we were in. Because it was a town, not a city—there was a distinct lack of background noise that I'd come to expect in a city, even at this extra-late (or extra-early) hour. There was also little light to pollute the cloud-covered, black-as-pitch sky.

The alley was empty except for a couple of large plastic garbage cans on wheels. Before I could ask Kathy where the hell we were, a door I hadn't seen in the brick building in front of us opened up, spilling warm yellow light into the darkness.

The person standing there was mostly in silhouette, but I could tell they were male, not too much taller than Kathy. He held the door open with one arm and beckoned us forward with the other. "Flicker, Conduit, Firefox, and…" He hesitated. "Agent Campbell. No codename?"

Dev shrugged. "I've never been truly active, so I wasn't assigned one."

"That's not right," Paterson said, clearly still under Dev's niceness influence. His hand even twitched like he wanted to reach out and rub Dev's shoulder or something.

That shouldn't have made my own shoulders tense up, but it did.

"It's fine," Dev insisted.

"It isn't," Kathy countered, sounding affronted on his behalf. Oh, no, Kathy was under his spell too? It was a good thing Dev was on the right side, because otherwise…damn.

"I'm Vole," the man who'd greeted us said as we slipped in through the door and it closed behind us. Now I could see that he had dark tan skin, close-cropped black hair salted with silver, and laugh lines around his amber eyes. "Otherwise known as Senior Agent Alim Karga. This is my family's textile store, part of a series of connected shops on this block." He smiled widely, and I understood why the lines around his eyes were so pronounced.

I shot a look at Kathy. "I thought you were taking us to a safe house."

"I did," she said smugly, and Vole waved us to follow him down a set of stairs.

We emerged into a storeroom lined with metal shelves filled with rolls of fabric. I couldn't identify half of the colors, let alone the type of material. In the middle of the space were huge industrial tables with various tools of the textile trade. The only item recognizable to me was scissors.

If SPAM thought I was going to be comfortable holing up in a freaking workroom…

But Vole continued, leading us to another door with a hidden biometric lock that he triggered using his thumb. Behind it was another set of steps leading down. A subbasement? Interesting. The walls on this staircase were less refined, so I wasn't surprised to come out into something that was little more than a hole in the ground. A well-appointed hole, but a hole nonetheless. It was about the size of my first studio apartment in DC, back when I was a newly minted and overenthusiastic agent, except instead of a plain rectangle, this space had an alcove with a pair of bunkbeds. The rest of it was living space with a tiny kitchenette and a door at the opposite end of the room that I assumed led to a bathroom. No windows, of course, which made this safe house both the safest spot and the most dangerous.

If Crimson ever found us and got through Vole and whoever else was working for him, we'd be trapped. But…how the hell would he find us buried in a subbasement in whatever small town we were in, especially since we'd arrived via Kathy's powers and hadn't left a trail?

I'd thought that about my assignment with Dev and Hallie, though. Either Crimson had bugs in the SPAM network or there was a leak. Both possibilities made my overtired brain ache.

"How long are we going to be stuck here?" There was a thread of tension in Dev's voice I wasn't used to hearing. He was usually so easygoing, accepting of whatever was happening all around him. But now, his voice sounded brittle, on the edge of breaking.

"Until we recapture Crimson," Kathy said. "Are you okay?"

He answered in the affirmative, nodding enthusiastically, and lying his ass off. The way he swallowed, almost convulsively, and his eyes darted around like he was looking for an escape told me this wasn't going to work.

"He's not," I announced, crossing my arms.

He shot me a look. "Ward."

"What is it, claustrophobia?"

He stared at me for a second, then some of his righteous annoyance faded, deflating his shoulders. "I guess."

"That wasn't in your dossier, Agent Campbell." Kathy almost sounded like she was scolding him, but it lasted for only a second before she continued with, "Understandable, though. It's the lack of windows, right? This is a great location, but not for everyone."

"We'll find something else. Don't worry. Get some rest while we see what's available." Paterson was already on his way up the stairs to the land of better cell signal, Kathy on his tail.

Vole smiled and gestured at the apartment. "You both look like you could use some sleep." With that, he trailed behind the other two agents.

Dev let out a breath when they were all gone. "I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"Because this is a great safe house and I'm screwing it up."

I grunted. "Not that great. I'm half -afraid April would accidentally-on-purpose forget about the two of us down here."

"No. She loves you."

Another grunt from me. "‘Love' is a strong word."

"Still, this is way more secure than other places I can think of."

"True. But it's also a kill box."

His lips twisted. "Cheery thought."

"And I don't know about you, but I don't think I can survive in a hole in the ground for as long as it might take to hunt down Crimson. I never thought I needed sunlight until I walked down those stairs."

"We're all really just walking plants with anxiety."

I snorted out something like a laugh. "Accurate. Which bed do you want?"

"Whichever one you're in."

Squinting at him, I countered, "I don't think we'll both fit."

"We'll never know for sure unless we try, right?"

Well, I couldn't argue with that logic.

We did, in fact, fit. Barely. If we held each other tight and didn't move. Surprisingly, we both managed to drift off like that, and I didn't wake until I heard the beep of someone disengaging the lock on the door. By the time there were footsteps on the stairs, Dev and I were both out of bed and waiting for our visitors. It turned out to be only Vole.

"Where's Kathy?" I demanded.

Vole held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Reassigned. But your ride to another safe house is here."

I didn't like the idea that Kathy had been called away, but I supposed her part—and Conduit's—was done. They'd gotten us here and out of Crimson's sphere of influence. Supposedly. Still, I would've liked them to stick around to get us to our next destination too. Something big must have come up. Maybe April had a bead on Crimson's location and needed the pair to get agents there.

I could only hope.

We took a few minutes to freshen up in the safe house's tiny bathroom, then followed Vole up the stairs to where we'd started—the alley behind his family's shop. The sun was up, if barely, the sky a pale gray darkening to a charcoal color closer to the horizon. Another storm on the way, probably. God, I was so fucking sick of winter, and snow, and cold. I was going to insist my next assignment be somewhere tropical.

A dark SUV that screamed government issue idled in the alley. Its windows had enough of a tint that I couldn't see inside, even if the driver wasn't blinding us with the high beams. The vapor from the tailpipe snaked along the ground, adding an ethereal element to the otherwise ordinary alleyway.

I expected a fellow agent to pop out of the passenger side—probably a familiar face, given how many people I'd worked with over the years. But no. Nothing.

My steps faltered. I grabbed the elbow of Dev's parka before he could continue closer to the vehicle. Keeping my eyes on it, I asked Vole, "Who's picking us up?"

"Karma and Hornet," he answered easily.

I was right—I knew them both. Didn't particularly like them, either, but that was neither here nor there. The point was, Karma would've popped out of the SUV to lord it over me that she'd had to come save my ass. She liked an audience when it came to putting me in my place. Hornet, her best friend and partner, would've been right there with her. So that meant, whoever was in that SUV, it wasn't those two agents.

"Run," I said under my breath to Dev.

His head whipped toward me. "What?"

The SUV's door opened, and all I could see was the long, wavy, unnaturally red hair that had been the inspiration for my nemesis's name.

"Run!" I shouted, shoving Dev to the side.

He didn't hesitate this time, but took off down the alley. Vole might be able to slow Crimson down, but he wouldn't stop him. It took a team of five to capture him last time. And that had been iffy.

A red energy bolt struck one of the buildings beside us, sending pulverized bricks raining down. I ran through the dust, trying not to breathe it in, and hoped it would obscure us from further shots.

"What the hell is he shooting at us?" Dev yelled.

It was too difficult to explain that was my old power he was wielding, mutated to be something completely different and deadly. "Energy bolts. Do not let one hit you!"

"Wasn't planning on it!"

Behind us, the SUV's engine roared. I grabbed for Dev's elbow and yanked him into the space between two buildings. It wasn't wide enough for the two of us to walk side by side, but the important thing was that the SUV couldn't follow us.

"Jesus!" Dev coughed as more brick dust filtered through the cold morning air. "We're sitting ducks."

"Keep going!" We had to make it to the other end of this quasi-alley before Crimson and his driver tried to box us in. I gritted my teeth and poured on the speed. The SUV's engine revved again. I focused on the edge of the buildings—a hundred feet away, seventy-five, fifty…

We burst out from between the buildings as the SUV rounded the corner and bore down on us like a tank at ramming speed. This time, it was Dev who grabbed my arm, dragging me into a coffee shop past a line of confused customers.

He was getting closer to civilians? "What the fuck are you—"

"Hi." Through his panting breaths, he smiled, wide and easy, at the frowning barista. The confusion on her face melted away instantly. "Love your café. Is there another exit?"

"Oh, yeah. We've got the service door out into the alley, or there's the door that goes to the antique store beside us. It's closed right now."

Dev put on what I could only call puppy eyes. "Would you mind opening that door? It would be super helpful."

"Sure, sure." Without another look at the line of customers waiting to put in their orders, the barista abandoned her post to guide us over to the quaint windowed door set in the middle of the wall between the two shops. "This building is super cool—there are doors between all the shops, kind of like an old-timey mall."

"Neat," Dev agreed absently.

The connected shops Vole had mentioned. Damn, I'd forgotten that. If we could go from store to store, we could maybe put some distance between us and Crimson and evade him. I tried not to think about how he'd located us again, and how he probably would in the future. Getting away right now was what mattered. Except the other doors would probably be locked at this time of the morning…fuck.

But then Dev was sprinting through the open door and I had no option but to follow. We emerged into a darkened antique store and had to weave around multiple chests and tables of varying pedigrees. I nudged one of them with my hip and barely managed to rescue a fancy-looking lamp that threatened to tip over. It took only seconds to find the door that led to the next store, and when I reached it, Dev was already bent over, fiddling with the lock.

"You can pick locks?"

He shot me a look over his shoulder. "Can't you?"

I shrugged. It had been part of the training when I was a new hero, but I hadn't memorized any of the techniques since I thought I'd always have my powers to burn through any locks in my way. Again, Dev surprised me by being very quick at the task. Why wasn't he working in the field, dammit? Simply because people in headquarters didn't like him?

The next store had racks of clothing. It took me a second to realize I wasn't looking at women's swimsuits, but lingerie. Racy lingerie. Okay then. A small town having a café or two, I understood. Antique stores, definitely. I could even grasp the idea of Vole's family store. But a risqué lingerie shop?

Instead of running for the next door between shops, Dev guided us to the front door. He unlocked it and popped out onto the sidewalk, once more with me following in his wake. He beelined toward an older SUV parked at the curb, and in seconds had the doors open and was hotwiring the engine.

Damn, his competence at criminal activities shouldn't be so attractive.

I jumped into the passenger seat as the vehicle's engine sputtered and caught. Dev wasted no time in pulling into the road, but he didn't squeal the tires or otherwise draw attention to us.

"Where are we?" he asked.

I was ahead of him, my phone in my hand as he turned left at the next major intersection. "On it. Looks like…huh. Pembroke, Ontario."

"Okay. Okay." Dev heaved out a breath that seemed full of relief. "I think I have an idea, then."

"An idea for what?"

"Where we can lay low for a few days."

"Good. Let's do it."

He cast a glance at me. "You don't want to know the details?"

"Is it away from here? Is it somewhere Crimson won't be able to find us?"

"Yes…" Dev drew out the word as he tilted his head side to side.

"That's better than what we've got right now."

He huffed out something of a chuckle. "Remember you said that, all right?"

I looked at him, but he kept his eyes on the road, and I wondered what the hell I'd agreed to.