Dragonfury 01 - Fury of Fire

it.” He shook his head, frustration making him restless. “I went over the camera’s digital files frame by frame. Nothing out of the ordinary.”
    Angela frowned. “An inside job.”
    “Yeah…maybe. IA’s all over it, talking to the techies, but that doesn’t help us.”
    No, it didn’t, and neither did the holes in her memory. Flipping the case file open, she said, “All right. Let’s go over everything again. Maybe—”
    Mac’s cell phone screeched, and she winced. Man, she really wished he’d change that ringtone. It was hell when she had a headache.
    “MacCord.” As chatter came through the earpiece, Mac went still in his seat. The hair on the back of Angela’s neck rose as her partner’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah…good job. Sit on her until we get there.”
    Mac closed his phone with a snap. She tipped her chin, a tell me, tell me, tell me written all over her face.
    “Guess who just showed up at the medical center?”
    It didn’t take a brainiac to guess the answer. Their prime suspect. Ms. Munroe was back on the grid.
    “Security got her locked down?” When Mac nodded, she grabbed her leather jacket off the back of the chair and headed for the door. “Let’s go. I’m driving.”

Chapter Thirty-three
     
    The LZ’s floating globes flickered, swaying into each other, threatening to short out as Bastian paced beneath them. Magic crackled in his fingertips, along his spine, lighting him up from the inside out. He was losing his mind. Needed to get out of the lair like a guy buried alive needed to get out of a coffin.
    The suffocating smell of cave pressed in, the must, dirt, and stone dust closing his lungs. He breathed deep, forced air in, and then breathed it out. Uncurling his fists, he flexed his fingers. His knuckles cracked, snapping under the pressure as he strode across the cave: crisscrossing the open space, coming inches from the granite edge, footfalls echoing in the vastness.
    Four sets of eyes ping-ponged, following his progress. Bastian ignored them all. He didn’t give a shit what his warriors thought. All he wanted was out.
    “How much longer?” he snarled, coming an inch from Sloan’s boot tip.
    Propped against the Honda’s back tire, plugged into an earbud, laptop across his thighs, Sloan’s fingers flew over the MacBook’s keyboard. “Fifty-three minutes and change.”
    “Fuck.” Screw the sun. He needed to find his female now before—
    “Forget about it, B.” Planted on the hood of Myst’s car, legs dangling over the front wheel well, Rikar nailed him with his sit-your-ass-down glare. Bastian hated that look. It was like getting plugged in the chest with a forty-four magnum. “You get fried by the sun, and she’s on her own out there. Is that what you want?”
    Double fuck. “The Razorbacks—”
    “Can’t go out in the sun, either,” Rikar said. “There’s no play here but to wait.”
    “Sit your ass down, Commander.” Venom’s ruby eyes flashed in the dim light. Backing Rikar up with muscle, the big male pushed away from his lean against the cave wall. “We wait.”
    Wick, per usual, didn’t say a thing. Just watched, golden eyes fixed on him, prepared to move if Bastian shifted form and dove for the LZ’s ledge.
    Jesus Christ. He was surrounded by a bunch of jack-offs. Serious ones, preparing to back up their threat and tie him down for another fifty-three fucking minutes. And honestly? He appreciated the loyalty, but…
    His female was out there, alone and vulnerable. So pissed off at him she was likely to do something stupid.
    Rikar sighed and, swinging his legs up, dismounted, landing beside the car. As his feet touched down, Bastian got tense. He and Rikar were tight, but right now? He didn’t want his friend anywhere near him.
    Widening his stance, Bastian cranked his fists and rolled his shoulders, screaming stay away the only way he could…with a shitload of body language.
    “Ease up, my man.” Rikar’s boots brushed over the uneven granite floor, pace steady, approach slow. Bastian watched him from the corner of his eye, killing the urge to turn away. Yeah, he was wound too tight and didn’t want to be touched, but he wasn’t a coward, either. And as Rikar came alongside, he allowed it, accepting his friend’s comfort as he cupped the back of his neck. “Look, I know you’re afraid for her. I totally get that. But she’s safe right now…among her own kind in the daylight. The Razorbacks can’t touch her.”
    Bastian