I grab one of the chairs and wedge it under the doorknob to hold off anyone else who might try to enter. My gaze darts over the controls.
There—the outer systems. It’ll be good to have the gate fixed open when we make a run for it and the electricity in the fence turned off in case we have to take a more roundabout route.
The gate should wait until I have the guys with me, to give the guardians outside as little warning as possible. But I tap at the screen to turn off the flow of electricity through the cables.
That command doesn’t require verification. Is that because someone with security access was using the controls recently enough that the system isn’t asking for it again—or will the holding cells be a special case?
I’ll have to try and see. I was counting on there being someone working in here for me to use.
But if I need a fingerprint for verification, I can always drag that woman out of the storage closet—or her hand, anyway. Hopefully she’s got clearance.
I hustle around the spread of consoles—and jar to a stop.
There’s the display showing the holding cells. It looks just like the one from four years ago. Except… four of those cells are already lit up and blinking, yellow against the blue lines of the layout.
Lock disengaged.
And beneath the numbers for each of the cells, there’s a five-letter label in all caps. JACOB. ZIAN-. ANDRE. DOMIN.
My guys. They’re already out.
How—isthatwhy the control room staff left? Did the guardians realize I was behind the chaos outside and run off to drag the guys someplace more secure?
Where are they now?
I scan the displays for any that might give me a clue of where to go. My eyes snag on one in the corner with what looks like a blueprint lit up with little glowing dots. A few of them are moving—
The doorknob rattles. Before I can do more than spin toward it, something rams into the door with enough force to send the chair flying and pop the hinges.
The door crashes to the floor. A big, brawny figure barges in and stalls in his tracks, staring at me.
It takes me a second to recognize him with the four years that’ve transformed him from a buff teen who still had a touch of softness to his features into a hardened, musclebound man. But that peachy brown skin, those angled cheekbones, and the dark brown eyes glued to me now—they’re all my Zian, so familiar and even more stunning than I remembered.
He takes my breath away. My heart thumps faster.
My voice comes out in a hoarse whisper. “Zee?”
Zian looks startled and confused but also almost… upset? Nothing in his face reflects the surge of relief that I felt the moment I realized I’d already found one of the guys I came for.
Before I can figure out what to make of that or say anything else, two more familiar, gorgeous men burst into the room behind him.
“What’s the hold-up?” one of them is demanding, and my heart leaps at Andreas’s familiar jaunty tone, even if there’s a terse note in it right now.
He jerks to a stop too, his tight curls swinging at his temples. The other man beside him goes completely rigid, as if the sharp angles of his face and his pale blond hair were carved out of marble.
Jacob. It’s the first time I’ve seen him since Griffin died, and the echo of his twin shines through his face so vividly that I can’t help flinching with that past pain. His gaze sears into mine, he raises his fists—
And then Andreas is pushing ahead of both of the others, his expression a little wild but his voice insistent. “Zee, grab her and bring her. Jake, come on, we need the gate.”
Jacob nods with a sharp snap of his chin, tearing his attention away from me. He and Andreas leap to the controls, and Zian springs at me.
My thoughts are too muddled with a mix of joy and bewilderment for me to dodge him.
Why would I need to dodge him? We’re blood.
He snatches me right off my feet as if I weigh nothing at all and tosses me partway over his broad shoulder, his bulging arm wrapping tight around my waist. The heat of his body radiates all across my skin, his musky smell filling my nose and sending a tingling through my veins alongside the hum of adrenaline.
I want to hug him, to sob in relief that I’ve found them, that this is happening, but at the same time nothing about their reactions makes sense.