Page 105 of Fly's Path

What does that mean? What does any of this mean? “I think I might be falling for him.”

“I did the same thing. There’s nothing in the world like falling asleep in the arms of the man you love. Still to this day, it’s one of the best parts of being married to Maverick.”

“That’s the thing. This relationship isn’t going anywhere. I’m falling in love with a man, and I’m going to have to walk away from him in a few days.”

“It doesn’t have to end. There are phones, cars, and planes.”

Like I can afford any of those things.

“You can figure out a way to make it work. Or you could always move up here closer to him.”

Move here. I doubt they will let me live in my car in this neighborhood, and it’s not exactly safe to do it anywhere else in Urbium. “It won’t work. It can’t work. I should just cut it off now before it gets even more painful to walk away.”

“You can try that.” She gives a little secret smirk.

“What does that mean?”

“I’ve seen stuff like this happen several times. There’s a chance that Fly might be different, but I doubt it, and I doubt he’s going to just let you walk away without a good reason.”

“He doesn’t let me do anything. I’m a grown adult who makes her own decisions regardless of what he might think.”

“You are, but men like Fly and my husband have a way of convincing us to see their way of things.”

“That’s what Integer inferred.” I sink down onto the floor. “He’s going to shatter my heart.”

“The question is, what will you do if he doesn’t? How would you feel walking away from a man who will cherish and protect your heart like it’s more valuable than his own?” She stands up. “Answer those questions, and you’ll know what to do.”

The only thing I want to do is run until my stress fades away. Until all of this fades away.

The Living Dead

Fly

My heart thunders in my chest as I step into the empty office we’re using as a staging area for Vandal.

It’s full of brothers, but the two people at the computer make my blood run cold.

Max Rage and the Whiz Kid are back.

Does that mean we made contact with The Ghost?

Havoc turns around. “Good, you’re here. We have a problem. Well, eight of them to be exact. Everett.”

The kid’s fingers dance across the keyboard, and eight faces pop up on the wall of screens. Next to each face is a missing child poster.

“We found them. They were all abducted around the age of eight. Most from playgrounds. Except for these two. They were lost in malls.” Everett reads off data.

What does this have to do with Vandal and our drug dealer?

Everett switches the screen so that we’re seeing Vandal sitting, looking bored at his party. The petty drug dealer, Chad Carves, walks up with a bunch of skimpily dressed women…girls. “Those are the kidnapped children.”

“Yup. Not one of them is over the age of sixteen,” Rogue steps up next to me. “And Carves offered them to Vandal.”

Offered them…“Carves is trafficking kids. But he had to be a kid himself when they were taken.”

“That’s the problem. He also didn’t arrive alone.” Max nods at Everett. “There were two handlers that came in with the girls and are pretending to watch them, but mostly have their eyes on Vandal and Carves.”

“They expect Vandal to have sex with one of those children.” Or more than one. “We can’t let that happen. I can sneak in and pull the fire alarm. It would be a quick in and out. No one would see me.”