Page 163 of Flint’s Strike

But underneath that, is something bigger. Something so much stronger.

Parker.

Her face this morning in the doorway. Her laugh. Her smile. Her heart.

The mask fogs and clears with every breath. I test the restraints again. Nothing gives.

How long until it starts? Until the smoke curls under the door. Until the heat becomes unbearable. Until the first flames find my skin, and all I can do is scream until the end?

Chapter Sixty-Five

Parker

I slam on the brakes, leaving the car parked diagonally across three spaces. Parking enforcement can bite me. Later.

Hitting the double doors at a run, I yell, “Nate!”

The conference room door swings open. “In here!”

I stumble over my own feet as I skid to a stop in the doorway.

Kurt sits in one of the cushy chairs, uncuffed.

His right wrist is bloody, the cast on his left almost black. If his face didn’t look like raw hamburger already, it would in about five minutes.

“Where. Is. He?” In three steps, I’m in front of him. Grabbing the lapels of his shirt, I haul him up and shove him against the wall as hard as I can.

“Parker!” AJ wraps an arm around my waist, drags me back, and pins me against him as Kurt loses the battle with gravity and collapses to the floor.

Lowering his voice, AJ hisses, “If you kill him now, he can’t help us find Eliot.”

I don’t miss the emphasis on the word now.

I’m not sure Kurt does either.

“I won’t kill him. I won’t touch him. Not while Eliot’s still alive. But Eliot better be alive.”

AJ lets go, but he doesn’t move far from my side.

“I d-don’t know wh-where he is,” Kurt stammers. “But it’ll be one of the b-buildings that got shut down in the s-sweep.” He cradles his bloody wrist, lines of pain bracketing his chapped lips. “Or one of the empty ones. That’s wh-where they had m-me. A building…on Villasco. Took me…all day to g-get free.”

“We’re eliminating sites as fast as we can.” Nate’s eyes dart between his three screens. Wait, when did he get a third screen?

I shake my head. Beyond how fast they can get me the information I need, I don’t give a fuck about Nate’s screens. Eliot could be burning alive right now.

“Talk.” The single word, barked out like I expect Kurt to come to heel, is all I have in me.

Kurt manages to get himself back into the chair, and he cowers away from me. Smart move. At least he’s still talking. “V-vacant means no one will see the smoke until it’s too late. Can’t be…c-close to a fire station. Nowhere with a lot of foot traffic.”

“Down to three.” Nate’s gaze pings between me and his center screen. “A medical clinic on the east side of Cedar Park, a middle school fifteen minutes from here, and a two-story office building in Pflugerville.”

“Send me the addresses.” AJ’s already on his phone. “I’ll get APD and AFD units to all three.”

They’re too far apart. Pflugerville…Cedar Park…I can’t get to either of them in time. How long is Dines going to keep Eliot alive?

“Nate?” A fragmented theory running wild in my head finally coalesces into something I can say out loud. “Has the power been shut off to any of those places?”

Nate’s eyes widen, and that’s all I need. “Text me the address. Send everyone you can! And get the power back on!”