Uncharted by Adriana Anders
Epilogue
“What are you not telling me?” She sat in an armchair by the lodge’s big fireplace with her guys and a few of the people from Schink’s Station in a circle around her.
Eric and Ford exchanged looks. Von remained expressionless. When she craned her neck to look at Elias, at least he met her eye.
“Come on.” Her eyes darted around. “What the hell?”
“First.” Eric sat up straight. “We’re working on next steps.”
“Okay.”
“We can’t keep the prisoners here indefinitely.”
“Sure we can,” muttered Amka, earning a couple of smirks, a laugh, and one head shake from the rest of the room. Oh, Leo had heard about the old lady’s exploits. Hell, if there was one thing she’d learned from this entire business, it was not to underestimate the elderly. In fact—she grinned at the woman with deep appreciation—quite the opposite. She knew exactly who she wanted to be when she grew up.
“What are your thoughts?” Leo asked.
“We’ve got—” Eric’s eyes shifted to Elias, then back to her. “We want to hear yours first.”
Her brows rose as she watched the byplay. Well, this was fun.
“Okay.” She started to nod and stopped when she remembered how much that hurt. “My thoughts: enough secrets. I want to blow this thing wide-open.” Elias’s hand tightened on hers. “I know it’s been done before, but there are more of us now. Hell, we’ve got a whole town. We call the media, call every freaking government agency. Hand the prisoners over in the most public way possible. So they can’t just…disappear like everyone else. At worst, we’re considered oddballs. This is viewed as some conspiracy theory. At best, we break it wide-open and people finally get the truth.”
Eric nodded, clearly in agreement or at least satisfied with that response.
“First, though, we get the virus out.”
“Right,” said Eric. “It’s hidden at Chronos headquarters.”
“Do we need to get it out, though?” Jameson asked. “Can’t we report that too?”
When Elias leaned in and spoke in his deep, slow way, everyone stopped to listen. “I could see them blowing the place up. Self-destructing to get rid of the evidence. Or taking it out first. We need someone there. In place.”
“That’s absurd.” Daisy stood, shaking her head. “Is the CEO really that unbalanced? Does she have that much power?”
“That kind of order might not come from her,” said Elias.
“This thing is huge,” Leo agreed.
“And I don’t care how much media you talk to, they’d kill us all,” Elias responded.
Ford Cooper nodded in agreement. “They didn’t hesitate to blow up an entire Antarctic research station. They’d make this look like an accident. Whole town destroyed by a gas leak.”
“Don’t got gas here,” said Amka.
“Doesn’t matter,” Ford said. “They’ll invent a goddamn pipeline.”
“He’s right.” Elias sighed. “I don’t know of every death, but there have been dozens at least. Law enforcement, the press…” He cleared his throat. “My family.”
Leo squeezed his hand, showing him the fierceness of her love. “We’ll do this right.”
“Good.” Ford exchanged a satisfied look with Angel.
Leo took in the circle of faces, grim determination on every one. Until she got to Eric—Ford’s big brother, the team leader. Her friend.
“I think we’ve got an in,” he said.
“An in?” Elias asked.
“Von’s flying out tomorrow to accept a security job at Chronos Headquarters.”
“Holy shit,” breathed Leo. She looked at Von. “Are you—”
“In and out. That’s it.” One hundred percent Von. Expressionless, deeply certain. Willing to put his life on the line. Maybe because he didn’t actually value it all that much.
“That leads me to the next order of business,” Eric said.
Her eyes shot back to him, since his tone had changed. She waited, breath held.
“It’s Ans.”
She took in every face in the room and realized she was the only one waiting. This was what they weren’t saying. “What? He’s in Colorado, right? A dig at a mine? Another stupid Chronos project?”
“There was a cave-in.” Von delivered the news. Fitting, given that he was the Reaper. “Ans is gone.”
“No way.” Leo rose from her chair with difficulty. “I’ll get him out.”
Beside her, Elias stood too.
“Don’t try to stop me.” She flashed a look his way, all bravado, since a breeze could knock her down right now.
“Hell no.” He gave her one of his heart-crushing smiles. “I’m going with you.”
Eric stood, as did Ford and Pam. “We all are.”
“We’re in this together, Leo.” Elias dropped his smile, leaned in, and spoke for her ears only. “No matter what, we’re in it together.”
She squeezed his hand and nodded, knowing that nothing on earth could stop her with Elias Thorne by her side.