chapter fifteen

I'm only back in the tower for another day when Max comes by to see me with some good news. A team out in D.C. was able to call in a few favors and figure out where Bella and Alexander are more than likely hanging out.

"It's a beach house down in seaside heights in Jersey," Max informs me, looking down and poking lightly at the bandages wrapped around my arms. "Hey, what happened here, anyway?"

I jerk my arms away with a little more force than necessary. He's just reminded me about that night all over again. I manage to forget everyone once in a while but there's always something that comes up to make me remember. I'll always remember, too, because they're going to scar pretty badly.

"Doesn't matter," I say hastily, sitting up quickly where I'm still seated in bed. "When are you guys moving in to get her?"

"Well, as soon as possible, actually, and I already know what you're gonna ask, Lake, and—" he begins, but I cut him off just like he probably expected me to.

"You gotta let me go, Max," I plead. "She's practically his kid, man."

"Yeah? And what about you? You practically his boyfriend or something?" he replies, but he says it with enough of a playful tilt to his voice that I know he's only being partially serious.

"C'mon, Max," I complain. "It's...not like that. But I'll admit that it's a personal matter." I may still be opposed to telling him the whole truth, but calling it a "personal matter" is at least a step closer to it.

Max studies my face for a second. There's a long pause where neither of us speaks. I let out a relieved breath when he finally heaves a long, defeated sigh.

"Alright," he says, giving in. "You can go. But you're out of the line of fire. You'll wait for the others to take the heavy hits and take care of any goons that may crop up. You're responsible for the kid only, got it?"

"Got it," I agree instantly.

"You're gonna take it really easy, too, okay?"

"Yes, Max, yes. Definitely. When are we leaving?"

He sighs and shakes his head again.

"As soon as we can. C'mon. The rest of the team is already suiting up."

Max leaves for mission headquarters while I take my time dragging myself to my feet. My entire body aches as I go. The bandages over the bullet wounds still have to have be changed twice a day and I make it a point to do the same for the ones on my arms. The gunshot wounds still bleed occasionally but I'm not too concerned considering I'm already moving around way more than the average person would be.

I take the elevator up to mission HQ, change into my gear at a rate slower than the highest sloth on earth would, and meet up with the rest of the team on the tower's flight deck. Only Max, JD, Cecelia, Flint, and I are going out on this particular mission.

Everyone is excited to see me up and about. I've been a sad mope of a person for the last day or so. Nightmares have been destroying any attempt at sleep I try to make. All I want to do when I'm awake is lay in bed watching old nineties cartoons or go back to sleep. I've turned over onto my opposite side to face away from anybody who's tried to get me involved with some kind of "fun" activity. I'm still not entirely sure what I'm afraid of, but I've never really had a great reaction to being injured.

JD and Flint slip into the pilot seats at the front of our team's jet. Tony would normally be here to fly but he's taken a personal day for something important so we're making do with who we have. The plane is always masked by cloaking technology provided by HoloTech. League teams are only authorized to uncloak their jet when the world's safety is at stake. The League is, after all, supposed to be a government organization that operates in the shadows. More public altercations like the one that just happened with James are far and few between when all of the undercover operations and private missions are taken into account.

The flight is really short considering we only have to go as far as northern New Jersey. The beach is actually quite a nice change of scenery. Maybe I can find some time to go to the beach once all of this is said and done.

We land on an open area of the beach and take a few moments to prepare before we head out. The motel that Alexander and Bella are more than likely holed up in isn't far from our landing site.

The motel itself is quaint and actually kind of cute. There's a small building that houses the main lobby on our left. The doors to the rooms themselves are visible from the parking lot, which is dusted in a layer of sand that must blow in from the beach.

Cecelia scans the entire building for heat signatures while we're on the outskirts of the parking lot. The room Bella and her father are supposedly in has three. Both rooms on either side of that one have a suspiciously high amount, as well, which Max reckons are gang members who are there to act as Alexander's backup.

I follow closely behind Max and JD to Alexander's room while Cecelia and Flint split off to go for the other two. Max kicks the door in with practiced ease. Shouting and gunfire immediately erupts. It sounds so much like the night I got shot that I freeze up for a moment and it takes me a second to remember exactly where I am.

I shake my head hard to clear it before following JD to the back of the room. We pass by Max subduing the man who must have been charged with standing guard for Alexander as we go. The door to the bathroom is shut and JD shoves me forward so he can stand guard while I go inside.

The bathroom is seemingly empty upon first glance. The bathtub curtain is shut, however, so I move cautiously until I'm right in front of it. I gently draw the plain white curtain back to reveal a little girl that can't be much older than two years old huddled at the bottom of the tub. Her huge brown eyes are wet when she tilts her head back to look at me. I crouch down to her level and slowly hold out a hand.

"Hey, Bella," I say softly. "I'm a good friend of your big brother. Rowan? He sent me to come get you. He really wants to see you." I keep my hand out where it is and let her take her time despite the crashes and gunshots coming from just beyond the bathroom door.

"Lake?" she says in a tiny, quivering voice. Her bottom lip is wobbling.

A small smile pops onto my lips. "Yeah," I say. "You wanna get outta here?"

"Uh-huh."

"Okay, then." I nod again, bringing my hand forward to offer it more seriously than before.

She holds out both arms and makes grabby hands, so I scoop her up into my arms. I take hold of the doorknob but stop to listen before I actually open the door, shifting Bella carefully onto my hip. The noises from inside the room have ceased so Alexander and his buddy must have been taken in already. Surely there's no way Rivera has managed to give us the slip once again. I open the door and nod to JD, stepping out onto the tan carpeting. The rest of the room is thankfully empty.

"Where's Rivera?" I ask.

JD shrugs and shakes his head.

"He and his bodyguard or whatever took off, but Max wasn't far behind," he replies.

I nod, pushing the thought of Alexander's possible escape to the back of my mind so I can focus on getting Bella back to the tower safely. Max made it clear on the flight here that I have to head straight for the jet once I have Bella, so JD accompanies the pair of us back to the landing site without question. JD joins Flint in the cockpit to ready the jet for takeoff once we get there.

Bella fusses every time I try to put her in her own seat so she's buckled safely onto my lap when Max finally makes it back to the jet. He's lugging an unconscious Alexander Rivera on the ground behind him, and my heart leaps into my throat. I look down, ready to cover Bella's eyes so doesn't see, but she's already asleep, slumped against my chest. Max nods in my direction before turning to lay Rivera on the ground near the cockpit as the ramp closes and we take flight.

"Taken care of, finally," he says, throwing himself into one of the seats directly across from me. "Already called the local PD. They've got a car en route to the tower for the hand-off. He'll be out of our hands and not our responsibility in no time."

"It's about time," I reply, heaving a long sigh. I lean my head back against the cab of the jet and allow my eyes to momentarily slide shut. Maybe I'll finally be able to get more than an hour of uninterrupted sleep.

The flight back to the tower is short. Max drags Rivera off the jet as JD and Flint do some post-flight checks. Cecelia accompanies me to the floor where Rowan is still being held. Wendy transferred him back to one of the interrogation rooms while our group was gone so I don't even have to wait.

Bella stirs in my arms and wakes while the elevator takes us down to the second floor. She sticks her thumb in her mouth and looks around in childish wonder as we move down the hallway toward the room Rowan's in.

"You're looking better," Wendy says in greeting, her eyebrows raised in surprise. I flash her a half-hearted smile as I'm entering the interrogation room. My insides feel like they're caving in and the aches that were already present before the mission are practically screaming at me at this point. I certainly don't feel any better.

Rowan looks up when I enter the room. He's sitting at the brushed steel table with his hands clasped neatly in front of him, but his entire body shifts to face me when I come into view. His face goes blank when our eyes meet as if he's seeing a ghost. Shock clouds his expression when he registers the tiny person on my hip. The pain radiating through me in waves is beginning to grow, so I hand the kid to him without much hesitation. Our gaze doesn't drop until Bella is completely in his arms.

He opens his mouth to speak, but I'm out of the room before he can say anything. I'd probably crumble beneath any words he could conjure up right now.

Cecelia must see something in my face when I get out into the hallway because she takes a tentative step towards me.

"Are you alright?" she says softly, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder. I brush her off quickly and move towards the elevator as fast as my gunshot wounds will allow.

I go back to the guest room I've been staying in and help myself to its first aid kit. There's almost an alarming amount of blood oozing from the holes in my chest when I peel back the gauze. I disinfect the wounds, hissing from the sting, before bandaging them back up nicely. I expected this to happen. The walk from the landing spot on the beach to the motel was tiring enough on its own. Carrying around a two year old for the following hour definitely didn't do me any good.

I take care of the bandages on my arms next. The skin is still slightly raw but the burns are finally in the beginning stages of turning pink. My concerns are correct from the looks of it: they're all going to be some gnarly looking scars once they're completely healed up. My healing factor doesn't fix scars like a lot of other enhanced peoples' do.

I'm dead on my feet once I'm all bandaged up. Max and my doctor weren't lying when they said I'd have to rest as much as possible for the next couple weeks or so.

I lay down on my back on the guest room's bed and keep the TV on mostly for background noise. There's a long fight between my eyelids and I, but they inevitably win like usual.