Rinse [manxman]

Chapter Nine

Reluctantly, Goss gave all three of us the go-ahead. Lebeaux, Dakota, and I took Sophia and left Xeniden's Military HQ. We teleported to Lizzy's, not even reaching the door before Luca was outside. A deep frown furrowed his brow as he searched mine and Dakota's faces.

"What's going on?" he asked lowly. "Stillwater isn't giving me anything to go on."

"Let's get inside," Dakota said. As soon as we stepped in, the muffled sounds of the kids playing filled my ears. Normally, it would've helped ease some of the tension that had pulled my shoulders taut, but with everything happening, it felt eerie.

It was too muffled. Things weren't loud enough. The kids weren't hyper enough. Everyone looked so somber and stressed. Luca was more worried than I'd seen him in years. Before he'd met Lizzy and settled down, Luca had worked with Dakota's unit—not as a member of, but as a consultant. He'd done a handful of projects for me as well. He knew the drill, but he didn't seem as nearly as prepared as he used to.

"Lizzy," Luca called.

A second later, she appeared from the hallway, telling the kids to stay in the living room. She looked over us. Her face went from curiosity to despair. A group of soldiers showing up at the door was rarely considered a good thing.

"Take Soph to the others."

She nodded and plucked Sophia from Dakota's arms.

"Make sure they all stay in the living room. They don't need to hear this."

Her dark eyes bounced between all of us before narrowing. "Make it quick," she said. "The kids aren't going to stay settled long once they know Blake and Kota are here."

"Promise." Luca leaned over and pecked her on the lips. She left the kitchen, and Bly took her place a moment later.

Instantly, the room lit up in conversation.

"What the fuck, Miles?" Bly said, glaring past everyone at Lebeaux. "Varik starts alerting me on the private channel, and you didn't even fuckin' bother to tell me what the emergency was?"

"I didn't have time," Lebeaux said. "We had to get the hell out of there."

"Why?" Luca asked, jumping in with a tone just as fierce as the other two. "What's going on, guys?"

"I was poking around in some of Goss's classified shit. He has a signed agreement with Qizade's Director Maxwell Stanner about using the war as a cover to kill off 'threats to realm security,' A.K.A. all of us, any other soldier that doesn't kiss one of their asses, any sort of freedom groups, we're all fucked," Lebeaux said.

"So what? We're gonna run?" Bly stared at Lebeaux for a minute before focusing on Dakota. "Unit 03 is going to run away from this? Kota—"

"Yes, Bly, we are running. Once we reach a safe location, we're going to figure out a way to protect those people and stop Stanner and Goss." Dakota folded his arms over his chest. "It's the only option we have that'll keep my children and my team safe."

"It'd be easier to fight it from the inside. Collect information, sabotage the goddamned—"

"A group of six people cannot win against an entire realm," I said icily. "It doesn't matter how many resources Lebeaux has or how tough you think you are. If we try to stand against Xeniden head on and we get caught, people will die."

"We run the same risk now," Bly snarled, edging closer to me.

I held my ground and glared at him. There was no way in hell I would put my kids at risk when we had a perfectly good strategy that didn't involve putting them in as much danger. "Except if we aren't in the realm, it'll be much harder to catch us. Here, we hide under everyone's noses. Everyone in the realm knows at least one of us. Staying here is the worst option we have."