Night Fury Chapter 2

The wind picked up, tousling Luke’s hair as he sped down the back roads to Greg and Daniella’s house. He’d be a little early for the strategy meeting, but he needed the escape.

Breaking that punching bag felt good, too good, and he would have moved on to something else if he’d stayed home. His emotions had always been a little too intense—passionate was the word Luke liked to use—but while he was known for being a loose cannon, for the first time in his life he felt like one.

Luke took another deep breath, like Dani kept telling him he should do, and let the fresh air carry away his thoughts. He wasn’t alone here, even if he felt like it in his rage and anguish. He was surrounded by people who loved him, people who were willing to fight to help him get Johanna back. And even though that was more than most could ask for, it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough, not until she was by his side.

Luke’s somber mood engulfed him as he approached the house. He swiped his badge and froze at the entrance when he heard Dani laugh, knowing he’d intruded on something. The sound was cut short, and Luke sighed before shutting the door.

Greg and Daniella were sympathetic to Luke’s grief and tried not to do anything that would remind him of his pain, including being affectionate in front of him. It hurt Luke to be grateful for that. He wanted them to be happy and had always pushed for them to be together, but if he was being honest, he couldn't stand seeing it now. And for that, he was a bastard. He loathed and cursed the part of him that couldn’t witness two people he loved be happy, not when he knew that his person wasn’t next to him.

But she will be, he reminded himself again.

As he entered the kitchen, Dani greeted him with a soft smile and met him for a hug. “Hey, you.”

“Hey,” Luke said as he feigned a small smile, but she was on to him. Dani squeezed his arm as they separated and her dark brown eyes met his, full of concern, worry, and something else.

Luke averted his gaze, not wanting her to see how close he was to drowning in the weight of his emotions, and instead looked over her head to Greg. “Sorry I’m a little early.”

“No, you’re actually right on time,” Greg said, exchanging a hug with Luke next.

Confused, Luke moved to join them at the breakfast nook, taking a seat on the barstool across from them. “Is something going on?”

Dani gave him a tiny smile, her voice soft as she passed him a manilla folder. “You should know before everyone else. I hope … I hope it helps.”

Luke looked between her and Greg, but their faces gave nothing away. Suddenly the folder seemed too heavy, as if it held the weight of his damnation, salvation, or both. Fear swam through Luke’s veins. He was terrified that if he opened the envelope, the small bit of hope he held onto would be ruined, that the ground would break open under him to swallow him whole.

“Go on, open it.” Dani squeezed his hand. “It’s okay.”

Luke looked at the comparison of their skin on top of one another—Dani’s dark brown, to his olive—and used it as a visual aid, an anchor to remind him that she and Greg were right there. He would not drown. They would keep him afloat.

With more care than Luke had ever taken with anything in his whole life, he opened the folder. In it was a pack of pages with faces of people who worked for their company. Luke tilted his head as he recognized the data from their HRIS system, and then he saw it. An extra number on the first page circled, another on the next, two on the next, five after that. Every page he flipped through had a circled set of numbers.

“I don’t understand. What is this?” Luke asked, squeezing the folder too tight as his nerves began to furrow and bundle under his skin, making his heart beat faster.

“It will make sense with this.” Greg handed him another folder, his hazel eyes gleaming.

Luke snatched it from him. Opening the folder, he first saw a header containing a key with numbers and corresponding page counts, which seemed familiar though out of place, and several sets of coordinates. On the other side were pictures of mapped areas.

The question of the key picked at Luke’s mind, and he studied it until he realized what it meant. His eyes darted from one folder to another, comparing the numbers and flipping through the mapped areas and overview points of each location. The pieces fell together like that of a giant puzzle, and he realized that the key referenced the HRIS data folder, and the coordinates were made from the circled numbers within it. Luke finally looked up at Greg and Dani, and jabbed a finger at the paperwork. “Where did these come from? What’s here?”

Greg slid his arm around Daniella’s waist as he leaned forward to tap on the first set of coordinates. “This is where we’re going today.”

“And as for where we got them from”—Dani’s eyes shone as they stared into his own—“they came from Johanna.”

“What?” Luke gasped, drawing back. “That’s impossible, she’s not … We didn’t—”

Find her, he finished internally, unable to say the words aloud.

“I asked Mya to look into what Johanna was doing before she was taken,” Greg began.

Luke’s throat constricted at the word ‘taken,’ and his shoulders tensed. Dani squeezed his hand again and he gave her a small nod, trying to convince them both that he was okay.

Greg tapped on one of the circled numbers. “Mya noticed that some of the employees’ ID numbers were too long, some by one number, others by several.” Greg tapped on the roster of locations next. “Once she figured out their pattern, Mya made the key and put together whatever coordinates she could. She was able to find seventeen locations. There’s more to work through, but Mya can’t make sense of them until we find Johanna.”

Luke shook. He didn’t know whether it was from excitement, hope or fear, but it was uncontrollable. It was only when Dani gave his hand another hard squeeze that his gaze flickered to hers and he realized he hadn’t been breathing.

Breathe. You can’t have a panic attack. You need to pay attention to what’s going on here.

“It’s okay,” Dani said, as if she were reading his mind. “Just breathe, it’s okay.”

Luke nodded like a child and followed her advice: One breath, in, hold, out, second breath, in, hold, out, and another, and another.

Greg leaned forward, and Luke’s wide eyes moved to his. Greg’s presence reminded him that he was safe, that if Greg was in control, Luke could also be in control. Luke nodded again, and then once more, not trusting himself to speak.

“Luke, you know that I am going to do everything in my power to get her back to you, don’t you?” Greg said.

Luke nodded again. He felt calmer, surer, and yet somehow still as if he were floating, as if he’d taken some sort of drug, maybe speed and acid mixed together, that had him flying through the clouds with a sputtering engine, constantly high but scared of the drop he knew would come.

“And you know that I wouldn’t lie to you, right?” Greg said, his voice calm but strong.

Luke’s hand balled into a tight fist under Dani’s, and he watched as her gaze slid to Greg’s and then back to his own. That drop, the free fall, the flipping of his stomach as gravity pulled him down, it was coming so fast, so soon, he could taste it. Still, Luke answered, “Yes.”

Greg gave a short, stiff nod and then sighed. “We don’t have any way to survey these areas before we attack them.”

Luke understood immediately. They had no way to confirm if Johanna was there, if his mate would be found in this location or any of the ones on this roster.

Greg continued. “We’re going to hit them hard and fast. But by doing this we’re running a risk. If Johanna is at any of these locations, we’ll grab her, but if she isn’t then they might move her … or worse.”

Blame her.

Luke swallowed. As far as they knew, she was the only one who had come into contact with the inner workings of both their group and Zachariah’s. It would be easy for Zachariah to suspect her of slipping them information at some point, especially if they didn’t find more information at the location they planned to raid in a few short hours.

“What’s important to remember,” Dani said, snapping Luke out of his thoughts, “is that somehow she found out about these locations. She could have found them on a computer or some sort of paperwork, but I don’t think that’s the case. There’s simply too many for someone to remember unless they saw them several times.”

“Or had been at those locations multiple times,” Luke said.

“Exactly.” Greg smiled. “And if she’s been at these locations multiple times—”

“Then we might find her there.” Luke breathed out heavily. The tightness in his chest floated out, and with it his eyes watered. He didn’t even know tears had begun to slide down his cheeks until a droplet fell on the folder, quickly followed by another.

“We will find her,” Greg said, his voice stern and sure. “There’s plenty to worry about, Luke, but of that I can assure you.”

“Th-thank you.” Luke’s voice cracked before he fully dissolved into tears, and his family wrapped him in their arms.

* * *

Luke took his seat at the table next to his cousin, Mya. They exchanged a small smile before he said, “Thank you.”

Something in her eyes flickered, her face falling into a sad sort of kindness that echoed his own pain. Luke’s heart broke for her. She was trying to help him fix his pain, when hers would never be resolved. Her mate, Erik, was dead.

“I’ll always do anything I can to help you, you know that,” Mya said. 

Greg and Daniella entered the room, cutting their conversation short. Greg sat first, Daniella perching on the arm of the chair, as had become a custom for them. For the first time, Luke imagined Johanna there with him, her blonde hair flowing over her shoulders and down to her waist, her blue eyes scanning the room, studying everyone. He knew she’d be welcomed here, and not just because he was family and original to this circle. No, she would be welcomed because of the information Greg and Daniella had shared in the kitchen. In the history of their circle, no one had ever provided such important information about an enemy, and no one had ever risked their life to do so. When Luke found Johanna, he’d make sure to share with her exactly what he thought about her little contribution.

Mya kicked his leg under the table, calling attention to its restless bouncing. He immediately stopped, turning back to Greg and Daniella.

“We’ll attack this location at 10:00 a.m., then these three locations at 3:00 p.m.,” Greg said, using his pointer to identify each set of coordinates. “For the half of you that are here, we work like normal, three teams leaving in fifteen-minute increments to scope the location before we attack. However, when we return we will not have another strategy meeting. Instead, we will assign A, B, and C teams and hit the three locations at the same time. I will be in charge of team A. We’ve handpicked a team for Luke who will be in charge of team B—”

Luke blinked, his eyes widening at the statement. Never had Greg given him such a level of responsibility. Luke’s abilities were best in sneak attacks, but he never expected to be trusted to fight on his own away from Greg and Mya. He was impulsive, quick to anger, and his patience only lasted for as long as he had to use it to outsmart his enemy.

Luke’s mouth fell open, words coming to the surface, but it closed when he caught the look in Dani’s gaze, a simple smile that spoke volumes to him. We trust you.

Mya said something beside him, answered some question, and Luke snapped back to the present.

Greg gave her a single nod before turning back to the other members at the table. “We leave in fifteen.”

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