Read Rush (Phoenix Rising) for Free Online

blindsided me like this.”
    Keira pulled Jessica into her arms. “Okay,” she whispered, compassionate, understanding, but not coddling. Not enabling. “Shhh, now. You can handle this. Hear us out.”
    “We didn’t forget you, Jess,” Teague said. “You were in Venice.”
    “So, you couldn’t let me know what was happening?”
    “Kai called your hotel. Left you a message.”
    “Kai?” Of all the team members to call, Kai would have been the last she’d expect to pick up that duty. Kai was the source of her deepest hurt. The one who’d been the most frustrated with her inability to move on after Quaid’s death. The one who’d taken the greatest offense to her move across country. And aside from Jessica, Kai was, ironically, the one with the most guilt over Quaid’s death, the least able to accept or deal with the tragedy and the last to admit it.
    “I didn’t get any message. And something is terribly wrong for Kai to call. He hasn’t talked to me for four years.” She crossed her arms, squeezing them over her stomach and the new burn there. “Shit, what did you do?”
    “Long story, Jess,” Teague said. “And we don’t have a lot of time.”
    “Jessica,” Keira said, “do you remember the coin we all received for our work at the warehouse fire?”
    The question came so far out of left field, it could have been a meteor. “What could that possibly matter—?”
    “Humor me.” It wasn’t a request.
    Jessica clenched her teeth, rolled her fingers into fists. This was a bitter, bitter subject. In a bitter, bitter month. “The meaningless scrap of metal they gave us for ruining our lives? For killing Quaid?”
    Keira took both of Jessica’s arms, her expression imploring. “Do you still have yours?”
    “No. I had it melted down and donated the gold to the Joseph Still Burn Center. How could you even think I’d keep something symbolic of the worst day, the worst pain of my life?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “They said a high-ranking official of DoD is missing. Who is it?”
    Teague shared a look with Keira before he said, “Dargan. Pretty sure it’s Jocelyn Dargan.”
    Jessica pulled in a surprised breath, her mind spinning so fast she could have levitated. The deputy director of DARPA had worked under Schaeffer while he’d been employed there. Even after Schaeffer had become a senator, Dargan continued to run his black ops for him and had been dogging their team for years. “What does this mean? Will they finally leave us alone?”
    “Doubtful,” Keira said. “What about Quaid’s coin, Jess? It was buried with him, right?”
    Out the window, the storm clouds had descended upon the streets of the Hill, obscuring the Capitol building. Rain fell in sheets now, flooding the gutters, and her mind felt just as congested. She could barely think around the confusion, the loss, the memories.
    Keira’s eyes narrowed as she looked out the window at the foul weather. “You’re doing that, aren’t you?”
    “I’m not doing anything.”
    “This is important, honey,” Teague said. “Where is Quaid’s coin?”
    “They buried it with him, yes. I didn’t want them to. I told them no. But those bastards did it anyway, just like they did everything else.”
    “Look at me, Jessica. Listen to me, now.” Keira took hold of her arms again, her fingers so tight they stung. Outside the wind grew stronger, slamming the rain against the windows. “The fire in Nevada was in a military laboratory and I’ll tell you everything that led up to that later. Right now what you need to know is that we went into the facility to rescue a prisoner. But when we got in, we discovered he wasn’t the only one. They were holding another man, too.”
    A million questions circled in Jessica’s mind. Before she could form even one, Keira said, “That’s where we found Quaid’s coin.”
    Jessica’s mouth fell open. Her brain froze in mid-thought. “ What? No. No you didn’t.”
    “His is the only