Present

I woke to the door slamming open; the handle smashing a hole into the wall as Leigh barged his way in.

"Max is gone. Jaxon fucking fell asleep on his watch so we don't know how long she's been gone for." He said. In my sleepy stupor, I looked at the space in the bed next to me. Fuck. How had she slipped out without me even noticing? I immediately jumped out of the bed.

"Give me three minutes. Make sure everyone is ready to go because I will not be waiting." I said. Leigh nodded before running out of the room to likely check everyone was moving. Fuck. Shit. This wasn't how this was going to go. Everything was supposed to go as I planned now, with Queen's plans down the drain. I was supposed to just relax with Sierra. There were supposed to be no more secrets or lies or ulterior motives between us, and yet here we were. Not that I blamed her. She was probably getting even for me, keeping everything from her when I pulled her out of prison.

I changed into the clothes I wore to break into the warehouse and picked up my bag, double checking my handgun was loaded just in case I would need it when the time came. If the time came. Shit, what if she was already dead because she went in alone?

No, she could take care of herself. You made sure of that with Alexis. Made sure we trained her to take care of herself, to stay safe and be able to deal pain when she needed to. She wasn't my responsibility, which meant I could let her go without my permission. She was her own person. However, I could be angry that she thought it was a good idea to go by herself.

At that exact moment, my phone started ringing.

"Jacques?" I asked, having seen the ID on the screen.

"Max is gone."

"Yeah, no fucking shit. I know you helped her with this plan, too." I said, throwing my bag over my shoulder and walking to the carpark.

"I helped her, yes, but I have called you because I need you to go after her." Jacques said.

"Obviously I'm going after her. Why do you need me to?"

"Because, I think that Queen might have a tablet or two of Dusk left and that she may want to use it on Max." She said, and I had to stop moving for a moment to process that information.

"Do you think Queen knows Sierra is after her?"

"I don't know, she might just be hoping, but um Ciara and I will be down there as soon as we can. Ciara made a cure. We just have to get it to Max within twenty-four hours of ingesting Dusk." Jacques explained.

"Right, so where am I going? I don't have an address and I don't know how much of a head start Sierra has on us because someone fell asleep on their watch." I said.

"Jaxon?" She asked, but I didn't respond. "It's always Jaxon. I'll send you the address of Queen's estate, which is where Max is heading. She has a thirty-minute head start, but with how Max drives, it could be a lot longer than that taking everything into account and-"

"So we need to move now." I said, looking at Leigh as I reached the cars.

"Yes, good luck. And remember that you really need to get to her in time." Jacques said.

"Well, I don't plan on getting there too late. Are there any guards there?"

"No, the estate is empty. It will just be Queen there as well as Max after she storms the place like a one woman army." Jacques said before she hung up, not giving me time for anymore questions.

"Fuck!" I shouted, looking at the two cars. The two high-powered sports cars that didn't have rear seats.

"Don't worry about the seating. Kieran's going to steal that bike over there." Leigh said. I let out a breath of relief.

"We need to move." I said simply, and I watched as Leigh's eyes softened briefly.

"You know we can't catch up to her, right? She's too fast, especially in a Venom." Alexis stated, running to meet Leigh and I at the cars.

"We have to try. Jacques just told me she thinks Queen might have a tablet or more of Dusk and that the plan may be to use it on Sierra." I said. Lex and Leigh both froze and stared at me.

"What?" I heard Kieran ask from behind me.

"You heard me." I said, not wanting to repeat what was inducing far too much anxiety in my system.

"Can we even do anything if she's forced to take Dusk?" Jaxon asked. I nodded.

"Ciara has made a cure, but it only works within twenty-four hours of taking Dusk." I explained. They all nodded.

"We need to move, then. Is Ciara bringing some down?"

"Ciara and Jacques will meet us down in Spain 'as soon as they can' so I assume they're bringing it with them.

"Did Jacques tell you where we're heading?" Leigh asked, and I looked at my phone, seeing a message from Jacques with the address on it.

"Yes."

"Okay, you with me." Leigh said. I nodded. "Lex, drive for Jaxon, don't want him falling asleep again."

"Hey!"

"That is on you, my love." Kieran said before walking over to the motorbike at the end of the car park.

"Everyone will follow me if that wasn't obvious!" Leigh shouted, and everyone responded with some form of wording, so I hopped into the passenger seat of Leigh's car, a McLaren P1.

"We're going to get to her." Leigh said to me as he got into the driver's seat and shut the door.

"Yeah, I hope so." I said, looking at my phone.

"Plug the address into my phone, then connect it to the car. I'll need you looking up floor plans of the estate and finding out everything that you can so we can prepare for entry."

"Jacques said there wouldn't be guards."

"I'm not risking it."