Page 23 of Alpha Awakened

Ice glanced at the painting. “Nothing good.”

Hazard was moving away from the painting when Ortiz spoke over their comm link. She sounded frustrated.

“Cortez isn’t here.”

At that announcement, Hazard’s Instinct tingled and the hairs on the back of his neck rose. “How the fuck did he slip out while under surveillance?” he asked.

Jax answered. “There’s no basement so he must have gone out the back while evading surveillance’s notice.”

“Sloppy work on their part,” Ice said.

Hazard silently agreed.

“We’re going to do another sweep of the premises in case he’s hiding somewhere. Keep looking through his office and see if you find anything.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Ice moved to go through the desk.

Hazard’s senses were on edge as he went over to the file cabinet to begin his part of the search. Something aboutthis room didn’t feel right. Cautiously, he pulled open the top drawer. His ears twitched. There’d been a barely perceptibleclickwhen he opened the drawer. And then a familiar scent hit his nose.

“We need to go,” he said abruptly. “I smell gas.”

The words were barely out of his mouth when Ice grabbed him by the back of his tac vest and shoved him down to the floor.

“Get down!”

They hit the ground just in time to avoid being cooked by a ball of fire. Ice landed half on top of him, his bulk shielding Hazard from the flames.

“What the fuck?” Hazard shouted the question from his sudden new position on the floor. He looked up to see twin streams of fire shooting across the room, coming from the spaces where the two paintings on the wall had hung.

Ice rolled off of him.

“Let’s move, Corporal!”

Staying in a low crouch to avoid the streams of fire above their heads, they started for the door. But before they could escape the room, a steel panel slid shut over the entrance, trapping them inside.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Hazard started coughing from the smoke. And even on the floor the heat of the fire above was uncomfortably hot on his skin. “How the fuck do we get out of here?”

Ice pointed at a square section of the ceiling over the desk. “There. Attic access panel. Might lead to a way out of the building.”

“It could lead to a dead end,” Hazard pointed out.

“It might. But we stay here we burn for sure.”

Ortiz’s voice crackled to life in Hazard’s ear piece.

“What the hell was that?”

“The office is on fire. Get out of the building, now!” Hazard shouted in answer.

“We’re coming to get you out of there!” Jax said.

“Negative,” Ice calmly replied. “The entrance is sealed shut. We’re going up to get out.”

But the two alphas tried to get to them anyway. Hazard heard them on the other side of the steel panel. One of them slammed a fist against it.

Ortiz cursed. “Damnit, you’re right. I don’t see a way to open it without using explosives.”