Chapter 16 · Marked Registry - Chapter 16: Still Breathing

The blood bag's still cold in my hand when Cain grabs my wrist.

"You don't go through the front." His voice is low, almost a growl. "Horne's got cameras on every entrance. You walk in, you're flagged before you hit the lobby."

I shake him off. "Then how?"

He doesn't answer right away. Just stares at the bag with Mia's name printed in sterile block letters, the date stamp underneath like it's a damn expiration label. His jaw works. For a second I think he's going to tell me to wait, to let him handle it, all the things he's been saying since I broke into his office.

But he doesn't.

"There's a service route," he says finally. "Old access tunnel from when they used to run deliveries underground. It's locked down now, but I've got clearance."

"You've got clearance to a lot of things." I don't mean it to sound like an accusation, but it does anyway. "How do I know you're not just walking me into another cell?"

His eyes flash yellow for half a second. Not a threat. Something else. Something that looks like it hurts.

"You don't," he says.

I hate that he's honest about it.