#incircles

“I’m heading out.” She looks so defeated. Her shoulders hang so low, weighed down by another disaster that almost cost a handful of people in town their lives. The team pulled through in the end—threat handled, but none of them are naive enough to deny how close it came down to the wire.

The pursuit of her blood—the bounty hunt—has begun in earnest.

Nate’s hand resting gently on her back looks impossibly heavy for her to bear.

“We’ll walk with you.”

Lane’s smile, sick and pale and uneasy, should have tipped them all off. They should have known.

“I’ll be fine.”

They shouldn’t have let her go. They shouldn’t have let her leave alone. They never should have-

Fuck. Mason closes his eyes. He takes a heavy breath.

He should have gone with her. He should have walked her home, at least.

His leg is bouncing. When had his leg started bouncing?

He should have kissed her.

Rebecca lets the team know that she’s safe. Worried and brittle, she tells Unit Bravo that Lane has contacted her superiors. That she’d been granted leave from her post, and that it would behoove them all not to go looking for her. Officially, their liaisons’ location is classified.

“All in the best interest of the town,” they’d said.

Rebecca looks ready to burn the facility down through its depths.

“We’ll continue on as normal.” A practiced and polished tone. No one in the room is fooled.

“She’s a part of the team; we can’t-“

“You will,” she cuts Felix off without so much as a glance. Mason sees Adam’s jaw clench, can hear his teeth grinding.

The rhythmic click of Rebecca’s heels across the hardwood floor echoes as she makes to exit. The break in her voice as she calls “Dismissed,” over her shoulder is undeniable. They can already pick up her ragged breathing as she cracks open, just outside the door.

Mason forces a hand through his hair. She’d left it all—her phone, her shitty car, everything. If the agency is keeping Lane hidden, there’d be no shot at finding her.

Their hands are tied. She left. They have to assume that she’s safe.

He bites down hard on the inside of his cheek.