“Hello?” he said as he squinted at the clock on the bedside table. “Shit, it’s four in the morning. You’d better have a damn good excuse for calling, Turner.”

My heart began to beat that little bit faster. If Sam was ringing, then something had happened. Something bad. I nudged Jackson with an elbow. “Put it on speaker.”

He did so.

“I know the fucking time,” Sam said, “but I figured you’d like to know someone accessed our computers to run a trace on your phone.”

“How long ago?”

“About an hour.”

“So why the fuck didn’t you ring us sooner than this?”

“Because it was only just discovered via a system security check,” Sam snapped. “You’re lucky to get any warning at all, because the checks were only implemented last night.”

Meaning PIT did have a mole, just as we’d suspected. “Do you know who it was?”

“Yes, and she has already been apprehended. I just thought—” He cut the rest of the sentence off as the perimeter alarm in the other room went off. “What the fuck is that?”

“Notice that we have company. Talk to you later, Turner.” Jackson hung up, then flung himself out of bed and grabbed his jeans. “I’ll take the front door.”

I nodded, threw on a sweater, and ran for the adjoining door. But just as I got there, the damn thing was thrown open, smacking me in the face and sending me flying backward. I hit the floor hard, momentarily seeing stars as blood gushed both down my face and the back of my throat. I thrust out a hand, shooting fire at whoever was coming through that door, and then created a barrier between us.

I didn’t hear any screams, meaning my lance had missed its target. Nor did I hear the gunshot; I just saw something silver shoot through the flames and spear into the wall inches above my head.

I threw myself sideways and just in time, because two more bullets smacked into the floor where I’d been lying. Whoever was behind the gun wasn’t mucking about. I became fire, scrambled upright, and moved to the door. The shooter was using the wall as a shield, but I could feel the heat of his body beyond it. I waited. A heartbeat later, he reappeared around the corner. Recognition stirred, but I shoved it aside and wrapped a fiery hand around his, wrenching the gun from his grip before he could fire again.