Warrior's Heart: Iron Portal Series (Paranormal Romance) by Laurie London

would’ve probably spent the rest of the afternoon in bed, making love and getting reacquainted with each other. She’d thought she was getting through to him—he’d finally asked about Darius and wanted to know all about his son—and then everything went back to the way it was before.
    Vince stood at the foot of the bed, arms crossed, an angry look on his face. “You expect me to sit around and do nothing. Jesus, Zara, if you remember anything about me, you know I can’t do that. It’s not who I am.”
    His comment stung. He was putting distance between them that she wasn’t sure she’d be able to overcome.
    “And I don’t expect you to,” she said. “It just seems crazy to go back to that place right now. Things are too hot. Why do you need to do this now?” What she didn’t say was, before you even meet our son , but she had a pretty good idea that Vince knew what she was implying.
    He ran a hand over his buzz cut, and for a moment she thought he might change his mind, climb into the bed with her and tell her he wasn’t going. But he didn’t.
    “This is something I need to do.”
----
    T he warehouse district on Old Smokey Point Way looked like a ghost town. Several pieces of trash tumbleweeded across the quiet road. Tall grass grew from cracks in the asphalt parking lots.
    Vince stretched his cramped muscles. For over an hour, he’d been cooped up in a storage compartment hidden beneath the floor of the van. Even though Arlo had been able to avoid all the roadblocks, they didn’t want to take any chances that they’d be pulled over and asked to produce their papers. According to Rand, getting a fake ID was easy enough, but that could take several weeks. Vince didn’t want to wait and miss out on this opportunity for revenge against the system that had taken so much from him. Besides, this was his intel. He deserved to be here.
    Shane peered out the windshield from the passenger seat. “Welcome to the thriving metropolis of Where-The-Hell-Are-We.”
    “The pride of the Pacifican army,” Arlo quipped.
    To the left was a nearby Dumpster overflowing with garbage. An awning over one of the doors hung at an angle.
    “And it’s not much better in the daytime,” Vince said. “I don’t think I once saw another vehicle on this road.” He pointed to the right where several low-lying warehouses were surrounded by a chain link fence. “That’s the back of the facility there. The main entrance is on the other side.”
    They drove around the corner and backed into an alley across the street, taking care not to hit the dented green Dumpster. The plan was to get inside and scope out the place first. Then, if there was anything of value, Shane would go back for the van, they’d load it quickly and get the hell out.
    Pulling down their black facemasks, the three men exited the vehicle and jogged in tandem to the mouth of the alley.
    “And you’ve only seen guards during business hours?” Arlo asked, confirming what Vince had told them earlier.
    He nodded. “During the day, yes, there was someone at the gate, but when the prison transport drove past in the evening, the place always looked completely dead. Like it does now. Doesn’t mean there aren’t any guards milling around somewhere.”
    Shane pointed to the Dumpster at the mouth of the alley. “We’ll wait here for a few minutes. See if we spot anyone. If not, we’ll go in.”
    Vince leaned against the brick wall and crossed his arms. He scanned the facility’s parking lot, looking for movement, but the night was calm. A dog barked in the distance and a light breeze blew through the surrounding trees. If Vince were to climb to the top of one of them, he would probably be able to see the lights of the south guard tower at the Institute. The thought made his stomach clench. Having that hellhole so close made him even more determined to succeed tonight. It was going to be so satisfying to stick it to them right under their goddamn noses.
    As they