I shook my head, pressing my hands into my chest as my heart beat wildly fast. The pain was beyond anything I’d ever felt before.
“Barnes!” Rianne shouted as she helped me to the bed. “Breathe, Layla.”
I pointed to my chest. “I think—” Tears streamed down my face.
Barnes loomed over me. “Rianne, alert Carly. Now!” He lifted me into his arms.
As he carried me out, I barely whispered, “Tell Sam I love him.”
A bright light flashed, then darkness pulled me under.
15
SAM
Isat in the passenger seat of the rented SUV while my father drove. I glanced past Dane in the back seat and out the window behind him. The headlights slashed through the rain as Tripp, Olivia, and Ben followed behind us.
The storm raged outside the windshield. Since I’d talked to Layla well over twelve hours ago, I hadn’t been able to think, stay in one spot, or breathe well. It felt like an eternity since I’d seen her in the exam room in the ER. I prayed like a motherfucker that she was okay and waiting for me at the ranger’s station.
Once she was back in my arms and safely on base, she wasn’t leaving, at least not until the babies were born. I was barely keeping my shit together. Webb and Tripp almost had to tie me down after I’d spoken to Layla.
Webb had been in commander mode, wanting to look at maps and shit.Fuck that.
Dane tried to stop me from jumping in my Jeep. “You’re in no shape to drive, bloodsucker,” he’d said in an even tone.
How he’d been so calm when his brother was probably strapped to a table with a collar around his neck and the stupid device on his head that programmed the chip was beyond me. Granted, Ross might be able to break free like Dane and I had, but Layla didn’t have any powers other than her banshee scream. For the short term, that ability might give her a head start but not if she, too, was lying on a table.
Man, she’s at the ranger’s station. You have to stay positive. Believe.
I would be able to do that if we’d left as soon as I’d hung up with Layla. But bad luck was the name of the game. Of all fucking days, the plane had mechanical issues. Not to mention the storm of the century. The pilot warned us against taking off. I would’ve agreed with him if it wasn’t Layla’s life on the line. My one true fear was plummeting from the sky in a metal tube. Vampires might be immune to a bunch of things, but burning alive wasn’t one of them.
So my father, Dane, Tripp, Ben, Olivia, and I had suited up with parachutes in the event we had to bail. To make matters worse, Doc and Peter argued with Webb to sideline me because of the chip. I had the same concerns, but again, nothing would stop me from rescuing my future wife and the mother of my children. If Peter was right and the chip had a self-destruct mode, then so be it. At least I would die knowing I did everything I could to save Layla.
The final decision came down to my father, and he knew better. He also knew that if the tables were turned, he wouldn’t allow anyone to stand in his way. As far as Dane went, he didn’t work for us, and there was no stopping him from saving his brother, although we couldn’t say for sure if Ross had been kidnapped by Roman or Intech. The diner didn’t have any cameras to speak of.
My dad gave me a sidelong glance from the driver’s seat. “Son, you have to promise you won’t do anything until we can assess what we’re up against.”
“We already know,” I snapped. “If Layla isn’t at the ranger’s station, Pops, I’m going to find her.” We devised a tentative plan on the plane, but before we engaged, we always scouted out the area in the event we had to adjust, which sometimes happened.
Sawyer’s tech team had done a bang-up job of locating Intech’s location, or rather the colossal landmark, on satellite. We were a hundred percent certain that the thirteen acres comprising buildings, two greenhouses, and a mansion set apart from the rest and surrounded by a brick wall belonged to Intech. The good news—mountains surrounded the property on three sides, which meant no neighbors to worry about. Bad news—the facility was heavily guarded.
We had a skeleton team with us since we were down so many men. We’d lost Lane. Viking II hadn’t returned yet from Cleveland. Hawk and Petty Officer Dawson weren’t ready for a full-blown mission, and a sensitive one at that. Kraft was still in the Catskills, our other seasoned SEAL was on a scouting assignment, and the one person we desperately needed had stayed behind. Webb wanted to be close to Jo and Abbey in case Roman was watching the naval base.
“Your father’s right,” Dane said from the back seat. “We can’t rush in until we see with our own eyes how many guards there are and confirm the layout and ensure we have a solid plan, as we’d discussed on the plane. I want my brother out of there, but if I’m dead, I’m no good to him.”
I hated that he was right. Layla needed me alive. But we were getting ahead of ourselves. I had to believe Layla was waiting at the ranger’s station.
Still, my mouth hadn’t caught up with my brain. “I want to knock your lights out right about now. I want a rain check on our sparring session.”
“Fine by me,” Dane said. “Look, man. Hatred aside, we have to be more strategic than ever.”
That was just it. I wasn’t a strategist. That award went to Olivia. She was even better than Webb, who was a mastermind at plotting and planning. I was more tactical, or as Olivia had once told me, I was an executioner. So I knew what I needed to do—execute, murder, and burn down anything in my way.
The dashboard lights illuminated my father’s strong jaw. “Son, we’ll bring Layla and my grandchildren home. I don’t care if we have to burn our way in.”
As an empath, I could feel the love pouring off him as well as his anger, sadness, and worry. He and Iwerefather and son, for sure. My temperament wasn’t any different. I’d bitten off heads since Layla went missing. Yet the word grandchildren and the conviction in his voice made me want to bawl like a boy who’d lost his mother.Fuck.I’d done that very thing when my mom died but not in front of anyone—not even Jo. I’d held her while she’d cried for days on end. It was then that I’d learned I had to be the strong one. I had to protect her from asshole foster dads and bullies at school.
I’d blamed my father for the hell Jo and I had been through in foster care. His reasoning: the foster system was the best place to hide from our former enemy Edmund Rain, who had been hunting Jo and me for the same reason as Intech—to study our DNA. But I couldn’t change the past, and he and I had worked out our differences. I was certain he would be a devoted grandfather and protector to my children.
