I duck back behind the door as return fire peppers the SUV. The sound is relentless.
BANG
BANG
BANG
I scan to my left, then right. The parking lot erupts in chaos as my men pour out of the other SUVs, laying down covering fire.
I see Octavian and Declan returning fire from behind their doors. Declan's got his AR-15 up, firing controlled bursts.
"Motherfuckers were ready!" he yells over the gunfire as he ejects a spent mag and slams in a fresh one.
The parking lot turns into a war zone.
I count bodies. Five down. Maybe six. But more pour from the building's side entrance, robes flapping, guns raised like they think they're soldiers.
I fire, catching two more, and they fall.
Just when I'm about to claim another, a sudden explosion hits.
The sound is deafening, like a thunderous boom that shakes the ground beneath my feet. I look up, and the top-floor windows blow outward in a shower of glass and debris.
Flames replace the windows, orange and violent, licking up toward the sky as black smoke billows out.
"What the fuck!" Declan shouts between shots. "Why is he setting the building on fire?"
My chest goes tight and adrenaline floods my system so fast I feel dizzy.
Zaria.
She's in there. She's in that fucking inferno.
Something inside me snaps, and all I can think is she's burning alive and I'm standing here like a fucking statue.
I don't think. I don't plan. I just move.
I abandon the cover of the door and start shooting, moving forward like a goddamn tank, firing at anything that moves.
A bullet whizzes past my ear, close enough that I feel the heat. I don't slow down.
One shooter pops up from behind a concrete barrier, and I put two in his throat before he can squeeze the trigger. Another charges me from the left, and I sidestep his wild shot and put a round through his eye socket.
"What are you doing!" Declan yells as he and Octavian move up beside me, shooting, covering my flanks as I push forward. Another robed figure appears in the main entrance and Declan's rifle sends a burst of shots into his chest. Octavian takes down two more from our right with single shots.
After a few moments, the shooting slows and bodies litter the parking lot, but the fire rages overhead.
I stop at the building's entrance, the doors hanging off their hinges now from the bullets as smoke pours from the upper floors, thick and black.
I turn to face my brother. "I'm going in. Stay here."
Declan lowers his AR-15. "Like fucking hell you are. The goddamn place is on fire. That roof could collapse at any moment."
"It's not up for debate. It's my call. Stay here."
"No!"
I stop. Turn back. "What did you say?"
