I didn’t care what it took once I had him back in my arms.
I would personally make sure Damian fucking Ryker wasn’t around to take him from me again.
We entered Apex, and the entrance was a disaster. It was clear these halls had suffered multiple explosions.
The ground was covered in rubble, and massive chunks were missing from several walls.
The rotting stench of decomposing flesh hit my nose the deeper Vox led us into the building, and I pulled my shirt up over my nose as we stepped over corpse after corpse.
‘I was here when Cal killed all these guys. The man’s a fucking legend.’Gavin whispered as we passed the devastation Cal had left in his first attempt to kill Damian.
‘I’m going to go ahead and get a lay of the land; tell Vox to wait at the steps to the basement.’
I nodded and relayed the message to our leader. Gavin’s spirit flickered out of existence, and we waited in a tense silence for him to return.
He wasn’t gone long.
When he reappeared, his eyes had a tightness that hadn’t been there when he left.
‘There are four men down there. One is guarding the bottom of the stairs, and there are two holding Naomi’s cell… the fourth one is in the cell with her.’
My blood ran cold at the way he said it. His blue eyes were bright and full of pain, and I knew without asking that we needed to hurry up. Something bad was happening to Naomi, and we needed to get to her before it was too late.
I relayed the message to Vox, and both Vox and Theo’s pupils blew wide with rage when I mentioned that there was a man in the cell with Naomi.
Vox let out a slow breath, and I watched as all the life bled out of his face. I no longer felt like I was looking at a human being.
I was looking at a killing machine, and he would show no mercy.
Vox made the motion that meant ‘cover me.’
Theo and I flanked him as he pulled a small object out of his backpack. At first, I thought it was a grenade, but it wasn’t egg-shaped. It was cylindrical. He tore a pin out of it and tossed it down the stairs.
‘Smoke bomb, stay low; it’ll rise to the ceiling. The lower you are, the easier it’ll be for you to see and breathe.’
Vox confirmed what Gavin suggested with a ‘get low’ hand signal, and Theo and I crouched behind him, following him down the stairs.
I could hear Damian’s men shout and mobilize as the smoke overtook the basement.
Doing my best to stay calm, I got so low I was nearly on my knees.
‘Ginger dude! Against the wall!’Gavin hollered, and I threw myself to follow the order just as the deafening sound of gunshots began to explode around me.
A bullet whizzed so close to my head that I felt it pass. It hit the concrete wall behind me, and a chunk of debris sliced my cheek open as I did my best to plaster myself to the wall.
Suddenly, Vox’s demand for me to stay behind didn’t feel so infantilizing.
A few weeks of target practice didnotmean I was ready for a full-blown shoot-out. Even Theo, as tough as she was, was clearly just as shell-shocked as I was. We kept as low as possible and hugged the wall, watching through the film of smoke as two shadows engaged in what looked like hand-to-hand before us.
There was a grunt and the distinct sound of someone releasing their last breath before one of the shadows dropped the other shadow to the ground.
I cocked my gun in my hand and pointed it at the approaching figure in case it was Damian’s man that had survived, but Gavin’s voice assured me it was Vox.
The smoke was already thinning as he crouched by Theo and me.
He quickly checked us over to make sure we weren’t injured, then made the motion for ‘enemy down,’followed by the signal that meant ‘low crawl.’
I glanced at Theo, and though her face was whiter than I’d ever seen it, she looked determined as I felt to continue.
