Fuck.
Guess I was heading upstairs.
Whatever they’d done to make Milo sound like that was scarier than any potentially maimed mercenaries would ever be.
“I’m going up to intercept.”
“Be careful…” Milo whispered, sounding so shaken up that I had to force myself not to immediately go and check on him.
“Stay down there. Let me know if you catch any movement from our missing guys outside,” I ordered, before making my way to the stairs, where I knew I would be coming face to face with someone I’d once considered my brother.
Ididn’t need to bother being quiet. The sound of the chopper was so loud it rattled the walls.
Milo was giving me a constant stream of updates through the earpiece, so I knew by the time I’d made it up the stairs and to the den that I would only have a few seconds to take out two men as well as Sebastian.
The roof wasn’t large enough for the chopper to land properly, so I wouldn’t have to worry about the pilot.
That prediction was proven to be true as Milo informed me that all three men had rappelled down onto the roof, and the sound of the chopper blades immediately began to fade away.
Slipping into the dark den and using one of the tall, wing-backed reading chairs as cover, I waited for the men to break through the skylight.
I didn’t need to wait long.
There was asmash,then two ropes dropped through the opening, followed by two dark shapes that were already sighting down their AKs before they hit the ground.
I snapped my MP5 back to my side, opting for the handguns at such short range, and I used my brief advantage of surprise to duck out from behind my chair and fire into the two men.
I hit one in the chest and the other in the shoulder, but they didn’t go down. I was forced to duck and roll as they returned fire, bullets shredding straight through the armchair and burying into the wall.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
“Jay! One of those guys survived the explosion. He’s injured, but he’s coming into the house!” Milo cried into my earpiece, but I didn’t have time to respond as I rushed toward the two men who were in the middle of trying to kill me.
But… theyweren’ttrying to kill me, I realized, as they both hesitated to flat-out shoot me as I approached.
Using their hesitation to my advantage, I unloaded a clip into them, smirking in satisfaction as they both went down this time.
I wasn’t sure if they would die, as they were both wearing vests, but I didn’t plan on leaving it up to chance.
Quickly, I kicked off one of their helmets and shot the man point-blank in the forehead, ignoring the spray of gore that exploded across my face as I pivoted to repeat the assault on the next guy.
“Jay! Behind you!” I’d barely managed to kick off the second guy’s tactical helmet before my body jerked with the force of a bullet hitting the back of my vest.
I was familiar with the sensation, as I’d been shot multiple times in the memories Dr. Grey had stitched into my head. The bone-crushing pain of a bullet flattening itself into my Kevlar vest immediately winded me. I swore as the breath rushed out of my lungs and my knees hit the hardwood floors.
Strong hands grabbed me by the shoulders and shoved me further down as I struggled to breathe past the vacuum in my chest.
I still couldn’t manage to inhale when the man behind me cinched what felt like police grade cuffs around my wrists, before booting me so hard in the ribs I felt my bile rise up the back of my throat.
Shit. Fuck!
Unable to even gather enough air in my lungs to freakingpuke, I flinched away from the third shadow that slowly descended upon me from the skylight.
“We’ve got him, sir,” the man who had managed to restrain me said.
Luke’s voice crackled over the speaker of a walkie-talkie.
“And the boy?”
