Two figures rushed toward him through the smoke. Jamie got off a few sustained shots, but both were wearing body armor and didn’t go down. Jamie met them head-on, slamming the butt of his assault rifle into a fighter’s face before ramming his elbow into the other man’s gut. Hands grabbed at him, but Jamie twisted in their grip, reaching around to grab one of the fighter’s shoulder as he snaked one foot around to slam his heel down on the guy’s instep. With a swift twist of his body, Jamie drove the man to the ground, lashing out with his other foot as he went to smash it into the other fighter’sgroin.
The guy went down with a yell. Jamie worked fast, sliding his combat knife free to slice the throat of the man in his hands while he rammed his boot in the other guy’s face, hard enough to shatter his nose. Without his enhanced strength, it took more effort for Jamie to break bone on the first try, but he got the job done. Grabbing his weapon as he stood, Jamie put a bullet in the guy still breathing, making sure he wouldn’t be for very muchlonger.
The smoke was clearing just a little, sucked outside through the shattered plas-glass walls lining the front of the lobby. It was still thick enough to hide the enemy. Three more came at him before he could get a shot off and Jamie resorted to fighting with his back literally against the wall. Close-quarters combat required fast, lethal fighting, and Jamie didn’t pull his punches. The damage he inflicted wasn’t as bad as it would be with his enhanced strength, but it didn’tmatter.
Jabbing the side of his hand into one fighter’s throat, Jamie spun and grabbed the head of another to slam it into the wall. Someone grabbed him from behind, yanking hard to pull him off balance. Jamie strained against the hold, sliding his hand over his hip to grab his combat knife again. His assault rifle hung from his side, hiding the motion. He twisted, moving backward to throw the enemy off balance as he stabbed the blade between the top edge of the man’s tactical vest and arm protection, cutting deep into the shoulder and the brachial artery there. Blood immediately poured from the wound as the man collapsed against the wall and staggeredsideways.
Jamie yanked his knife free and someone grabbed his elbow, wrenching his arm around. Jamie followed the motion so his elbow wouldn’t break, feeling the strain in his arm in a way he wouldn’t if he had his power. Stepping into the pull, he swung his free arm around in a rapid series of punches that enabled him to get free, but doing so put his back to the room and not the wall. Someone jumped on him from behind, wrapping their arm around his neck in achokehold.
The sudden lack of air only made Jamie fight harder. He twisted one leg behind him to wrap a foot around the guy’s ankle and trip him up. They both lost their balance and slammed to the ground, the impact jarring the man’s hold enough that Jamie could wrench free of the chokehold, gaspingforair.
He didn’tgetfar.
Someone slammed their foot down onto his torso. His tactical body armor took most of the impact, but the blow still resonated through his ribcage. Jamie grabbed their foot and twisted his leg hard to put pressure on his knee. The man lost his balance and fell to the floor, his free leg snapping out. His boot caught Jamie across the face, the blow hard enough to rattle all the teeth in his head. As he blinked spots from his eyes, four more combatants rushed to join thefight.
Seven against one was never easy to win against, and the fact that they weren’t filling his body with bullets was worrisome. Snarling behind his face mask, Jamie fought against the hands that grabbed at him, trying to pin him down and get control. The man he was lying on managed to get his arm around Jamie’s throat again, cutting off his air supply inseconds.
Weakness brought about by lack of oxygen meant it was easier for the people he was fighting to incapacitate him. Jamie lost his rifle and his guns, his knives and his grenades. Being stripped of his weapons after being stripped of his enhanced strength and durability made his stomach twist into a heavy knot. Rarely was he without power, and losing it wasnevereasy.
But he wasn’t dead yet, and the reason a bullet wasn’t rattling around his skull appeared soon after the group dragged him out of the damaged front of the building and put him on his knees. Jamie’s arms were stretched out and pulled back in a stress position he felt in his joints and his spine. Heavy hands pressed hard on his shoulders, boots digging into his calves to keep him in place. The cold muzzle of a gun scraped over the exposed skin on the back of his neck between his hard helmet and tactical vest. Jamie went still, trying to calm hisbreathing.
I’m not dying here,Jamie promisedhimself.
He still had a ring to offer up and a question that needed asking. No way was he making any of his friends and family bury him today when he still had a future he wanted to build with the man heloved.
The wreckage of the SUV still burned on the street to his right, bracketed by bullet-ridden vehicles. The faint roar of the combat jet up above changed pitch as it streaked away from the building, its shadow passing over where Jamie knelt on thepavement.
“Packages are secured,” Annabelle reported over thecomms.
Jamie’s relief that his family had escaped alive was short-lived. Walking toward him through the hazy smoke was a man he’d never met in person, but whose life he’d ruined justthesame.
Declan Wolcott was dressed for war even if his face was uncovered beneath the helmet he wore, though Jamie doubted it was completely bare. He wouldn’t be surprised if Declan wore nanotech strips on his face, technology that could blur a person’s facial recognition points in video. The ex-Army Ranger and former owner of North Star International was a hard man to read, but the tight grip he had on his tactical handgun wastelling.
“Declan,” Jamie drawled, because he didn’t have it in him to be silent on hisknees.
“I owe you a bullet for my wife,” Declan repliedharshly.
Jamie thought about Valerie Hayes and everything she’d done to the people brought to her biotech lab. Of the bodies they’d unearthed over the course of days on that Montana property and the way he knew, intimately, how all of them had sufferedanddied.
“Pretty sure I used three to kill her, but who’scounting?”
Declan’s face twisted with rage, brown eyes full of incandescent rage Jamie had no problem facing. He took the punch to the jaw because he had no other choice, but he did it with a smile on his face that Declan got to see after the other man pried off his face mask. Jamie smiled bloodily at him, ignoring the pain lancing through his jaw and the coppery tang in hismouth.
“Found them,” Katie announced over comms on the general channel for everyone to hear. “We need to shut down thesubway.”
Ice slipped down Jamie’s spine at her words, but he wasn’t in any position to respond to the chatter happening over comms. Instead, he strained his thoughts against the mental link Katie had running throughhismind.
They’re on a train?heasked.
Park Street Station, near Boston Common. Looks like they weren’t going after the senator after all. We’re—Katie broke off, the mental link fading for a second before roaring back in full force through her telepathy.Apollo, what thefuckis happening overthere?
Take down the suicide bombers,Viper.
Jamie hoped that wasn’t the last order he’d ever give her, but he couldn’t worry about the panicked voices echoing through his mind. He had a more immediate problem he needed todealwith.
Declan crouched down to be at eye-level with him, shoving the muzzle of his gun beneath Jamie’s jaw. The pressure forced his head back, prompting Jamie to concede that maybe he had just given out his last order. It was a distinct possibility at thispoint.
The gun pointed at the back of his head disappeared, but Jamie had no doubt it was still being aimed at him. Two bullets were more than enough to do the job Declan seemed desperate to complete. Jamie had a distant, idle thought wondering if this was how it would all end—on his knees, taking one lastbullet.
