Tace cocked his head to the side and read the insignia across their left breasts. “E.L., huh? I’m thinking the president’s Elite Force got some new shirts. How nice to get new shirts during the apocalypse. Jax? How come we don’t get shirts?”
“We get tats,” Jax said easily, his gun trained center mass.
“Yeah. Tats are better than shirts.” Tace motioned for Damon. “You okay, Winter?”
Damon used both hands on the desk to pull himself up and then wobbled around the heavy maple to the door. “No. I got shot.”
He reached the doorway and went down.
“Shit,” Tace said, trying to see the impact wound. Damon was wearing a black shirt, so his entire chest might be bloody, and Tace wouldn’t be able to tell. “We gotta move, Jax.”
“All right. We only want one of you. Who dies?” Jax said pleasantly.
Then everything happened at once. Time slowed. “Alley is clear,” came a deep voice from behind Tace.
“Drop it,” Sami yelled.
Tace pivoted in time to see a guy in black take a shot. “Sami,” he yelled, leaping for her.
The bullet hit her center mass, throwing her head back and her body into Tace. He grabbed her with one arm and fired with the other, hitting the Elite soldier between the eyes. The guy flew back into the hall and bounced twice upon landing.
“Sami.” Tace set her down. “Sami?” She was out cold, and all color had deserted her face. He yanked open her shirt and tore the Velcro straps on her vest open. His heartbeat thundered through his ears, and his hands shook. “You’re okay, baby. You’re okay.”
Two shots popped behind him, and he half turned, shielding her with his body.
“Fuck.” Jax grabbed his shoulder, and blood welled through his fingers.
One of the Elite guys was down and bleeding profusely. The other dropped his gun and put his hands in the air.
Tace turned back toward Sami and gently lifted the vest over her head. He ripped open her undershirt. “Okay. You’re okay.” The bullet hadn’t made it through, but her entire sternum was turning purple.
“She okay?” Raze called, pressing a hand over Jax’s on the bleeding wound.
Tace nodded, his throat choking. He cleared it. “Yeah. She’s bruised pretty bad, and she’s out cold, but the bullet didn’t tear into her.” The idea of a bullet ripping into her soft skin made his teeth clench. He felt along her sternum and down her ribs to make sure nothing was broken. Man, she was going to hurt when she came to.
He lifted her and carried her over to a table still holding pens and deposit slips. “How bad, Jax?”
“Dunno. Hurts like a bitch,” Jax said through clenched teeth.
Raze moved out of the way. “Damon? I’ll be right there.” He took zip ties from his back pocket, grabbed the Elite soldier’s arm, and kicked him behind the knee. The soldier went down and Raze secured his hands behind his back. “Stay.” Raze kicked the guy’s gun across the room and then turned to go for Damon.
Tace moved Jax’s hand and tugged the material away from the wound. He peered around to the other side. “Through and through. Doesn’t look like it hit anything important, but you’ll need stitches.” He tore off his shirt and tied it around Jax’s upper arm. “Keep pressure on it.”
“Copy that.” Jax moved into position to cover Sami, pain etching lines into his face. “Check on Damon.”
Tace hurried over to the fallen Merc soldier and bent down on one knee to do a quick survey. Blood covered Damon’s entire abdomen, and his shirt was dripping with it. “Ah, shit. He has a bullet to the gut, Jax. I need to do surgery.” Tace glanced around, his mind returning to the day they’d lost Wyatt, another soldier, from a gut wound.
Raze breathed out. “I’ll go get the truck. We’ll get home faster.”
Tace felt Damon’s pulse. “Hurry.”
Chapter Thirteen
This blue heart led me to Jax Mercury.
—Dr. Lynne Harmony,Notes on Scorpius
Lynne Harmony stretched her back in her lab and eyed the newest evidence she’d found that the Bunker existed. This was detailed lists of medicines sent there. Finally. She clapped her hands together once and stood to do a quick shimmy dance she’d made up on the spot. She could prove the place existed. Now all she had to do was track down the right file and find the damn place.
