43
Wren
One of the goons goes down almost immediately, but the other turns and raises his pistol. I yelp and leap back around the corner, but two seconds later, there’s a thud and a clatter, and then West’s voice.
“Wren?”
I choke back another sob. “Fudgsicles. Yes. I’m here.”
“Where’s Ryker?”
Until he grabs my arms, I don’t realize my eyes are closed. “I…I don’t know,” I whisper. “Inara?”
“No idea. Comms are down.”
Forcing my eyes to focus, I count six girls behind him, including Elena. Her red dress is hanging half off her shoulder, and tears stain her cheeks. “I know. The security room’s down here somewhere. I can disable Kolya’s signal jammer. Heck, I can take down the cameras and probably control the lights too.”
“Where?”
Turning back to the teenager, I arch my brows. “Well?”
“This way.” He gestures to another door, and West stops me before I follow.
His deep blue eyes hold mine. “Let me go first. If I let anything happen to you, Ryker will kill me.”
“Ry went upstairs. More than five minutes ago. Kolya’s up there.” The lump in my throat threatens to cut off my air, and I press my fist against my chest, rubbing in small circles, trying to calm myself down. I can’t think about him now. Can’t worry he might be dead already.
West swears under his breath and follows the kid through the door. “Clear. Come on,” he says sharply, and the girls and I hurry to catch up. The security room is small—barely big enough for the nine of us, but unoccupied. “One of the guys you knocked out came from here. I guess he was the only one monitoring the cameras.”
I slide into the chair and pull the tablet from my pack, along with a cable. After I patch myself into the system, I meet West’s gaze. “Get the girls out of here. Semyon’s waiting outside in the SUV.”
“No. I’m not leaving without you.” His hand clamps down on my shoulder, and for a second, I let his words comfort me. But then Zion’s face flashes before my eyes.
“My brother promised he’d get Elena out. Please, West. Go. If I’m as good as everyone keeps telling me, we’ll have comms back in five minutes and you can come back for me.”
Indecision flashes across his face for a split second, but then he nods. “You do not leave this room until I come for you. Understand?”
“Roger.” I can’t give him my word. Can’t promise. But he doesn’t know that. With his arm around Elena’s shoulders, he ushers the girls back out to the hall, along with the kid who led me here, and shuts the door behind him.
* * *
Ryker
A hard slap to my face rouses me, and I come to with a snarl, sitting bolt upright and lunging for whoever’s hitting me.
“Green!” Inara hisses as her bare arms bruise under my grip. Green means friendly, and my addled brain registers the command seconds before I do real damage.
“What the fuck happened?” Lifting my hand to my head, I stifle a grunt as pain races down my arm. The coppery scent of blood fills my nostrils. There’s a lead weight on my chest, and all around us, a fire alarm blares, its shrill screams disorienting.
“You took two. One in the chest plate and one in the shoulder. Not an artery.” She helps me lean back against a wall, and I force a few deep breaths, trying to center myself. “You saved my life. Again.”
The last few minutes come back to me. Inara, pressed to the wall not quite hidden by a bookcase, one of Kolya’s men drawing down on her. I couldn’t just shoot him. If I had, he could have squeezed off a round at point blank range. So I shouted, but as I fired, someone tackled me and the alarm started blaring. We both went down, but I managed to break the guy’s neck before the first asshole shot me, twice.
Blinking hard to clear my vision, I scan the hallway. Asshole’s dead, the thin slice from Inara’s blade across his windpipe. “West?”
“I don’t know. Comms are down. Your call, boss. Go find Kolya or get West and then get the fuck out of here?”
If we don’t find the bastard, Wren will never be safe. “Split up. West was in the basement. I’m going after Kolya. Never leave a man behind, right?”
