They have him. Nine has him.
“Fuuuuck!” I need to get to him! The urge to have him safely in my arms overpowers any other thought.
“Ezra, wait!” Linda’s words don’t stop my advance toward the tunnel exit that will take me inside the hotel’s underground parking garage, but Raguel’s heaving body does—for a moment.
“It’s a lobster trap, easy to get in but impossible to get out.” Linda continues. “There are more than one hundred men inside the hotel.”
“Wrong. I see only around thirty people,“ Uriel corrects her.
“They are underground in the TARP tunnels, ready to come out and jump you.”
Tarp tunnels?
“The sewer system designed to prevent flooding? Those tunnels are much farther below the freight ones,” Michael says.
“Piglet, if you set foot in this hotel, you won’t be able to walk outside the penthouse for a year!” Raphael states coldly.
“How do you know they are waiting there?” Ramiel asks Linda.
“An informant. Nine is hated like most people in power, but also feared. It was tough; I’ve been trying to flip one of them for months, and I finally did it. You really thought I would just hold Meg’s hand without doing anything to avenge her?” Her words are filled with anger and disappointment. Like they should have predicted her actions. “I taught you everything you know, boys.”
“Not me,” I remind her. “If something happens to Sully, you are going to pay for it, Linda.” My statement is infused with the shadow of a dark threat. I grab my bow and a knife.
“Sully wasn’t supposed to get caught. I’ll do my best to protect him. But Nine needs to be dead before the moon shines.” Her regretful voice does shit to me.
“You used us and fucking sent Sully to his death!” Lori yells.
“Is your revenge more important than him?” Oliver’s voice is shaking with outrage and desperation. He’s looking down, shoulders trembling, fists tight. An unstable Raguel goes to him.
“I…”
I cut off whatever kind of reply she was about to voice. “He won’t die. Not under my watch,” I let the words come out between my gritted teeth.
“Not on our watch,” Ramiel states, followed by the rest of the team.
“We are in the electrical room. Hundred and thirty men is a suicide mission.” Hunter is not wrong. Some of us will die, but getting Sully out is my only priority.
“It won’t be suicidal when my squads arrive. They are ten minutes away.” Linda is only now letting us know. I’m really going to make her bleed.
“Ten minutes?” Oliver gasps.
“Motherfucker!” I hear Ramiel swear, followed by Lori.
“Fuck you, Linda,” Hunter states.
“Twenty seconds to blackout,” Raphael adds. They went against her, knowing too well Sully doesn’t have ten minutes.
They must have positioned the device Ramiel gave him on the electrical panel. It will fry the circuits and turn the building dark for two entire minutes before the generator turns on. Perhaps just enough time to cut down Nine’s men before I reach him. The team is all wearing night goggles while I’m using the ones inside my mask.
“Ezra, please.” Oliver slides in front of me just as I’m about to move, eyes pleading. “Please bring him back to me.”
My nostrils flare as I inhale deeply. I’ve never been this irate in my life—at Linda for putting my little chick in danger, at Sullyfor not following my orders, at Oliver for talking about Sully as his, at Nine for existing.
“I will bring him back, but not to you.” I let the dark promise sink in before continuing. “Sully will go home with me.”
“Fine!” His face is red, saliva flying out of his mouth. “Just fucking save him.”
“Now!” Raphael’s sudden scream springs me into action.
