Fury erupted behind the man’s eyes. “I’ll show you fucking balls, you bitch.”
With a snarl, he raised the knife above her heart. When he started to bring it down, Ellena closed her eyes and pictured Gabe’s handsome face.
His sexy, silver-fox hair and beard. His gorgeous brown eyes. His strong jaw and heart-stopping smile.
Ellena waited for the pain to come, ready to move on to the next world. To join her husband and child she prayed was waiting there for her. But the pain never came.
A deep roar filled the room followed by a loud crash. Less than a second later, the weight of Hall’s body was lifted off of her as Adrian flew through the air, knocking the other man onto the floor beside her.
Pushing herself up, Ellena took in the unbelievable scene before her. She couldn’t believe what she saw.
Adrian had somehow managed to get free from his restraints and had used the chair to take Radcliff down. The son of a bitch was lying in a heap amongst the pieces of broken wood. She couldn’t tell if he was still breathing, but the guy definitely wasn’t moving.
To her left, Adrian was already standing, leaving Hall’s own knife in the guy’s chest.
“Oh, God.” Ellena swung her gaze in the opposite direction.
“Sorry, Doc. Had to be done. Come on.” He held out a hand to help her up.
Feeling as if she were in some sort of dream—or, more accurately, the worst nightmare she’d ever had—Ellena slid her trembling hand into Adrian’s palm and allowed him to pull her to her feet.
“We need to get out of here.” She started for the door.
“Wait.” Adrian rushed over to Radcliff’s prone body and began digging through his pockets.
“What are you looking for?”
“Keys. Just in case.” He then slid a hand behind the guy’s back and pulled out a gun Ellena never knew he had. “And this.”
Happy to let him lead the way—especially since he had the gun—she waited for Adrian to exit the room first.
Checking both sides of the hallway, he started to move forward when Ellena heard a shuffling sound behind her. Looking back, she screamed when she saw Radcliff coming for them.
With a crazed look in his eyes, he bellowed out, “You don’t get to leave! That’s not how this works!”
Ellena started to push Adrian out the door but stopped when a deafening sound blasted next to her ear.
She jumped. The same, incessant ringing she’d experienced from shooting Adrian—something she felt really bad about, now—made hearing anything else nearly impossible. But she didn’t need her ears to see what had just transpired.
Radcliff’s movements halted to a jerky stop. Confused, he looked down at the new hole in his chest…and laughed.
“Damn.” He stumbled backward. “Well, it was a good ride, wasn’t it?”
Ellena watched with horror and relief as Governor Radcliff, the man destined to be the next leader of the free world, dropped back down to the floor. She was still staring at the man who had caused so much pain to so many, when Adrian pulled on her arm.
“Come on.” He motioned for the hallway.
At least she thought that’s what he said. At this point, Ellena didn’t care. She just wanted to get as far away from this place as she possibly could. She wanted to get to…
Gabe.
Grief slammed into her as they made their way down the dimly lit tunnel. While she needed to be free of this underground hell, Ellena didn’t know how she’d survive seeing what awaited them outside.
Chapter 24
With Gabe in the lead, the men of Bravo Team, Ghost, and Ryker made their way through the tunnel in record time. Once the R2TD had been lowered to them, the men Ryker sent headed out of Mexico and back to the States.
Fucking Mexico.
