"Jesus Christ!" Alessio growls. "My ears!"
My ears are ringing too. Not that I care. The car is still rolling when I kick the door open and hit the pavement at a run.
"Fucking crazy motherfucker!" Alessio yells behind me.
He and Damiano spill out after me, followed by Mauro. I reach the warehouse door and rip it open. Born into this life, my years of training take over. I was raised for moments like this. My brain processes everything in less than a second. Eight men. Spread out in a loose circle. Weapons. Positions. Angles. A chair in the center of the room holding a slumped-over figure. Not Audra. Pete. Dead. My gaze snaps to the floor. Audra!
On her fucking knees. Something inside me breaks. The world turns red. The monster that lives inside me finally getswhat it wants. And this time, I don't leash it. A man stands over her with a gun pressed to her head. When the door bursts open, he turns. The barrel starts moving toward me. Too slow. I'm already firing. His head snaps back as the bullet punches through his skull. He drops beside her.
"AUDRA!"
Her head jerks up. For a split second, surprise flickers across her face. Then the warehouse erupts. Gunfire explodes around us. Damiano and Alessio storm in behind me. Mauro opens up from the doorway. Men shout. Bullets slam into bodies and crates indiscriminately. I'm already moving. A man rushes me from the side. I catch him before he can fire, my hand closing around his throat. I squeeze. Hard.
Something collapses under my grip. His mouth opens, but no sound comes out—just a broken wheeze. I let him drop.
Another one comes at me. I smash the pistol across his face. Bone cracks. He drops.
The red is everywhere now. Rage pours through me like gasoline on fire. I barely hear the gunshots anymore. Barely see anything except the men between me and her. I'm going to kill every last one of them.
"GABE!" Someone's yelling. Far away. Like it's coming through water.
"He's losing it!" Damiano. I think. It doesn't matter. The world is compressed to one single object. Her.
"Not again," Mauro groans somewhere behind me.
Another body hits the ground at my feet. I barely register it. The red is still there. Hot. Blinding. A hand grabs my shoulder. Hard. Alessio.
"They're gone!" he shouts in my face.
But the words don't land. Not yet. My hands are still clenched. My chest is still heaving. There's blood everywhere. Then I hear it. Through the fog.Audra. Her name. It slicesthrough the rage like a blade. She needs me. The red starts to recede. Slowly. Like a tide pulling back. I turn. She's still on her knees in the middle of the warehouse. But she's not the same broken woman I saw when I burst through the door.
She's holding a gun. A fucking gun. Both hands are wrapped around it. Arms straight. Steady. Pointed at us. Her eyes are clear. Focused. There's no panic there. No hysteria. No fear. She's ready to pull the trigger. Ready to take one of us with her if we move wrong. I raise my hands slightly.
"Audra."
Her head lifts. Our eyes meet. For a second, the entire warehouse disappears. The bodies. The blood. The gunfire. Everything.
There is onlyher.
And me.
She tilts her head slightly. Recognition sparks across her face. "You."
"Find someone alive," I tell the others.
My voice is calm again. Cold and controlled, my emotions once more in check. I start walking toward her. Audra lifts the gun. "Stop."
I keep moving. "You're not going to shoot me," I state with absolute confidence in my voice.
She proves me wrong. The bullet whistles past my head. "Fuck."
I surge forward. Another shot cracks. Fire rips across the side of my arm. "Fuck!"
"Gabe!" Alessio shouts.
But I'm already on her. I grab her wrist and wrench the gun free before she can fire again.
"Audra." I keep my voice low. "I'm here to save you."
