Page 52 of Every Last Breath

Chapter 15

International Waters, Atlantic Ocean

7:42 p.m. EDT

Hot bullets whizzed overhead, showering the room in shell casings. The booming sound reverberated up Maddox’s spine.

She and Cole took turns squeezing off rounds as they fell back to the doors leading to the starboard walkway. Gunfight 101: shoot and move if you want to live. The furniture offered limited coverage, but the high-velocity barrage would eat through it in minutes. Cole gave her the go-ahead with a nod and then snapped the submachine gun up to his shoulder. She maneuvered low behind a large cushioned chair while he laid down suppressive fire.

Rising into a crouch, she flipped the selector to full automatic and sprayed the opposite side of the room with another volley, keeping the shooters ducking long enough for Cole to pull back farther. At times like this, she missed the built-in silencer of her Maxim 9. The difference in decibels was drastic. Suppressors should be standard government issue to prevent hearing loss.

In the confined space, the noise was deafening. Her eardrums were going to ring for days.

Guards expertly advanced wide on either side of the room. Once they were close enough, they would try to hit them from the flanks. She had to make every bullet count.

HK MP7s spat copper-jacketed lead at her from the left and right, forcing her down.

Cole tossed a heavy, round wooden dining table on to its side, and she maneuvered behind it as he shot at the guards. Her heart jackhammered in her chest. Frenzied breath burst from her lungs, but her thoughts were steady, clear.

The quick staccato of automatic gunfire grew louder, drawing closer. She and Cole had to run for it soon.

She ejected the buckle from her belt. A four-inch rectangle of pure flashbang power. She pressed it to activate the device and hurled it across the room. “Stun grenade. Five seconds.”

A blinding light would flash and a deafening bang would temporarily incapacitate the security team.

Protecting his eardrums with his fingers, Cole closed his eyes and hunched over her, as if to cover her from shrapnel spray.

Cole knew there wouldn’t be any fallout from a flashbang, but she didn’t see the harm in letting him shelter her with his body. Not that she could’ve stopped him if she had tried.

His insistence to do things his way had gotten them hemmed up in this gunfight. If he’d listened to her, trusted her, they might’ve been able to take out the guards quietly. They’d have ended the auction going on upstairs by now.

She covered her ears and shut her eyes.

His heart thudded in a wild beat against her back.

On a mission, she never considered how much she wanted to make it through alive. Such thinking impaired judgment, and fear led to indecision. For the first time, making it out alive—with him—was all she could think about. Precisely the thing that could get them killed.

The ear-piercing boom rocked the room. Cole grabbed her hand and they made a break for it.

They burst through the door outside. A steady, high-pitched noise whistled in her ears. She grasped the railing, sucking in a shaky breath. A blanket of ashen clouds blocked out the moon. The sea was an endless stretch of stark black.

Their plan had disintegrated the moment Kassar had outed her.

Damn it. Had Cole been foolish enough to trust Ilya with the truth? The bastard wouldn’t have hesitated in ratting her out, but he would’ve contacted Van Helden. Not another bidder.

Lights from an inbound helo pierced the darkness.

“ETA one minute,” Castle said in her ear. She’d never been so happy to hear her brother’s voice. “Harper got a facial recognition hit on the man posing as Kassar. He’s Aleksander Novak, also known as the Ghost. A hitman who takes impossible, high-profile jobs. A CIA officer died getting his picture. Lover Boy is right. Stay away from him.”

Castle agreeing with Cole on anything was reason enough to give her pause, but if she were a guy, Castle wouldn’t dare ask her to stand down.

Cole shoved her up against the side of the yacht, shielding her from incoming fire.

Bullets whizzed by them. Some ricocheted off the metal rail. Sparks erupted in a riot of tiny flashes. She was off her game, needed to get her head fully locked back into this. Now wasn’t the time to worry about how her cover had been blown or to get mired down by feelings.

Cole returned fire, taking out the guard.

Rotor blades hacked the night air. Gunfire echoed from the top deck. There must be more guards near the helm. The helicopter hovered over the bow of the yacht. Castle’s unmistakable juggernaut frame and the strapping figure of Reece rappelled out of the chopper on black ropes, shutting down hostiles on the upper level with a controlled ammo spray.