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He catches my gaze and grins. He doesn’t even seem like it’s that hard work, and it’s impressive as hell.

Refocusing just in time, we head for Liam. He’s been surrounded by Hunt’s men as they try to grab him, and he’s fighting them off but losing quickly. The rest of our teams are fighting to get to him but are being delayed by all of Hunt’s people.

There are cries of pain, angry shouts, and gunshots all around us.

Finally, we get up to the area.

I try to take as many down as I can, securing them and disarming them as we go, just like Liam suggested. A couple of people get lucky hits in, fortunately with their hands and not a gun.

“The rest of the teams are coming in,” Mr. R says over the earpieces.

“We just have to hold out for three more minutes, tops,” Pete adds, and then grunts.

My eyes search the melee for Pete, spotting him and doing a quick check to make sure that he isn’t in mortal danger. Thankfully, he’s still up and fighting, someone must have just got a good hit in. I duck a fist aimed at my face and strike out with a kick, taking the feet from under the guy.

Zemi pounces on him and handcuffs him, punching him in the face and knocking him out. As soon as he’s secured, Wilder appears, throws him over his shoulder, and then strides through the crowd as Raid and Saint watch his back, and Zee stays with Zemi, the two of them diving straight back into the fight with grins on their faces. Wilder drops the knocked-out, handcuffed guy somewhere where he won't get trampled and then turns back to jump into the fight with the other two.

They work extremely well together.

“Ever!” Trick shouts, and I look up in time to see one of Hunt’s men with a gun pointed straight at me.

Shit.

Everything moves in slow motion, the guy pulls the trigger and drops to the ground, already dead, a bullet straight through his temple, and then I find myself violently shoved out of the way by Liam before he too drops to the ground with a grunt.

“Liam’s down!” I say through the earpieces.

Moving quickly to his side, I let out a sigh of relief as I see his grimace of pain as he starts cursing creatively.

He’s alive.

There’s a flurry of activity as the rest of the teams arrive, and Hunt’s people are rounded up and quickly surrender when they realize just how outnumbered they are.

“How bad?” Atlas demands.

“I’m fine,” Liam replies with only a hint of pain.

“He’s been shot,” I reply, giving him a look for playing it down. “He took the bullet meant for me.”

“I’m fine,” Liam says again. “Help me up?”

He starts to move, and I have no choice but to help him get up because he’s just going to injure himself even more if I don’t.

He smiles at me, his hand on his side. “Don’t worry, it just grazed me. It didn’t hit anything important.”

“Good,” Alaric says. “I’m on my way to you.”

“Okay, brother,” Liam says. His expression becomes proud as he says. “I’m really proud of you all, you took down one of the slimiest, most dangerous men in the industry.”

“Liam,” Alaric warns, clearly hearing something in Liam’s tone that the rest of us can’t.

I narrow my eyes, he’s planning something.

Someone bumps into me, knocking me and making me stumble forward. I automatically turn around, trying to see who it was through the utter chaos of agents and Hunt’s men being arrested. There are EMTs everywhere, teams going into the warehouses. It’s about as hectic as it gets.

I realize my mistake as soon as my eyes are off Liam, but as I turn back around, I see him fading through the crowd.

“Liam’s gone,” I say through the comms. Silently cursing myself, “I stupidly turned my back for a second because someone bumped into me.”