Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 66697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 66697 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 333(@200wpm)___ 267(@250wpm)___ 222(@300wpm)
Knight’s voice cut in. “Movement in the main room. Denton’s pulling security. They’re mobilizing.”
“They’ve got us,” Antonio said, his voice calm as he drew his weapon. So did everyone else except Kass, who still held Casey.
The first shot came from behind us. A sharp crack that echoed off the concrete. I ducked instinctively, Grace beside me doing the same. Neither of us made any noise other than the occasional frightened whimper. Antonio shoved me hard against the wall, his body between me and the corridor we’d just left.
“Go,” he barked at Finch. “Get them out.”
Finch didn’t hesitate. He grabbed Grace’s arm and hauled her toward the open bay. Sully followed, the nameless woman behind him. Kass went last, Casey still cradled against his chest. Despite the desperateness of the situation, Kass acted like none of it fazed him.
Antonio stayed with me, his back to the wall and his weapon up. Hawk had already dropped to one knee at the junction, covering our back. Another shot pinged off the concrete near my head and I ducked.
“Stay down,” Antonio snapped.
I reached for the pistol at Antonio’s other hip. He looked at me and nodded. I’d never fired a gun before, but I figured I could aim and pull the trigger. Surely. I mean, I knew enough to turn off the safety and to keep my finger away from the trigger unless I intended to shoot. Which… I really hoped it didn’t happen.
The corridor behind us filled with the sound of boots, heavy and fast. Antonio glanced at me once, his expression unreadable, then pushed off the wall and stepped into the junction.
The room seemed to explode around us. Gunfire erupted. Antonio’s weapon barked out twice, then twice more. Someone shouted and a body hit the floor. More of Tonio’s men fired at the advancing forms and I tried my level best to keep my head down and just stay out of everyone’s way.
Boots pounded from the direction of the main room. Likely Denton’s hired security, or the off-duty cops Knight had warned us about. Didn’t really matter who they were, only that they were coming. They were armed, and they knew the building better than we did, and that gave them a distinct advantage.
I pressed flat against the wall and inched along it, keeping low. A man in a dark jacket rounded the corner ahead of Hawk. Hawk dropped him with two shots to the chest as I crouched watching and taking in the whole scene. The man crumpled and didn’t move.
Another appeared behind the first. He fired wild and panicked, not taking time to assess his situation, and it cost him. Hawk took cover behind a service cabinet. The guard’s shot went wide, pinging off the steel door of the loading bay, but Hawk’s was dead on the mark and the guy dropped like a stone.
Antonio moved now, working his way down the corridor toward the junction. He fired twice and another body hit the floor. The air stank of cordite and the copper tang of blood.
I reached the junction and crouched beside Hawk. He didn’t look at me, his focus never wavering from the corridor ahead.
“Talk to me, guys,” Antonio barked into his comm.
“All clear on my end,” Kass’s voice came back.
“Finch?”
“With me, and the girl,” Kass answered. “Sully’s got the rear.”
Antonio nodded once. He reloaded, ejected the magazine, slammed in a fresh one with the heel of his hand, the motion was fluid and practiced. Yeah, this wasn’t Tonio’s first rodeo, so to speak. Tonio glanced at Hawk and me before continuing on.
I moved with him, always sat at his back with my hand in his back pocket as he and Hawk worked the corridor. Two more shots brought another body down.
We were about to round another corner when a man in a black tactical vest circled into view from behind a service panel. He moved silently, his weapon raised as he pointed it at Antonio’s back. Tonio was focused on the junction, on the firefight ahead, and he didn’t see the man coming at us from an angle.
“Tonio!” I cried out as I raised my gun. My finger found the trigger and I squeezed.
The recoil snapped my arms up slightly, but the man jolted. His weapon discharged into the ceiling as he pulled his shot in surprise. Plaster dust rained down. He staggered, turned, and I saw his face. He was young and clean-shaven. The surprised look on his face gave me a pang of regret I tried to quickly squash. This guy was on the wrong side of humanity today and needed no sympathy from me. If it hadn’t been for Seth and the men and women from Kiss of Death, that young man would have been the one preventing me from fleeing on my own. Then the guy crumpled, going down hard. The pistol clattered across the tile.