Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 61042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 305(@200wpm)___ 244(@250wpm)___ 203(@300wpm)
Sully materialized out of the smoke at my left, his face grim and focused. He looked at me -- at the gun in my hands -- and didn’t say a word about getting back in the panic room. He just jerked his head forward and moved, and I fell in behind. I knew from earlier discussions that most of the men were protecting Haven, but once they had everyone there secure in a safe room, they’d all head our way.
We moved away from the hall out into the open room where we had better cover and less chance of being bottled in. Shapes moved in the smoke ahead of us, dark silhouettes that didn’t belong here. Sully fired twice more and one of the shapes dropped. I heard Riot somewhere to our right, his voice a snarled command followed by the unmistakable sound of a body hitting the floor. Shouts and raised voices echoed against the walls around me but with my ears still stunned, I couldn’t make out the words.
Darby must have slipped out of the panic room because she was twenty feet to the left of me, pressed against the wall with a knife in her hand. One of the attackers had her pinned against a support column, one meaty hand wrapped around her throat while he went for his pistol with the other. Darby’s face was flushed dark, her teeth bared as she fought like a wildcat, trying to break his hold.
I didn’t think. I raised the pistol and fired. The round punched through the man’s right shoulder. In the same instant Darby drove her knife into his side, low and hard, angling up under his ribs and stabbing him several times before shoving him off her. The man’s mouth opened in a soundless scream as he crumpled sideways, hitting the floor in a pool of spreading blood.
Darby stepped back from the wall, rubbing her throat. She caught my eye through the thinning smoke and her lips curled into something that was half grin, half bared teeth. “Thanks,” she rasped.
“Any time.” I moved past her, trying to stay low to make myself a smaller target and to find a spot to see through the haze around us.
The fight was over faster than I expected. Iron’s team likely hadn’t planned on the club returning or rebounding from the initial surprise so quickly. Within minutes, the compound crawled with Kiss of Death members who’d poured back through the gates like a tide of fury. The smoke dissipated as a couple of men went around opening windows as they secured the place. I still hadn’t spotted anyone other than the man who’d attacked Darby. Which meant I’d missed the core of the fighting. Cool night air rushed in, and the vast interior resolved itself. Two downed attackers and one more lay face down being zip-tied by Tiny and Gunnar with casual efficiency.
Griffin came through the door last, weapon drawn, scanning every corner with those deep-set green eyes until they found me. I stood in the middle of the room with the pistol still in my hands. My ears rang. My hands trembled with the crash of adrenaline, a fine vibration I couldn’t stop no matter how hard I gripped the gun. I probably looked half feral.
Griffin stopped in front of me. His gaze pinned me. I still held the gun, painfully aware of the downed man I’d shot, still groaning and clutching his side where Darby’s knife had found him. Then Griffin looked back at me and his fierce expression let me see exactly the kind of warrior lived inside Griffin.
“You OK?” he asked.
“I’m fine.” My voice came out steadier than I felt. “Were they after me?”
“Likely.” He didn’t ask why I wasn’t in the panic room. He didn’t tell me I should have stayed hidden. He just reached out and squeezed my shoulder once, firm and grounding, and then stepped past me to help deal with the aftermath.
I turned back to the man on the floor, the one who’d had his hands around Darby’s throat. He lay on his side, groaning as blood pooling under him from the knife wound.
I walked over to him and drove my boot between his legs with every ounce of rage I’d been carrying since the night I crawled out of Enclave Éclipse, surrounded by the bodies of people I’d worked with. His howl echoed through the warehouse, a high, thin sound that bounced off the concrete walls and made Tiny look up with raised eyebrows.
“That’s for my sister, you piece of shit,” I said, and turned away from him.
Gunnar snagged Griffin as he stomped his way in my direction, phone to his ear. Griffin looked confused, but followed without a word. When Gunnar reached me, he held my gaze as he continued to speak to the caller. “Hannah, I’m giving the phone to Veda. Tell her what you’ve got.”