Andrea’s actions snagged my attention in my peripherals. He attached some clay blocks to the wall and wound the wires together with a deft twist of his broad fingers. His dexterity with bomb making—considering the gigantic size of him—always surprised and impressed me, but I guess practice bred perfection in his case.
My eyes widened in fear. I whirled to the other Delta members who had shown up. “He’s setting bombs! You have to leave!”
Brock’s thick black brows furrowed as he crossed his arms. “Fuck no, dušo! What the hell do you mean ‘you?’ We’re not leaving without you.”
My shirt suctioned to my figure. I glanced down to see it drenched in blood, dripping with it, in fact. It clung to my skin like a layer of guilt and torment, reminding me of what I’d just done. I waved my arm angrily at the dead guard. “I don’t deserve to leave. Someone needs to go after Tarasovich. What if he escapes? I can’t keep chasing after him. He leaves a trail of bodies behind, and they’re all on my conscience.”
Corbin stepped forward, his blue eyes like a glowing beacon in this sky-less underground hell. “They are not your fault, Callie-Cat. None of them are, just like that guard isn’t either.”
My jaw dropped as I stared at them in disbelief. “Are you kidding me?” I grabbed the hem of my soaked shirt and flopped it around, splattering and dripping blood to the floor. “Look at me! Go on! Look at me!”
All three teams glanced down but apparently saw nothing wrong with being soaked in another person’s life force.
“Callie…” Emerson started, his British accent sounding somewhat chiding to my ears.
“No! Don’t talk down to me like I’m being irrational.”
Bryce arched an aristocratic eyebrow. “But you kinda are.”
I spluttered in shock at his blunt, bold response that put me at a loss for words.
“That’s it,” Aleks growled in Russian and stepped forward. “I’m taking you with us, even if I have to ‘man-hands’ you.”
I backed up, knowing that if he got even one of those dinner plate sized paws on me I’d be carted out of here kicking and screaming. And scream I would, though I doubted Aleks would care.
My back bumped into Andrea, who’d finished wiring the explosives and stood to watch the argument.
With Aleks standing not ten feet from me, and Andrea’s chest butted up snug from behind, I had flashes of the Norfolk International Airport where Andrea, still disguising himself at the time, had faced off against both the Emerson and Tate teams. He’d lost that battle because Aleks had been armed and more than willing to use it.
I doubted this would be any different since there were thirteen Delta members versus us three. Not only that, but it’d kill me if anyone, Delta or not, got hurt or killed.
I turned to Natasia. She’d always understood me the best. Plus, she had the most practicality out of anybody here. If anyone would understand my reasoning, it’d be her. “Natasia, please!”
Her icy eyes met mine, cool and collected. She studied me before nodding. “As you wish, we’ll trust you on this.”
My breath escaped me. “Thank you.”
Andrea cleared his throat. “I hate to cut any moment off between you guys. Far be it from me to rain on your parade, but I kind of set the bombs to auto-destruct. A lead wire to a detonator is pointless since I doubt that we would get reception twenty thousand leagues below the ground, so a remote activation is out of the question too with what I packed.” He shrugged his broad shoulders. “So, if you girls are done with your cute little discussion, how about we focus on getting out alive? We have about, oh, I don’t know—” He glanced at the interface on his device. “Less than twelve minutes to vamoose.”
I nodded, not taking my eyes off the Delta members in front of me. Natasia would be hard pressed to convince them, and I wouldn’t put it past them to pull a sneak and grab.
Andrea cleared his throat again. “And did I mention that Veseli took off after him already?”
I jerked in surprise and spun around. “What?”
Sure enough, Veseli was nowhere to be seen. I frowned, mentally cursing him, and bolted, not even bothering to see if the Delta teams left or followed.
“Go ahead, tech girl, I’ll catch up to you!” Andrea called out.
He must have seen the others trying to give chase and decided to help Natasia hold them off.
The move was risky considering how little time remained on the bomb’s clock, but I didn’t argue. Andrea could take care of himself, and I preferred that he help convince Delta to leave.
I had two goals—reach Veseli and make sure he stayed alive. He’d only returned to my life recently after years of thinking he’d died. Losing him again might destroy me.
My feet pounded the concrete, carrying me deeper in search of Tarasovich or Veseli. With bombs primed to blow, every precious second counted. I had to trust that Andrea would stay true to his word and catch up.
As I ran through corridors that blurred together, I glimpsed flashes of pale blond. At first, I believed Natasia had followed me, but the person wasn’t nearly tall enough to match the long and svelte Russian. Anytime I glanced, empty rooms and doorways stared back, so I convinced myself that my mind had made it up.
With the clock steadily ticking down, I had no time to investigate anyway, so I ignored any real or perceived short blond figures trailing after me just inside the shadows.
That didn’t stop the goosebumps or hairs on the back of my neck from standing on end at the eerie situation I found myself in.
I attempted to reach Veseli over the comms, but he must’ve turned his off because he never responded. Andrea did though. He signaled that he was on his way to catch up to me. I tried to explain the turns and paths I’d taken, but my stuttering gave way to how lost I’d become.
He shrugged it off good-naturedly. “Ah, don’t worry about it, tech girl. I’ll find you.”
“Okay,” I replied in a tremulous voice before I had to turn my mic off. One arm caught against the wall to brace me while I hunched over. My other hand clutched the ache in my chest.
“Veseli,” I cried, a sob breaking my call. With a flick, I turned the mic back on.
I switched to Albanian, hoping against all rationality that speaking in Veseli’s native language would somehow transcend the law of physics and materialize him in front of me with that easy, lopsided smile on his face that made the dimples pop out to play. “I can’t lose you again, Veseli. Not so soon. I just got you back,” I choked out through a tight throat.
“You won’t, pak rrush. You won’t.”
I gasped and whipped my head up, but Veseli was nowhere in sight.
“They can’t kill me that easily. Just ask Ivanov. He’s well-acquainted with the concept by now.”
I still didn’t see him, so he must have responded over the headset. “Where are you?”
“I’m not far. I promise.”
My feet stumbled into a jog, trying a door I hadn’t before. It led to an endless staircase with light filtering down from far away.
My shoulders squared, and a new drive reinvigorated me. I leapt up the stairs two at a time. “Andrea,” I called out and then relayed the information that Ivanov had—as suspected—installed a secondary means out.