A bullet hit me square in the chest, pain ricocheting through my body as I staggered but managed to stay on my feet. My second bullet found the target, but I kept my aim low and the guard screamed in pain as he was hit.
I forced a breath down into my lungs through the burning agony of where the bullet hit and stumbled forward a few steps as my body yelled at me not to move. But fuck that. Tatum needed me.
I found the guard within the smoke, kicking his fallen gun away from him as he tried to grab for it with one hand while pressing down on a seriously bloody wound in his gut with the other.
My second kick caught him in the jaw and I was on top of him the moment his back hit the ground.
"Clear," I called out to the others, ignoring the pain in my own body in favour of inflicting some on the piece of shit beneath me.
I holstered my gun and pulled the hunting knife into my grasp instead.
"Have you found her?" I demanded, looking back towards Saint for my answer.
I wrapped one hand around the guard's throat as my weight pressed down on the bleeding wound in his stomach and he tried to scream.
"The whole thing is coded," Saint growled, the sound of furious typing still coming from beyond the desk.
My gaze fixed on the soon-to-be-dead man beneath me as I squeezed hard enough to cut off his air supply. "We're here for the girl," I said in a rough growl that made it clear I wasn't fucking around. "Tell me where they're keeping her."
I took a good look at the fear in his eyes before loosening my hold enough for him to speak.
"I don't know what you m-"
I slammed my hunting knife down into his bicep and bared my teeth at him as I cut off his air once more.
"Where. Is. The. Girl?" I didn't need to elaborate. He knew which fucking girl.
This time when I let him speak, he looked about ready to piss himself. "T-top floor," he gasped. "Isolation unit. But you'll never-"
I slammed my blade down into his chest just as Blake and Monroe made it to us, stabbing him over and over, purposefully avoiding anything too fatal for the first few blows as I let my beast feed on his pain before finally driving it into his cowardly heart to end it.
I was covered in blood by the time I reared back, and Blake's hand landed on my shoulder as he wrenched me away.
"Were you hit?" he demanded, his eyes widening behind his mask as he looked at the round hole in my shirt right in the centre of my chest.
"Yeah," I grunted. "Hurt like a bitch too."
I reached down to tear the front of my shirt open, using the tip of my bloody knife to pop the bullet out of the Kevlar I was wearing and taking in a deep breath. If I lived to see tomorrow that was gonna leave one hell of a bruise.
"What was it you called that vest when Saint insisted you wear it?" Monroe asked, giving me a look that said 'you would have been dead, idiot' as we headed towards the stairwell.
"A coward's cheat sheet to get out of death," I replied, shrugging as I refused to backtrack on that opinion. "But if I have to cheat death to make it to my girl then fine."
“You’re insane,” Blake muttered.
"We will be discussing your lack of care for your own mortality in further detail once we get our girl back," Saint snapped as he abandoned the computer hacking shit to join us, drawing his own gun. "But as of right now, we need to focus on getting to the top floor."
I shoved the door to the stairs open but flinched back as bullets rained down from above, cursing as the four of us were forced to back up into the reception again. Who knew how many assholes were headed our way? I cursed at the idea of a shootout. Not that I didn’t enjoy blowing people’s brains out, but we didn’t need to be wasting time on these motherfuckers.
The dead guard's radio suddenly crackled to life and I glanced towards him as words came over it that set dread pooling in my gut.
"Chopper inbound, prepare for evac."
"Fuck!" I roared, shoving the huge desk across the room to block off the stairs and looking around.
"We have to get up there before they get her on that helicopter," Saint snarled. "My father won't be this sloppy again. We won't get another chance."
We all looked to the staircase where the sound of the approaching guards was getting loud enough to let us know we were almost out of time. We could fight our way through them, but could we do it before the chopper got here?
"There's gotta be a maintenance ladder in the elevator shaft," Monroe said, turning and running across the room to force the doors open.
"I'll hold them off," I said firmly as he and Blake managed to yank the doors wide. "We can't have them taking pot shots at us on that ladder."
My brothers all looked to me with concern in their eyes and a silent communication spilled between us. We were all equally desperate to get to our girl, but this plan could only work if we were smart about it and played the best game possible. So long as one of us made it to her, that was all that counted.
"I'll stay too," Blake agreed.
“Be careful.” Monroe clapped us both on the shoulders before heading into the elevator and climbing up to force the maintenance hatch open.
"Don't get yourselves killed," Saint growled in a command that brokered no negotiation.
"Yeah, yeah, we love you too, you fucking psycho," I teased.
I grabbed an assault rifle from the body of one of the guards I'd already finished off and the door to the stairwell began to rattle as the guards beyond it started trying to batter it down.
In the next breath, Saint was gone, climbing up into the dark elevator shaft behind Monroe, and Blake and I raised our guns. He tossed a couple more pink smoke grenades to fill the rest of the room as we readied to fight for our damn lives.
"For her," he said in a fierce voice and I smiled the only true smile that had crossed my lips since she’d been taken. Because this might be a form of insanity and I could be looking my death in the eyes right now, but so long as it was in aid of that girl, I knew that I’d die with this smile on my face. Though I was seriously hoping it wouldn’t come to that and I’d have her in my arms before the night was up. Either way, I was all in and I knew the others were too.
"For her."
I was wheeled outside onto the roof and the cold night air swirled around us as the crescent moon smiled a crooked smile at me.
I was working on my right leg which felt the loosest of all my limbs, trying to tug it free of the binds even though it wouldn’t do me much good. But I wasn’t just going to lay down and accept this fate. The Night Keepers were so close. They had to make it to me. Maybe I could buy them a little extra time if nothing else.
“Where the fuck is it?” Jonas barked and I craned my neck to see that the helipad was empty.
Hope sparked in me like fireworks and I screamed once more, the sound echoing everywhere. They had to hear me. They couldn’t be far behind now. My skin prickled like I could actually feel them drawing closer and I was certain that if I could buy us even a few more seconds that would be all it took for them to reach me.
“Would someone shut her up?” the doctor snapped, but the guards seemed reluctant to touch me despite the masks covering their faces.