One of them lifted their handgun, aiming it at my forehead.
“Quiet,” he growled, but as terrifying as that dark barrel was, I knew my death didn’t await me in it.
They weren’t going to kill me when they were taking so many measures to get me the hell out of here. So I screamed louder and cried my Night Keepers’ names into the wind, praying it would carry my voice to their ears.
“For fuck’s sake.” A fist cracked against my face and my lip busted as Jonas stood over me, blocking out the light of the moon, his shoulders rising and falling as he glowered at me. My head rang and blood wet my mouth as I glared up at this asshole, silently promising him an agonising death. “Quiet.”
The thumping sound of a helicopter approaching somewhere off in the sky reached us and Jonas gripped my throat to keep me from screaming again, squeezing tight enough to make my ears pop.
The world grew loud as the helicopter circled overhead and came down to land on the helipad, the wind whipping wildly around us and blowing my hair across my face so that it was hard for me to see what the people surrounding me were doing.
I continued to jerk my leg back and forth to try and get it free, my heart rioting in my chest as time seemed to move too fast. They weren’t here. Why weren’t they here? Had something happened to them? Were they in trouble right now, needing me just as much as I needed them? I’d never felt so fucking helpless as I did right now, strapped to this goddamn bed and immobilised by the weakness in my body just as much as the men surrounding me. I was a goddamn fighter and I needed to fight. I refused to give up, no matter how hopeless it might have seemed.
Jonas released my throat as he wheeled me toward the helicopter, one of the guards yanking the door open as I was rolled beneath the propellers.
I screamed once more, but the sound of the helicopter stole my voice away and panic ripped through my core. I’m running out of time.
The guards collapsed the legs of the hospital gurney so it flattened down beneath me then they lifted me into the back of the helicopter while my heart raced with panic and I thrashed uselessly against my bonds. They all poured in after me and fear spilled through my chest like a vat of poison tipping over.
“Saint!” I screamed. “Nash! Kyan – Blake!” Desperation built in my soul, in every fibre of my flesh.
“What are we waiting for, go!” Jonas snapped, wheeling around to glare at the pilot.
“There’s a team coming with the vaccines,” the doctor explained sharply. “We can’t leave without them.”
I twisted my head to try and see back across the roof and the door flew open a beat later, making my heart stutter with my final hope.
But it wasn’t my men. Three nurses ran toward us in hazmat suits carrying a large metal box between them.
They started climbing into the helicopter, securing the box of vaccines beside me and I was engulfed by panic. The Night Keepers hadn’t made it to me in time. It was too late. My enemies were taking me. And I knew the moment the helicopter took off from this building, I’d never see my boys again. Troy Memphis would put me somewhere I’d never be found in a million years. Even after his work was done, I knew he’d never let me go. If the Hades Virus didn’t kill me, my usefulness would expire eventually and he’d have to tie off all the loose ends. My truth could never get out, so he’d ensure it died with me.
I raced up the last stairs with Saint right on my heels as we headed for the roof exit, the sound of the helicopter making my heart seize in my chest as I threw the door open with a heavy bang.
The wind tore around us as the helicopter began to take off and I spotted Tatum onboard it, strapped to a hospital gurney, her lips moving like she was screaming something though the roar of the engine stole her words from me.
“Tatum!” I bellowed in reply, answering her call and promising her I wouldn’t let them take her with that one word alone.
I sprinted forward, running as fast as my years of training allowed, my muscles burning and pumping as I roared her name.
The guards onboard the helicopter began firing at us and I wasn't sure if it was through some miracle or divine intervention that I didn't feel the rip of metal tearing through my flesh.
A flash of motion shot past the corner of my eye and a plume of pink smoke spiralled through the air from the smoke grenade Saint had just thrown at them.
His aim was true and the grenade landed in the midst of the guards on the aircraft, rolling beneath their seats as they all yelled out in alarm.
They stopped firing at us as they fought to get their hands on the grenade that had quickly filled the entire helicopter with pink smoke, and it stopped rising as the pilot was momentarily blinded.
I exchanged a look with Saint and for once there wasn't an ounce of animosity between us. I could only see the burning, desperate desire in him to return our girl to safety and we agreed on that sentiment so wholeheartedly that we were bound as one in that moment. No words needed to pass between us, no bullshit, no communication of any kind. Because we both knew that if that helicopter left here with our girl onboard, we would forever be cast into damnation for it.
This was our one shot and we wouldn’t fuck it up.
We didn't slow a beat as we raced towards the helicopter which was now hovering about eight foot above the rooftop and starting to rise again.
The smoke grenade was tossed out over my head and I could see our opportunity sliding through our fingers as we both leapt up beneath the belly of the mechanical beast at the same moment.
My hands gripped the landing skid and I grunted with the effort of heaving myself higher as the helicopter lurched to one side thanks to our weight hanging from it.
I cursed as the thing shot skywards, the rooftop disappearing beneath us as we sped higher. Saint and I hung from the skid with nothing more than the strength of our arms and the power of our bond to the girl they held captive to keep us there.
I managed to swing my leg up and over the landing skid, hanging like a sloth from a tree as I tried to figure out how the fuck I was going to make my way up into the aircraft without getting my brains blown out.
Saint made it into a similar position to mine and caught my eye as he pulled another smoke grenade from the clip on his belt and I nodded once, seeing his plan as clear as day.
He tugged the pin free and reached up, tossing the smoking canister into the helicopter through the open door before they got a chance to close it, causing the guards to yell out in fright.
I didn't give them time to recover from their shock, grasping the edge of the open door above me and heaving myself up and into the helicopter, making sure I didn't look down at the fall below us for a single second.
A gun was levelled at my head the moment I stood and Tatum's alarmed scream sounded through the haze of pink smoke just as I managed to knock the pistol aside before the guard could fire. The loud bang made my ears ring as his bullet sailed out through the open door into the nothing beyond and my heart leapt as I wrestled with him before he could fire again.
I wrapped my arms around him and whirled him around using brute strength, launching him out of the open door behind me before he even got the chance to try and fight me off. He fell with a scream that was drowned out by the roar of the propellors overhead and I forgot about him before he even hit the ground.
I dove at the other three guards who were little more than shadows in the pink smoke as the helicopter tipped sideways and Tatum yelled my name, like even in the murky depths of the smoke she could recognise me.