Saint seemed to realise there was no point arguing this with me, especially as I couldn’t exactly go and get the thing now anyway, so he dropped it with a sharp exhale of irritation.
"If you fuck up our chances of rescuing her, I'll personally put a bullet in your skull, you neanderthal," he hissed as he straightened.
"Don't worry your little cotton socks about that, sweetheart," I said, stepping forward and putting out the cigarette that was still burning on the ground with my heel. "If we fail to rescue her, I'll be doing that myself."
Saint looked deep into my eyes, reading the truth of that statement for himself and grunting his approval. There was no me without Tatum anymore. Shit, I didn’t think any of us wanted to consider an existence without her in it. So it hadn't been hard to realise that I'd rather eat a bullet than linger on in this life without her.
It wasn't suicidal. Just practical.
Besides, I had no intention of following through on that promise because we were going to get her the fuck back. Tonight.
"Your hot-headed behaviour could fuck this whole thing up," Saint warned. "You need to remember that the entire world doesn't revolve around you and your emotions." He said that last word like it was dirty and I snarled at him as I stepped closer, letting him see every dark corner of my soul lurking within my eyes.
"Fuck the world. I don't care. Without her in it, there isn't anything else worth saving anyway. I don't give a shit if it's right or noble or ethical. My love for her isn't any of those things. It's dark, twisted, dangerous and unstoppable. So if saving her means letting the rest of the world burn then pass me the fucking matches and I'll get the gasoline. Because there isn't a thing in this universe that I'm not willing to sacrifice to get my girl back."
"Wrong," Saint snarled, his dark eyes pinning me in his gaze like he seriously thought he had any chance of stopping me now.
"I don't care what you have to say on the matter. I'm going to-"
"You called her your girl again," he growled, cutting me off with a look so toxic it was practically burning me where I stood. "She's not yours. She's ours."
"Too fucking right she is," Blake agreed, every piece of light that usually shone in him utterly replaced with dark instead as the monsters in us rose to the surface of our skin and scented blood on the air.
There would be death in payment for her being taken from us.
"Then why the fuck are we still standing here?" Monroe demanded, his fury written in every inch of his posture as his muscles flexed with tension. "Let's go and burn the world down for her then."
The rest of us agreed without words as we followed him back up the darkened stairs with the intention of doing just that. I’d tear this place apart brick by brick if I had to, but one thing was for sure, I wasn’t leaving here without Tatum Rivers by my side.
Just a little longer, baby. Your monsters are coming for you. And we won't stop until you're safe in our arms once more.
M onroe strode up the stairs with all the grace of a buffalo in stilettos and I snarled irritably as I shoved past him and took the lead. Honestly, it was like he was trying to make noise with those stomping footfalls of his.
"Fucking megalomaniac," Monroe muttered beneath his breath but I didn't call him out on it.
The way I saw it, he was correct and that wasn't an insult. Power was all that mattered in this life and if he hadn’t figured that out yet then he needed to pay more attention. Well, power and my siren. But my feelings for her defied all logic and I had given up on trying to analyse them. I just had to accept that I was hopelessly enthralled by her and embrace it because I certainly wasn’t going to attempt to give her up. My addiction to her might be my downfall, but if I was going to burn for any reason then I would happily do so for her.
"Try to keep your steps silent," I hissed back at Monroe. "If Kyan can manage it then there's no reason you can't."
Kyan chuckled darkly which really seemed more like an automatic response to my words than a real laugh, but I knew why he wasn't feeling any actual joy and I wasn't going to point it out.
"Fifth floor?" Blake confirmed as we hurried up the dark stairwell and he moved to walk on my left. The gas mask he wore warped the tone of his voice a little, but these things were the best money could buy and I doubted any of the others even noticed the difference. But I had a musician's ear - much to my father's disgust - and the alteration in pitch was quite disconcerting.
"That's where they keep the medical test subjects, so unless they have completely reconfigured the layout of the building in the time it took us to drive here then yes," I said emotionlessly.
"Wow, what crawled up your ass and died?" he muttered and I ground my jaw against the desire to lay into him.
We were all on edge, each of us just trying to find a way to power through this uncertain time and do all we could to bring our girl back to us. His childish comments were a way for him to cope and as irritating as I found them, I was just pleased he hadn't fallen back on the habit of getting himself drunk and chasing adrenaline rushes. In fact, Blake had been perfectly single minded in his determination to get Tatum back into our arms. He had been by my side day and night while I used all of my connections and tactics to dig into my father's businesses and Serenity Pharmaceuticals in pursuit of her, wordlessly carrying out any and every task I'd asked of him to help speed up the process. So I could allow him the odd badly timed, non-amusing joke.
We climbed the stairwell at speed and paused on the top floor as I pressed an ear to the door, listening for any sign of movement beyond it.
Kyan took a pistol from his belt and Monroe drew his too. So far we'd managed to conduct these raids without killing anyone, purely to keep the investigations into the 'robberies' low priority and keep the police off of our tails. But the more places we hit, the higher the security was getting at the new targets. They didn’t know we were searching for our girl of course, but stories of the gangs breaking into medical research facilities and private hospitals all over the city to steal medicines were making them up their security.
Ideally we'd leave this place without getting blood on our hands, but if that was what it took then I wasn't against it. Besides, if our girl really was here then I had more than enough motivation to kill every last one of them if we had the time. But until we were certain, I wasn't looking to spill too much blood.
Nothing but the soft sounds of my brothers' breaths reached my ears as I listened intently for a full minute - ignoring Kyan's impatient growl - before cracking the door open.
The corridor was softly lit with night lighting and I spotted a woman in a nurse's uniform at a desk at the far end of the hall. Her back was to us and she was reading a book, seemingly lost in her own world. I took another moment to listen out for other sounds, but it seemed like she was the only member of staff nearby, and from what I’d learned in my research into this place that was to be expected. They kept one nurse on shift overnight and that was it.
Kyan slipped past me as I pushed the door wide and the rest of us waited as he stalked along the corridor, his eyes set on the woman as she stayed lost in her book, completely unaware that she was being stalked by a predator.