All my attention focused on the door, the banging, and the little shake it gave when it started to shift.
Tension coiled in Forest and Paul as they put their backs to me to face the threat head-on.
I was laser-focused on them and missed the movement in my peripheral vision.
Snowden launched at me.
The door to the cage stood open.
A feral grin spread across his face as he took me down.
Forest moved.
He raced across the room as Snowden snapped a collar around my throat. He tightened it down.
I grabbed at the leather, unable to breathe, as Snowden lifted a knife over his head.
Forest barreled into him, grabbing at the knife, as the door gave a final shudder. The pins were free, and men wrestled with the heavy door trying to shift it far enough to the side to get in.
Paul whipped the chains at them, breaking fingers, sparing a glance over his shoulder to see what was going on.
Forest and Snowden wrestled while my vision dimmed. I struggled to find the clasp on the collar, but there was no buckle.
No catch.
No release.
Nothing.
It was impossible to breathe.
Paul defended the door, smashing fingers, hands, arms, and legs as the men on the other side struggled to form an opening.
Snowden’s knife clattered to the floor. He fell back with a whoosh as Forest pinned him to the floor. Forest glanced at me with wide, terrified eyes, then something in him snapped.
He punched Snowden in the face.
Snowden’s head twisted to the side.
Forest punched him again.
A spray of red arced through the air.
Spots danced in my vision as I sipped air. It wasn’t enough. I would lose consciousness soon.
Men broke through the door.
Paul went down beneath a tangle of limbs. Others rushed at Forest.
And then I heard it.
The most annoying ringtone on the planet, “The Flight of the Valkyries,” blared from Paul’s phone. The tune picked up in stereo, ringing from Snowden’s pocket.
And then there were more.
The annoying ringtone played on the phone of every man in the room. The sudden confusion gave Forest the time he needed to pick up Snowden’s knife.
Forest’s lips turned up in a grin. “Looks like the cavalry is here.”
Snowden lay on the ground, beaten and barely breathing. Forest rushed to me, but a man jumped him. They went down. My vision grayed out.
And somewhere across the room, a shot fired.
Then another.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Forest
God, I loved “The Flight of the Valkyries.”
It rang on every phone and was precisely the signal I’d been waiting for.
The cavalry was here.
Paul was down.
I’d taken Snowden out.
Bullets were flying.
The guy who jumped me dropped with a bullet in his brain. His dead eyes stared at nothing. The rest of Snowden’s men fell as Xavier’s men took them out with double-taps to head and heart.
I crawled to Sara. The bastard put a locking collar around her throat and cinched it down. It was choking her to death.
I fumbled for the catch, but I couldn’t release it without a key.
“Fuck!”
Hopefully, Paul was smart enough to surrender.
Xavier’s men had a shoot to kill order in play.
I needed to get this damn collar off Sara before it killed her.
“Sara?” I shook her, but her entire body had gone limp. Please don’t let it be too late.
I had Snowden’s pathetic knife. It was suitable for piercing, not cutting through leather, but it was all I had. I went to work, head down, with adrenaline spiking through my body.
“Forest.”
I heard a voice.
“Forest!”
I turned to see the grim features of Ben Chambers staring back at me.
“Is she…”
I gave a sharp shake of my head. “Not yet, but if I can’t get this off…”
Decked out in full tactical gear, Ben knelt by my side. He aimed his gun into the room, protecting me. Smart as a whip, he handed me a serrated blade, something infinitely better than the flesh slicer I held.
“Try this.”
The leather was tight against her throat. I was afraid I’d cut her trying to get the leather off, but if I didn’t try, she was going to die. I bent to the task at hand.
“There’s a man…” I huffed. “Auburn hair…tall, like me, somewhere by the door. Don’t kill him.”
Ben shifted to Snowden. He flipped Snowden to his front and zipped his hands behind his back, then trotted off to the front of the room. I couldn’t spare a glance but said a silent prayer for both Paul and Sara.
It had been far too long since she’d moved. Her lips were blue.
Furiously sawing through the thick leather, I balanced the knife’s edge between too much pressure, which could slice her neck and too little, which wouldn’t cut through fast enough.
Ben returned, towing a man behind him. I looked up to see Paul worse for wear, but alive. He had a split lip, and his left eye looked questionable. It had swollen shut. He had a limp that hadn’t been there before and held his arm awkwardly against his chest.
Ben squatted beside me. “Give me that. You’re making a hack job of it.” Ben cut through the leather in three clean swipes of his knife. The collar fell away, but Sara didn’t move.
“Is she breathing?” I asked.
Ben put his ear to her chest and gave a shake of his head.
Before I could move, Paul went to his knees beside her head. He pinched her nose, tilted her head back, opened her mouth, and pressed his lips against hers. He forced a breath into her mouth.
Ben nodded. “Her chest moved. Do it again.”
“Does she have a pulse?” I rocked back on my heels, never feeling as powerless as I did at that moment. If I lost Sara…
Paul breathed for her again.
Ben pressed his fingers to her neck. “It’s slow but steady. Keep breathing.”
Snowden moved behind me. He coughed up blood and rolled to his side. “I hope she dies, fucker.”
I launched at him, full of fury, knife up, and slashing for his throat. It didn’t matter if he was more valuable to us alive than dead; the fucker was going down.
“Whoa!” Ben grabbed my wrist moments before I dealt the killing blow.
“Let go,” I said with a growl.
“Think about this. You can’t take this back. You do this, and you’re a killer.”
It was what Skye had tried to save me from, the sacrifice she made so I would live.
“I. Don’t. Fucking. Care.”
Sara jerked behind me and coughed out a breath. “Forest…” Her hand sought blindly and found Paul’s.
He looked at me. “You’re not a killer. Get over here. She needs you.” The command in his voice had me moving before I realized what I was doing.
Ben shuffled back while Paul pried the knife from my hand.
Sara’s eyes blinked.
Once.
Twice.
She focused on my face, and a smile brightened her eyes.
“What happened?”
Answers would come later. I fell back on my ass and pulled her into my lap. I rocked her against my chest and didn’t mind the tears which flowed down my cheeks.
“We’re free,” I said.
“What?”
“The cavalry came.”
Her brows pinched together. “Did I hear the Valkyries?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, pretty fucking awesome.”
I turned at a gurgling sound. Paul stood over his father. Blood spray arced across his chest. Snowden twitched on the floor by his feed.
“What did you do?” I glanced at Snowden.
He clutched at a gash a
cross his throat. His mouth opened and closed like a guppy, but no sound came out.
Paul threw down the knife. “He doesn’t deserve to rot in prison, and unlike you, I’ve killed before.”
I struggled to process what just happened.
“All clear.” A voice shouted from the door.
“That’s our signal.” Ben climbed to his feet. He extended a hand to Sara. “Name’s Ben Chambers. You may not remember me.”
“I remember you.” Sara brushed the hair off her face. “You were in Manilla.”
“I was.” He glanced down with a frown. “It wasn’t supposed to go down like that. Are you okay? In need of medical attention?”
“I’m good. Thank you. I’ve got two overly protective men looking out for me.” She glanced over where Paul stood, a soft smile on her face, then her gaze tilted down. “Is he…”
“Yeah. He’s dead.” It didn’t feel real. After a lifetime of going after a monster, I expected to feel joy that he’d been taken out. Instead, a profound weariness overcame me.
I was tired.
I needed a shower.
A change of clothes.
A breath of fresh air.
It had been weeks since I’d seen the sun.
Sara stared at Paul.
He glanced back, and time seemed to stand still. Something was exchanged between the two of them in that look. An understanding? The first glimmers of affection? My heart hoped for so much because I knew we could be great together.
Once we were done mopping up this shit, I hoped we’d be okay.
As for Paul? I needed to get to him. I needed to get him alone where we could work through this in a way that made sense to us both.
He had a lot of shit to deal with, and I would be right by his side.
“Paul, you killed him?” Sara’s whisper was tragic.
She pushed off my lap, and half ran, half stumbled to Paul. His eyes widened as she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. “Are you okay?” She looked up at him, eyes glistening with tears. “I could kiss you.”
His eyes flicked to mine, and a smile ghosted across his face. “I may have already kind of kissed you.”
“What?”
“It was just mouth to mouth, but you have an excellent mouth.”
“You’re kidding, right?” She turned to Ben and me. “He’s kidding?”
Ben shook his head. “He laid it on you. I’m a witness to it.”
“Forest?”
“Are you complaining?” I asked.
She pressed her fingers to her lips, then glanced at Snowden’s body. “Whose blood is on my lips?”
Paul pulled her hand away from her mouth. “Mine. It won’t kill you, and next time I kiss you, I promise not to do it with a bloody lip.”
“Next time?”
“Yeah,” he gave a little shrug. “Next time.”
Her eyes widened. When she turned to me, she mouthed, Next time? It was all I could do not to laugh.
Ben ignored our little exchange and went on and on about how guilty he felt about leaving us behind. How his team had secured the facility. I cut him off.
“Enough. No more about leaving me behind. I’m the one who told you to leave. My call. My responsibility. I don’t want to hear another word about it. All that matters is that you’re here, and I must say your timing was impeccable.”
Sara took Ben’s massive hands in hers. “It’s true. You had to follow orders, and it looks like you’re a hero.”
Ben had given a quick debrief on the helicopter crash during his constant talking.
As I suspected, it went down in the water. His hero status came from saving Zach when the kid got separated from Skye after they hit the water. Skye had a life vest on, as well as the rest of the crew. Zach did not. Ben and his team were SEALs. It wasn’t possible for them to die in something as mundane as a helicopter going down over water.
“Don’t know about that.” Ben tucked his chin and looked away.
“You saved little Zach.”
“Now that was a clusterfuck. Um, pardon my language.”
“You’re kidding, right?” She hooked a thumb toward me. “You do know who I work for? Forest has the mouth of a sailor. Fuck is pretty much every other word he says.”
“That’s not true,” I said, mumbling.
“Is too.” Sara released Ben and propped her tiny fists on her hips.
Ben rubbed his hand over the top of his bald head. “I guess things turned out in the end.”
“Sure did.” Sara’s eyes brightened. “Nobody thought things would go down the way they did, but we also didn’t expect Forest to tear down the entire organization from the inside.”
“You should’ve seen Xavier lose his shit when Mitzy figured it out.” Ben gestured to his team. “I’d like you to meet the rest of my men. This is Chad, don’t let him charm you with his baby blues. Bay is a bit of a trickster. And Mel…we call him grumpy.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” Chad, with his baby blues, swept my Sara into a hug.
“Never thought anyone would tame the Nordic beast. I’m so happy you’re safe.” Bay swung her in a circle. “Looks like he’s sweet on you, too. Can’t wait to hear the stories.”
Mel said nothing, but he cracked a smile and planted a kiss on her cheek.
“There will be no stories.” I wasn’t going to share anything remotely personal with Xavier’s men. Sara was mine, and the story of how we came together belonged to us. Besides, we were wasting time with all the hugging. Chad, Bay, and Mel moved on to Paul, doing the chest bump, back thump thing.
Sara laughed at Bay’s comment. “Nordic beast? Now that’s a new one.”
“Oh, we’ve got plenty more.” Bay gave her a wink.
“You think we could stop all the chatter and get the fuck out of here?” I made sure to emphasize the expletive and looked Sara right in the eye when I said it. She gave me an exaggerated eye-roll, but a smile brightened her face.
I would never get tired of that. I put that smile there.
And I had a lifetime to do it again, and again, and again.
“Helicopter is waiting.” Ben notified us our ride was ready.
Xavier had men streaming into the compound, securing shit before Snowden’s men could destroy anything important.
My skin itched, and my nerves buzzed. Snowden may be dead, but I wouldn’t be able to get rid of his oily touch until I put this place far behind me.
I’d love to torch the place, but there were too many records that needed to be hauled out. I expected we would fill a lot of holes with the information there. The names of every slave sold by Snowden and the men they’d gone to were in those records. Our task would be to find them, free them, and put their masters behind bars.
I went to Paul. He’d kept his distance after everything went down.
“You ready to get out of here?” I placed my hand on his shoulder.
“I should stay and help out.” He refused to look at me.
There would be some utility in leaving him behind. Paul knew which files were the most important, but we didn’t need him to stay. I had more than enough people to do that job.
“We’d rather have you with us.” Hopefully, Sara wouldn’t mind me speaking for her.
“We?” His gaze darted between Sara and me. “I figured you’d leave now that…” His Adam’s apple bobbed.
I locked my arm around his neck and pulled until our foreheads touched. “Fuck that. I need you. We need you.” I said a silent prayer that Sara would say something.
“Nothing is holding you to me. No threats. No nothing.”
“Nothing but a promise. I’m a switch at heart, but for you, it’s different. I’d like to explore more of that…without the threats.”
“Are you’re good with that?” His question wasn’t for me, but rather Sara.
“Two halves of a coin.” Sara’s soft voice drifted between us. She lifted my hand, then took Paul’s and pressed our palms together. Her hands l
ooked tiny holding ours together. “We’re only half of what he can be without us both. And I agree, even if I don’t understand all of it, Forest needs you. He needs a man who can take him to that place in his head where the noise disappears.”
Paul shifted his gaze. “Are you sure about this?”
She gave a little shrug. “A few weeks ago, I would have said, hell no, but there’s something binding us together, a chemistry between you and him, between him and me, and even between the three of us. We make sense together.”
“You said We.” The corner of Paul’s mouth lifted in a smirk.
“Don’t let it get to your head.” She gave a soft laugh, some secret joke between the two of them I didn’t understand.
Paul put his arm around me, then his other around Sara. He pulled us together into a somewhat awkward hug. Sara and I leaned in until we were all connected.
“I want to be a part of whatever this is, but not at the expense of what the two of you have.”
“You think there’s not enough of Forest to go around?” Sara gave a little snicker. “I think we’ll manage.”
“I suppose we will.” Paul released us and took a step back.
We stood over the body of Paul’s father, a father he’d killed. I gestured to Ben to clear the room. He stood guard at the door with his men, which left me alone with Sara and Paul.
I placed my hand on Paul’s chest. “Are you okay?” I glanced down at the body.
Sara covered her mouth. My poor, sweet angel had seen far too much. I wish I could rewind time and put her back in my office, an ivory tower where nothing bad could ever touch her. Although, if I did that, I wouldn’t have her standing by my side now.
Paul blew out a breath. “I wasted my entire adult life feeling like I owed him for pulling me out of the fights. He demanded obedience, and I was young enough to believe everything he said. I gave him my loyalty, my obedience, and never asked the questions I should have. You know what would’ve happened if he made it to a courtroom.”
“You didn’t need to kill him. I would have.”
“But you’re not a killer. You’re a fighter, a tough-as-shit bastard who’s impossible to take down, but I’ve seen your soul. You wouldn’t have come back from that.”
Forest's Fall (Captive Hearts Book 3) Page 38