“Come on, boys.” Coco reached out and took both brothers by the hand.
She couldn’t think too much. Windows and doors were closing. She had to act now.
“Where are you going?” Mia asked.
Coco didn’t reply. She went to the door and pulled it open, peering out onto a dark, short hall with not a person in sight. There wasn’t time to wait and see if it was safe. She had to go.
She opened the door and stepped into what looked like a kitchen space between a pantry and the garage.
“This way.” She slid them to the left, away from the yelling and down a hall.
The last few inches of light were being cut off from a window just a few feet away.
“No,” she whispered and dashed forward.
Coco grabbed the metal sliding down on the inside of the window, hooked her fingers under and tried to lift. The mechanisms in the walls whined, but it was a losing battle.
She gave up, stumbling back against a wall.
“What the hell is going on?” A groggy, masculine voice called out.
Coco whirled toward an open door just as a shirtless man stepped into her line of vision.
For a split second they stared at each other, then they both moved. He rushed forward. She struck out with her fist and kicked, sending the man to his knees.
The unmistakable sound of gunfire tore through the house. The sound had accompanied a few nightmares she’d had, but those always ended with Paxton hugging her, kissing away the dreams and telling her it would be okay.
“Go!” She whirled and pushed the boys the other way.
Straight into Luke looming in the hallway like some angel of death with a too pretty face.
FRIDAY. JOHANNESBURG, South Africa.
Paxton was the first through the wall. He had his rifle in hand, a ball of coldness in his chest. His finger twitched to pull the trigger, but he wouldn’t take that first shot. It mattered. He’d do what he had to so that Coco was saved, but he wouldn’t fire first.
“The girl. The girl, where is she?” Silas bellowed, charging into the lush back yard of the Nodorf home.
The man on the porch rolled to his back and lifted a gun.
“Do not shoot,” Paxton roared.
The man’s arm flinched, and the muzzle lit up with the first shot.
Paxton squeezed the trigger.
“Pax! Pax, the door!” Silas yelled.
Paxton glanced at the door where a metal barrier was lowering into place. He could just barely hear the motors humming.
A window to his left shattered, blowing glass and bullets.
Paxton rolled forward, hiding behind a short stone wall surrounding the grill area.
“Go, go, go,” Brett called out as he reached them. “I’ll cover you.”
Paxton didn’t hesitate. He shot forward, his gaze on the narrowing space between the bottom of the security door and the ground. He only knew that Coco was in there.
He crouched and ducked under the door with only three feet of space to go, Silas hot on his heels. Paxton’s eyes took a moment, adjusting to the low light. Before he could make out his surroundings a heavy weight crashed into him with a roar.
A man had his arms around Paxton. He twisted, ramming the butt of the gun against the man’s ribs. Then Silas was there. He grabbed the man’s hair, jerking his head back. Paxton jabbed with his elbow then whirled.
He caught the flash of metal out of the corner of his eye before he could react to his would-be-tackler. Instinct drove Paxton, and he fell back on years of training. His gun came up, and he fired even while bullets drove into the wall beside him.
The man in Silas’ hold cried out as his compatriots’ bullets went wide.
An older man wearing a straw hat and mouth clenched around a cigar stepped into view, a shotgun in hand. Paxton sighted and fired before the old man finished the ca-chunk slide action of the weapon. Blood sprayed backward from the wound on the man’s leg.
“Kitchen,” Silas shouted.
Paxton turned as his buddy took cover.
Too late he caught a glimpse of the two thugs. Paxton felt the graze of the bullet before he hit his knee. The coldness was there, wrapping around the fiery hot pain, drowning it out, allowing him to focus.
Paxton and Silas hunched behind the sofa, bits of fluff flying up and sticking to their sweaty skin. The shooters kept going, emptying their ammunition into the sofa and wall, even managing to dent one of the now secure window coverings.
He met Silas’ gaze. “We have to find Coco.”
“We will.”
Click.
Click. Click.
Silas grinned at him.
Paxton stood, his friend moving with them. The two dumbfounded men stared at their weapons.
Guns only had so many bullets.
He fired, and the coldness seeped into his bones.
A woman cried out, whimpering from another room.
“Coco?” Paxton called out in the semi-stillness.
From somewhere else in the house, a motor whined.
“The garage,” Silas said.
Paxton moved first, heading toward the kitchen.
The downed shooters groaned, but made no move to stop them. They weren’t cut out for this, unlike Paxton who came from a murderer.
Silas reached around Paxton and without audibly counting, he knew Silas’ count of one, two, three.
The door opened and Paxton stepped inside, gun up.
The Mercedes idled on one side of the garage.
Mia and two sets of boys huddled in the corner near the water heater while Luke had a gun to Coco’s head while she struggled to lift the security door. Luke’s head snapped up, eyes going wide.
Paxton wanted to take the shot, but he couldn’t.
What if Luke fired?
“Get the kids,” Paxton said, his voice flat.
He couldn’t feel, would not allow fear, love or any other emotion into his cold bubble. There wasn’t room for it, not when he had to do this. He couldn’t even meet Coco’s gaze. Not now, not when she was seeing him like this. She’d realize just how much of a killer he was, how he’d been groomed for this from childhood, and she’d hate him. Even if this was all to save her life.
Silas kept his gun pointed at Luke as he crossed to the other hostages.
“No. No, they stay there.” Luke pulled Coco up in front of him as a shield.
“They’re leaving. Now.” Paxton took a step forward, drawing Luke’s attention.
Silas kept his body between Luke and the children, his soft voice full of comfort. Hell, he was probably telling them a joke. Silas always was cool under pressure while Paxton...went numb.
“They stay there,” Luke demanded.
Silas ignored him as did the children. He hustled all five of them out then shut the door, locking Paxton into his personal hell.
“Did you leave anyone alive?” Luke licked his lips.
“A few.” Paxton was fairly certain only the first shooter was dead. He hadn’t shot to kill the others. If he had, the house would have a new color scheme.
“You know what?” Luke flashed Paxton a fleeting smile. “Why don’t we make a deal?”
“No. You let her go. You live. That’s your deal. Take it or leave it.”
Luke was an urban terrorist, playing off fear and poverty. He was part of the problem.
“You listen to me.” Luke made the mistake of leaning out from behind Coco just a fraction of an inch too much.
Paxton fired. He knew before the bullet left the rifle that it would be a clean shot.
Everything slowed down the moment the recoil hit his shoulder, each second burning into his mind. He followed the trajectory of the bullet and he couldn’t help getting snared by Coco’s wide, fear-filled eyes looking at him.
Because at the end of the day, he was just as much of a monster as his father.
24.
Friday. Johannesburg, South Africa.
Coco sat on the bumper of the
ambulance. She knew she’d been sitting here for a while, staring at the asphalt but she couldn’t make herself move. It was all a blur. She wasn’t even sure how she’d wound up here, just that here she was.
The last clear thing she remembered was locking eyes with Paxton and then...
Her mind shied away from it. Her skull ached. She was impossibly cold despite it being early evening still.
“Coco!”
The sound of her name had her chin jerking up.
Paxton?
The man jogging toward her had her face. No blond hair. No broken nose. He was familiar, just not the person she wanted to see.
Cane closed the distance between them at a run. When had her intellectual brother taken up running?
There was so much they didn’t know about each other anymore. She was clueless when it came to her other brothers, too.
Brothers.
Oh, God.
Her throat tightened. How could she have forgotten?
Cane reached for her, his hands gripping hers.
“James? Patrick?” Their names came out as squeaks, not real words.
She was the worst sister.
“You got them out. They’re safe. Olivia and Dad are on their way here.” His eyes roved over her face, wide with fear. “Are you...?”
“Shock. They said I’m fine, I just...” She waved at the side of her head. It felt sticky despite what the paramedics had done to clean her up.
“Oh, God, Coco.” Cane wrapped his arms around her and hugged her gently. “I’m so sorry.”
She pushed him back enough to stand. Her heart needed more than tenderness right now. Mrs. Pedersen was right. She’d held onto the wrong things for too long.
“I’m so sorry,” Cane kept chanting.
She leaned back and looked at him. “Stop.”
He stared at her with a feeling she knew all too well. Regret. The wish she could have done more. Despite the wedge that had come between them for years, she still knew him. He was her twin in everything.
“We would piss off people in the same circles, wouldn’t we?” She chuckled.
“If it weren’t—”
“Ebrahim already tried to kill me once this week, and it didn’t work.”
“What?”
“Yeah.” She chuckled again, and a tear slid down her cheek. Why? “I could argue that you saved me. If it weren’t for Luke wanting me, Ebrahim might have killed me already.”
He gaped at her, eyes wide. “I—I had no idea...”
“Because we don’t talk. That has to stop. Yeah?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“I’ve really messed up.” She swiped her hand across her cheek.
“No. No, you didn’t. This was me, too.” He kept her other hand clenched between his.
“We need to promise, now, before anything else happens, that we’re done with this bullshit. I miss you and I don’t care who was wrong or right I just... I need...” Paxton. She needed Paxton.
A fresh wave of tears rolled down her cheeks. She wiped them away with the back of her hand.
“Here.” Cane passed her a tissue.
“Where’s Paxton?” Her throat was tight, making the words come out in an unnaturally high voice.
“I don’t know.” Cane glanced around. “I haven’t seen him.”
“I need to find him.” She didn’t understand why he wasn’t still with her.
“Okay, let’s go find him.” Cane turned, keeping a hold on her.
“I’m sorry about Mia.”
Cane blew out a breath. “Thanks. I think that’s a problem to figure out later.”
“What’s to figure out? She lied to you about everything.”
“I love her.” He glanced at Coco.
How did Cane begin to forgive a deception like that?
His fiancée had a hand in kidnapping their little brothers. In helping to kidnap her. How was that something he could come to terms with?
“What are you doing up?”
Coco blinked at Silas now blocking her path.
Finally someone who could help her.
“Where’s Paxton?” she asked, ignoring his question.
Silas stared down at her, that stony expression of his firmly in place. “He left.”
Those two words didn’t make sense.
Paxton had stuck by her. He’d saved her when no one else had.
“I don’t understand,” she said slowly. “Left? Why? Without... Why?”
Her thoughts grew mired, slowing.
Paxton couldn’t leave her. He was hers. Her partner.
She loved him.
They should be together.
Silas glanced away, dragging his hand across his jaw. He muttered something under his breath then looked at Cane.
“Can we get a second?” Silas asked.
“Talk,” she snapped before Cane could reply.
“I’ll be with our brothers.” He gave her hand a squeeze then let go.
Coco couldn’t say where Cane went. Her world was contracted, smaller. Things were happening all around her but she couldn’t see them for the sake of this one question.
Where was Paxton?
“Why did he go? Where is he?” Realization dawned on her. “Is-is he in trouble?”
“What? No. Well, it’s very unlikely.” Silas sighed. “We did use excessive force, but I believe the situation warranted it. I think right now the cops are way more interested in how Zain is giftwrapping the Nodorfs for them.”
“Paxton?”
“He left. Probably heading back to Seattle soon.”
“I don’t understand,” she said slowly. He couldn’t be serious about Paxton leaving. They had another week. Time they needed to talk, to figure things out, to plan.
Silas made a face and once more glanced off into the distance.
“What do you know? What aren’t you telling me? Why would Pax leave like this? I don’t understand, Silas.”
“First, take a deep breath. You’re still in shock.” He turned, wrapped an arm around her shoulders and guided her toward one of the vans Aegis Group had rented. The back was open, and he nudged her toward it. “Sit.”
She did as he ordered, hoping it would get him talking sooner.
Silas perched on the edge and twisted to face her. His brow furrowed, and he frowned. When he spoke it was soft, “You still don’t really know him yet.”
“I know what matters.” Her answer came from her gut, a knee jerk reaction that she just knew.
He shook his head and sighed. “Pax does a great job keeping you talking and all the while telling you nothing about him. I’ve never seen him open up to anyone as much as he has this week with you. I don’t get it. I really don’t. It’s nothing against you, I’m just... I’m processing it.”
“Process faster.” Whatever he needed to tell her, he didn’t want to say it.
“Pax and I chose to leave the Marines for a reason.” Now Silas was looking at her. Staring. His gaze so cold. “We were very, very good at what we did. But over the years it started doing something to Pax. He was...retreating. Getting colder. Numb to what we were doing.”
Coco nodded. She hadn’t thought too much about what Paxton said about his role in the Marines. He’d told her he was a sniper, and that was it, save for that one story. His face when he’d told her, cold and numb were the words she’d use to describe it.
“Here’s something Pax doesn’t know, and I’m trusting you to keep this secret,” Silas said slowly.
“I don’t want to keep secrets from him.”
“Fucking hell. Of course you wouldn’t.” Silas glanced up at the sky and muttered something under his breath. He finally looked back at her. “Zain didn’t intend to recruit both of us. He just wanted me. I told Zain that Pax and I were a package deal. I went in hard on why I thought they were after the wrong guy. I mean, Pax is the one who has literally waded into a bloodbath to pull people out. He’s that guy.”
Her heart ached, and she held h
er breath just imagining a story like that. Paxton had survived, she knew that, and yet she feared for him.
“Zain showed me everything he’d pulled on Pax. Whatever he told you about his life before the Marines, it was a hell of a lot worse. The things Pax has lived through...” Silas shook his head. “I thought I knew Pax. All the years we worked together, I really thought I knew him. But I didn’t. Because I never listened.”
“I think I know. I mean, you’re right. He doesn’t say things. He doesn’t share, but... His dad abused him, didn’t he? And things with his mom...”
“Between you and me? Just you and me?” Silas’ stare was fierce.
“Of course.” She pressed a hand to her chest, as if she could ease the ache.
“He’s never said it, but yeah. I think Paxton’s dad abused him in every sense of the way because he could. The Pax we have now? That’s a different man from when I met him. It hasn’t all been good. We got out of the Marines because I could see my best fucking friend coming unhinged. You know we don’t do dangerous work? Me and him, we do the boring shit. Except for a few extenuating circumstances, this is the first time he’s picked up a gun for anything besides target practice.”
“What? Wow...”
“I think, for him to do this today, he went back to that place where he used to go when we were in the Marines. He really cares about you, you know that?”
Silas’ words, his recounting of his history with his best friend, it wasn’t entirely new information. Sure, there were events Paxton hadn’t told her about. But the parts that mattered, the insight into the man she loved, was stuff she’d already known or guessed at.
To save himself, Paxton had walked away from a career in the Marines. Something he was good at.
To save her, Paxton had gone back to that place.
It was her turn to save him. Because Paxton didn’t expect anyone to be there for him. He’d said far too often how their lives were similar, how they were similar. Mrs. Pedersen was right, both she and Paxton acted like they were alone in the world, adrift on a solitary ocean, completely unaware of the people following behind them wanting to pull them to safety.
She sucked down a breath. Her heart swelled until she thought her ribs might break.
“Silas?” She reached over and put her hand over his.
Dangerous Heat (Aegis Group, #8) Page 26