by Sweet, Izzy
“Check mine too if you can. I don’t want a cartridge breach out there.”
Pulling Johnathan’s assault rifle up, I quickly go through ejecting his fresh mag and pulling back the hammer. Everything looking good, I set it back up.
“Clean and ready. Excellent looking rifle… I’m surprised it’s so well taken care of,” I say as I put it down beside mine.
Up ahead, I see a black luxury plane idling on the runway. Johnathan spots it too as he slams the accelerator of the Escalade towards the left side of the plane.
“Halfway to top. I got a shot of the front wheel of the plane. I don’t want to wait until it moves,” James says.
“Can you spot the pilot?” I ask.
“Yeah, he’s looking frantic. Some other asshole is yelling at him. Maybe a gun being waved around,” he says. “Fuck, he’s pointing out to Thad’s Tahoe.”
“Yeah, I’m going to park it right in front. They’ll have to pull back to get around us,” Thad says.
“Wheel shot now blocked by Thad. Going for the pilot.”
“Take the shot,” I say.
There’s a loud cracking noise from our left as we come screeching to a halt next to the plane.
“One of the pilots is down. Will take out the second when he pops up,” James says.
“I’m five minutes out, Simon. Can it hold?” Lucifer comes over the radio.
“We’ll have to see—” I start to say before the cockpit door opens up.
“Shit! RPG!” Thad screams over the radio.
I watch as he and the two guys he’s been training start running from the vehicle.
A white trail of smoke and then a huge red explosion comes from the Tahoe that was blocking the airplane. Chunks of metal go flying out as the guy pulls back into the plane.
“Shit!” Johnathan growls as he grabs his assault rifle from me.
Both of us exit the Escalade at the same time. He stops in front of the engine and lines up a shot at the back door of the plane.
“Status report. Thad, you and the trainees good?” Andrew asks.
Andrew’s vehicle swings wide of where we’re parked.
“Bryant’s dead. Mark and I are mobile, but we’re in the fucking open,” Thad answers.
I watch as Andrew’s car heads towards the two men before slamming on the brakes not too far from them.
“We’ll pick up an angled position from the front of the plane. They won’t be shooting out again without having to pop a window,” Andrew says.
“Affirmative,” I say into the mic.
I can feel cold sweat running down my back as I position myself next to Johnathan. Both of us waiting for something more to happen.
Is it my mortality I worry about or Meredith’s?
“Going to take out a wheel, then put shots into the tail wing. I don’t trust that engine not to blow in a bad way if I hit it,” James says.
“Roger,” I confirm.
Watching the plane drop to the front, I turn toward the tail and lift my rifle. “I’m going to help with the tail wing. Let’s ensure they know they can’t move from here.”
Pulling the trigger in five rapid bursts, I put holes throughout the tail wing and then watch as more appear from James and Johnathan.
“Shit. Fast moving BMW from the rear,” Andrew says over the radios.
Turning to my right, I see that it’s one of Asad’s men. Damn.
“They’re going to be desperate. If they can take out enough of us, they’ll try to make a run for it.”
“Door opening in the back,” Johnathan calls, pulling my attention from the rapidly approaching BMW.
“They’re going to make a break for it!” I shout before a lone arm comes out of the open doorway of the plane and with it a grenade comes tumbling towards our way.
“Grenade!” Johnathan shouts. He sends three rapid shots into the open doorway then follows behind me as we run away from the explosive.
The grenade stops just on the other side of the SUV we were taking cover behind. And it must be one hell of a good one because both of us are lifted off our feet as the explosion lifts the Escalade onto the tips of its wheels.
Thankfully it slams back down on all four wheels.
Landing not too far away, I thank myself for being intelligent enough to make sure we always buy the best when it comes to armored vehicles.
Moving back towards the Escalade, we’re almost there when the BMW comes screeching up on us. Thank the gods there’s only two men inside it.
The passenger leans out of the vehicle and aims a small semi-automatic rifle at us.
Grabbing my collar, Johnathan shoves me out of the fucking way as bullets tear up the ground around us.
“Going for the driver,” I shout out as I aim at the driver. My bullets find their way home, slamming through the window and hitting the man.
“Passenger—” Johnathan grunts out as he stumbles against me, his weight almost knocking me off my feet.
“What the fuck?” I yell at him as I lift the rifle again and fire at the passenger.
Almost all my shots go wide as Johnathan falls into my legs. But as I fall down in a heap with him, I see my last shot go through the window and hit the man through the neck.
“Johnathan, where are you hit?” I ask as I can think of only one reason for him falling into me like he did.
Grabbing him by the collar, I pull us to the safety of the vehicle’s large body as bullets from the open door of the plane start flying all around us.
“Two minutes out,” Lucifer says over the radio.
“Get here quicker,” I shout into mic. “Andrew move here. Johnathan’s wounded.”
“Fuck, on my way. This is gonna suck.”
“Embrace it, bitch,” I snap into the mic.
Fucking whiney assholes. We need to hurry, this is turning into the bloodbath I foresaw, and it won’t end well if we don’t finish this quickly.
I look down at Johnathan and assess the situation. The blood leaking from his leg is coming out slow enough, I suppose. But the wound on his left side is starting to flow.
Shit, they’re using hollow-points. They’re probably Teflon coated to go through our vests.
Dirty fucking bastards.
Kneeling down beside Johnathan, I grab my switchblade from my pocket. Time to make some decisions.
“Fuck… I’m bleeding out,” Johnathan grunts as he pulls his rifle close to him.
Leg or stomach… Fuck.
Reaching over, I start cutting off the long shoulder strap on his rifle. “Going to need to tourniquet the leg wound first. Then we’ll get some compression on your wound up there.”
Pulling out my flashlight, I first wrap the strap around his leg then grab the flashlight and use it to turn it tight.
“Ah, fuck!” he shouts as I cinch it tight.
“Hold it shut,” I say then pull his hand from the rifle.
I place his hand on the flashlight to keep the twisted material of the strap tight on his leg.
“Coming in. I’m behind the building on your left, do not shoot,” James shouts into the mic.
More bullets come streaming out of the plane door but thankfully I don’t hear any metal hitting cement that sounds like a grenade.
Andrew’s vehicle comes screeching to a stop behind my own with barely two inches to spare between the bumpers.
Hopping out of the SUV, he yanks a black backpack down with him as he charges over to Johnathan and me.
“Let me in there, Simon. You get with James,” Andrew says.
“Tourniquet on leg, serious wound on lower left abdomen,” I say
“Got it,” Andrew replies. “Let me see what you got going on under the vest.”
James comes skidding to a halt on his knees as he sidles up next to me just as two men lay down long bursts out the door of the plane.
“Motherfucker!” I hiss as I lift myself up and shoot over the engine hood of the SUV.
I hit one of the men in the thigh, an
d James doesn’t let me down as he fills the man full of holes as he tumbles down the stairs.
“How many do they have in there?” James asks.
“Should be four more. Four guards, Asad, and Meredith. Not counting pilots,” I say in a rush.
“Both pilots are dead, and I got a headshot on a guard. That makes three guards,” James adds.
“Any kills from you, Thad?” I ask through the radio
“One. Through the side window. I saw Meredith pulled back towards cockpit,” he replies.
Two guards, Asad, and Meredith.
“They’re going to be desperate. I wouldn’t be surprised if Asad doesn’t have some kind of reinforcements coming though,” James says.
“Agreed, we need to go in,” Thad says quickly, “But I’ll need space and time to move around.”
“Lucifer, we’re heading in,” I say into my mic.
“Be careful. We’re getting permissions to land now. The air tower is having issues. They are calling the local law enforcement,” Lucifer says over the radio.
“Damn, we’ll hurry,” I say.
“We need to airlift Johnathan, guys,” Andrew says from my side.
Looking down to the two men, I frown. Johnathan’s eyes are closed and he’s growing pale. At least he’s breathing though.
“Get him out of here on the helicopter,” I say to him.
Moving to the rear of the Escalade, I motion for James to follow me. “Let’s get a move on. They’ve been quiet too long.”
Nodding his head, he moves with me towards the back of the plane. Slowly we inch our way forward. I eject the half spent clip and put in my last one.
This better be a quick fight.
Reaching the stairs, we stand just below them as we look up into the open hatch.
James says, “I’ve got a flashbang.”
“Good, toss it then we head in,” I say.
Nodding his head, he pulls it out of a pocket on his tactical vest. Tugging the pin out, he squeezes the handle so it doesn’t go off yet.
He lifts his hand and says, “On three.”
Nodding my head, I watch as he counts down on his fingers.
Three… two… and he stops with one finger still up.
He cocks his head to the side like he’s trying to think of something.
“What is it?” I ask quietly.
“Did I really hear you tell Andrew to ‘embrace it, bitch’?” he asks just as quietly.
Oh, for the devil’s sake… of all the fucking things…
Rolling my eyes, I nod my head with a grin. “Yes, James.”
“Sweet!” he shouts with a laugh just as he tosses the flashbang grenade into the plane.
Ducking our heads down, we both slap our hands over our ears to muffle the sound.
When I drop my hands I hear a man shouting in anger and then Meredith emits a high-pitched scream of pain.
Enough is enough.
Charging up the stairs, I rush through the opened hatch as quickly as I can.
To my left, towards the cockpit, is a black-haired man holding a pistol out towards me as he tries to control Meredith and blink his eyes at the same time.
Lifting my rifle, I watch Meredith go dead still. She doesn’t want me to hit her.
Just as James enters the plane a shot rings out from the back aimed at him. I hear a loud thud next to my head.
The man holding Meredith pulls the trigger of his pistol three times before I’m able to make my one shot.
I feel the bullets slamming into my chest three times.
Each one feels like a fucking elephant just kicked me.
The man starts to drop to the ground with Meredith getting tugged to her knees in the process.
Shit.
I feel more kicks and something else.
I’m fucking hit too.
How many of us will die here on this fucking shitty tarmac?
Meredith is screaming over the gunfire raging behind me. James begins to shout Asad’s name out as Thad charges into the plane’s hatch.
I stand up and stumble towards the body of the man holding Meredith down.
His pistol hand is moving slowly towards me, and for some reason I can’t figure out, I’ve seem to have dropped my rifle behind me.
Pulling my switchblade from my pocket, I lurch towards him.
Glancing over, I see Meredith staring at me with wide eyes.
My beautiful ballerina looks at me in horror right before I feel another bullet slam into my right pec.
Thankfully, I think the vest stopped it like the other ones. The hot feeling of blood spilling down my arm tells me he got me at least once though.
“No!” I hear my princess’s voice scream.
She scrambles over to the asshole who shot me. Pulling the pistol from his hand, she kneels on top of his chest.
Shoving the gun into his forehead, she doesn’t hesitate to pull the trigger twice.
Blood explodes from the head and splatters both the floor and her face.
She’s made a mess of herself for me.
I’m not sure why, but if I wasn’t hurting so bad I think my dick would be so hard I’d walk with a limp.
My woman. She’s my pregnant woman.
Dropping the gun, she crawls over to me. Her eyes tight with worry. “Simon! Oh my god, you’re bleeding!”
“It’s… take… help me get… vest,” I grunt.
Slipping my fingers into the side of my vest, I try to start unfastening the Velcro holding it tight to me.
Too damn tight.
“Clear!” James shouts from the back of the plane.
“Do you have Asad?” I hear Lucifer’s voice from outside of the plane.
Meredith pulls my face back to face hers. “Look at me, Simon!”
“Vest. Can’t. Breathe,” I grunt.
Finally grabbing a strap, I start to pull it off but stop because the pain in my other shoulder lances through me.
Looking to my left shoulder, I see a lot of blood, but it looks like I’ve been winged more than hit.
That doesn’t stop the tears flowing down Meredith’s face as she tries to help me with the vest.
“It’s okay,” I gasp when the vest is finally loosened.
“It’s not a bad one, I’ve had worse. Princess, look at me,” I say, pulling her close to me with my good arm.
“Then why did you have to take that vest off?” she asks with worry, still staring at my shoulder.
“Look at me, Meredith!” I command.
Looking up with fear-filled eyes, she stares into my face, “Yes, Simon?”
“I’m so very proud of you.” I reach up and wipe at some of the blood covering her face.
“Thank you for coming for me,” she sobs as she leans forward, putting her forehead to mine.
A lot of commotion comes from the back of the plane as Lucifer boards. I can distinctly hear Asad screaming his head off about his father.
“Help me stand, princess. We’re going to need to get out of here,” I say to her.
Nodding her head, she says “Simon… I… I… thank you.”
I don’t think that’s what she was going to say, but right now I don’t think she can cope with having put a bullet through a man’s head.
“Don’t worry, princess, I will always come for you. You’ve done so well today, I might just spank you as a reward,” I say with a painful chuckle
“Jesus, Simon, your incorrigible,” she says with a shaky laugh.
I do notice that she didn’t say she didn’t want one though.
Suddenly my phone begins to buzz in my pocket as we start shuffling towards the plane’s open hatch.
Pulling it from my pocket with my good hand, I allow Meredith to keep my bad arm cradled to my side.
On the cracked screen I see it’s Marcus.
Pushing the connect button, I say, “What is it?”
“We’re ten minutes out, Simon. Can you hold till we get there?”
“Go fuck yours
elf,” I say into the phone before disconnecting it.
Asshole didn’t rush to get here and he knows it. He should have been here shortly after us. There is no way that bag of human flesh rushed his way here. Especially since I know for a fact they have access to a helicopter just like Lucifer does.
Lucifer comes out of the back of the plane with a gagged Asad being marched behind him. “Simon, is it serious?”
“No, fucker winged me, and cracked ribs at the most,” I say breathily.
Definitely cracked ribs.
“Good. And thank you for rescuing my sister,” he says as he gives a smile to Meredith.
Nodding my head, I motion for them to go first. “Let’s get him to the warehouse.”
“No, you need to go to a hospital,” Meredith says from my side in a voice I’ve not heard before.
This one isn’t defiant, pleading, or demanding. She’s speaking like her fucking brother.
Full of surety.
Chuckling quietly, I wince as I say, “I’ll have Andrew meet us there. He can patch me up. A hospital is not in the cards for me. Not with how bad Johnathan is. We need to keep this as low profile as we can right now.”
“Agreed,” Lucifer says. “Thad, you head straight to the hospital. Get a guard rotation with our men on the floor. I want Johnathan watched over. Send Andrew to the warehouse for Simon. Make sure he brings a full kit with him.”
“Got it, sir,” Thad says and rushes out of the plane.
From behind Lucifer, where he is still holding on to Asad by his scruff, James says, “Can we go? I got a bag of dicks in my hand and you know how I am. If it ain’t my dick I don’t wanna be holding it.”
Snickering, Lucifer nods his head. “Let’s get off of this plane and get out of here. It looks like we have Andrew’s car and one of Asad’s men’s BMWs.”
“Thad!” Lucifer shouts out to the man. “Go get another one of their BMW’s and take that to the hospital. We’ll be using the last of the armored cars.”
Stumbling as much as walking down the steps, I finally feel the cement beneath my feet and stare up into the bright blue sky.
It’s fucking beautiful, and for once I don’t fucking hate it.
I look back down to Meredith and pull her tight to my chest. Kissing her hard as I can, I push my tongue past her lips. This isn’t a claiming kiss. No, this is one that brings too much joy for that.
This is a declaration of life.