by Addison Jane
“Lily… just go,” I call back as Luca grabs her around her waist and hoists her up off her feet and drags her out the back door. Her eyes bear down on me like she’s worried this will be the last time we see each other. Just as Luca drags her away from my sight the blasting of a front window shattering and a gunshot ringing out, snaps my head around as I duck for cover. A gas cylinder catapults through the broken window and I grit my teeth knowing what comes next. Glancing over at Axel and Blair, I signal for us to head for the back. The brothers will be expecting us to bolt through the front, so I’m not going to give them what they want.
Thick white smoke starts to permeate the cabin, and Axel and Blair rush toward me as we stay down but maneuver toward the back of the cabin. There’s a very large impenetrable fence separating the back from the front which has motion detectors stationed on it and therefore I know they’re not out there. The door’s already open from when Luca left with the girls. We file out, covering our mouths and drawing our weapons. We have no idea if it’s just the two brothers or if they have reinforcements of some kind. We could be majorly outnumbered if we head around the front, but we need to lay some cover so Luca can get the girls to safety in the forest without the brothers finding them before Eli, Noah and Tanner arrive. We all edge up the side of the cabin, the smoke has completely filled the inside blocking any view through the house to the front. If we want to see what, or who is out there, we simply have to go and check.
I signal two fingers to Axel, turn my hand backward then drop the second finger leaving only one and circle it around and point to the other side of the cabin. He knows our code for double back and circle around the front. He nods drawing his gun and rushes off down the other side of the cabin leaving me with Blair. My heart’s pounding. I have no idea where these guys are, we’re flying blind, and without our usual equipment we’re in the dark.
And it’s quiet.
A little too quiet.
I don’t like it.
Something’s up.
Something’s definitely wrong.
I glance to Blair and shake my head and he nods like he knows that I’m suss about this whole situation. My heart’s throbbing so fast I can feel it in my throat. Normally the thrill of the hunt excites me, but since Lily, this shit terrifies me. Knowing Lily’s out there, and these fuckers could get to her, only makes me feel more nervous. I need to protect her at all costs. I can’t let them past this cabin, they can’t get into the woods—to her.
I hear a slight clicking noise and it takes me a second before I register. My eyes stare widely as I grab Blair and throw him to the ground then fall next to him covering my ears. He looks to me his eyes widen, but he’s too late to cover his ears before the massive explosion hits us. My eyes slam shut trying to ride out the vibrations coursing through me. My entire body shudders and quakes as the one hundred and seventy decibels slam into my chest knocking the wind from me completely. Gasping for air as I writhe on the ground, I attempt to gather myself as quickly as humanly possible, but my whole body isn’t functioning. The stun grenade smacked into us and it’s hit hard.
My hand reaches out to feel for Blair. He’s there but I have no idea where Axel currently is. I just hope he’s okay. Luca and the girls should hopefully be far enough away that it may have shocked them but won’t stun them. My stomach twists and turns as I attempt to struggle to my knees. Opening my eyes they roll around in my head, while I try to right myself. Being incapacitated is not an option, I need to get through this. I need to reach deep inside to my training, instruction and drills that help me overcome this type of obstacle.
Staggering to my feet, I reach out to grab Blair who’s panting for breath. I clutch his shirt and drag him up with me as I hobble back toward the direction Axel went. I can’t hear a thing except for a persistent ringing in my ears. If anyone were to come up behind me I wouldn’t know. I’m a total sitting duck right now and a man down. Blair was hit hard and his ears weren’t covered. I didn’t have time to yell directions to him, and I can see a thin line of blood running from his left ear. He’s conscious though, and trying to recover as best he can, drawing on his discipline and training as he continues to shake his head and gasp for a deeper breath.
I drag him toward the right side of the cabin, as I check around waiting for the attack to come. I hate that I can’t hear anything. My nerves are fucking with my head right now as every movement is forcing me to jump. As I get to the edge of the cabin, I take a deep breath and prepare myself to glance around the edge. As I do, a gun is drawn right in my face. I tense up as I take in a deep soothing breath as it’s soon lowered.
Axel grits his teeth and shakes his head mouthing, “I can’t hear a fucking thing.”
I mouth back, “Me either.”
He nods and looks around as a piece of flying wood from the side of the cabin catches my attention. I glance at it and realize the flying piece of wood is a ricochet from a bullet off the cabin. I duck as does Axel and we start running, but I’m slowed considerably while I try and drag Blair with me—he’s fucking heavy and not recovering.
“Fuck,” I yell—I think—but I can’t hear my own voice. I hoist Blair up over my shoulder as we leg it off to the side of the cabin and into the woodland. Bark from the trees flies off around us as bullets recoil beside our heads. I don’t care if they’re shooting at us, it’s imperative that we’re leading them away from the girls. That’s all I care about right now. My ears are still resonating, but noise is starting to filter back into my senses as the twigs beneath my feet crunch and I can vaguely hear them cracking. The sound of the bullets hitting the trees and cracking into the bark is making my skin prickle with goosebumps. I pant heavy breaths trying to carry Blair while leading the brothers away from Lily.
“Axel,” I murmur trying to see if the sound is back enough so I can hear me. He turns, obviously his hearing is back slightly too. “We need to split up, make it harder for them… but keep dragging them away from the back forest area.”
He nods and makes a hard left darting away from me as I continue up an embankment. Bullets continue to fly past my head—for Syndicate members they sure are shit shots. The gunfire ceases and suddenly my senses increase, and a sound I don’t like makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand tall.
It’s a whistling sound—whistling is never good.
A long thin black tube flies straight past me into the woodland floor up ahead, but not far enough ahead… I grit my teeth while every muscle in my body clenches. “Holy shit,” I murmur as I throw Blair down to the ground and move to drop, but I don’t fall fast enough before the explosive device detonates. The shockwave is so strong it smacks into me mid-air and throws me five feet away from Blair winding me completely, every inch of me feels like I’ve been hit by a Mack truck.
Luckily, it was just the shockwave and not the flames as they plume up into the air with a big black wad of bellowing smoke. The smell wafts through the forest as my ears ring once again while I cough from the force of the explosion. Rolling onto my back, I groan as I bring my hand up to my head and swipe at the trail of blood oozing from my forehead. It’s only a small cut, it barely hurts, but these fuckers drew blood.
Now I’m out for theirs!
Breathing heavily as I gather myself, I glance over to Blair. He isn’t moving and then I see it. I roll over jumping up and running as fast as I can to him. “No. No. No. No… Blair,” I murmur as I pull the mass of bushes off him, and wince as I see a portion of tree branch protruding from his side.
“Fuck!” I feel his neck for a pulse. It’s faint but still there. “Stay with me, Blair. You do not go out like this. You hear me!”
A bullet flies past my head lodging into the trunk behind me and I glance up not seeing anyone. Another flies into the same trunk as I duck away from it, so I grab some more foliage and cover Blair up as best I can.
Gritting my teeth, I shake my head. “I’ll be back for you, brother. Hold on, you hold the fuck on.”
Taking a breath and preparing myself, I then stand up and bolt. Bullets fly past me at incredible speed, there has to be more than one shooting at me, but every single one of them misses. I duck in behind a large tree trunk and pull out my gun. I’m sick of running, time to fight back.
Glancing around the tree, a bullet hisses at me and I duck just in time for it to smack into the tree, but I can see the direction it came from. I run out toward the opposing tree and shoot out two rounds. The bullet fire stops momentarily and I take a deep breath wondering if somehow I’ve actually hit my target. I mean I know I’m fucking good, but shooting in a direction with no target is virtually impossible to find my objective. Suddenly, there’s a ‘thwish’ sound followed by a ‘whooshing’ noise. I furrow my brows as I wait for whatever’s next. Then something pierces my vision as an almighty ‘thunk’ lands into the tree right next to my head, so close it clips my ear slightly stinging it and making me jolt to the side. I turn to see a fucking arrow.
An arrow!
“What the fuck?” I say as I hear a ticking sound emanating from it. I furrow my brows as I see an illuminated countdown on the shaft. “No fucking way,” I say as the timer counts down, showing only five seconds left.
Shit!
I don’t want to stick around to find out what happens in five seconds so I bolt. Bullets fly again, this time much closer as I jump over fallen logs and weave in and out of fucking trees. I hear a beep followed by another explosion. I fall forward onto my chest heaving in and out.
Who the fuck are these guys?
Twigs crack around me as I grab my gun and hoist it up ready to aim. I don’t have time to get up before they reach me, whoever they are.
“You’re part of the SO7?” a voice calls out.
I sit up aiming it toward Ares, Lily’s brother as he aims a fucking flame thrower right at me.
Axel’s bandana is still on my face, so he doesn’t know who I am. But it doesn’t matter, I’m royally fucked any way I look at this situation.
“What does it matter?” I ask.
“Your team killed our sister. We can’t let that slide.”
“Maybe there’s more to that than you know. Maybe you shouldn’t go in all guns a blazing.”
“Shut up! She said you’d try to talk us out of it if we let you speak… less talking, more dying scum—”
“Hey!” a chirpy female voice calls out from behind Ares. I tense up but look past him to see Tanner and relax slightly as she points her gun at Ezra’s head, holding him in a death lock, next to Ares. “I’d think twice about your next move, Ares, you’re outgunned and outnumbered,” Tanner says. Eli and Axel come up behind her and both point their guns at him.
I want to kill these fuckers so bad, but I can’t. I have to think of Lily in this. I have to think about how slaughtering them will affect her.
Ares lets out a defeated laugh and nods dropping the flame thrower. “You know, just because we both walk away now, doesn’t mean we’re going to stop hunting your team down. This isn’t over. Blood for blood. Remember that,” Ares snaps as he moves closer to Tanner and glares at her.
She shoves Ezra away pointing a gun right at his head as Ares grabs and pulls him by his shirt and they turn rushing off through the bush.
“We’re gonna just let them walk?” Tanner blurts out in anger aiming her gun at the back of Ares’s head.
“Think about it, we can’t arrest them and take them back to the Agency and Camilla now can we? The only option is to let them walk… for now. We’ll have our time with them again, I’m sure of it.”
“But we can’t be sure they won’t be back with reinforcements straight away,” Axel says.
I nod knowing that’s completely true and yank the bandana from my face. “Tanner, come with me. Eli, I need your muscle,” I say and turn heading back toward Blair.
They all follow and I race toward Blair hoping like fuck he obeyed my direct order and stayed the fuck alive. If we get there and he’s dead… Tanner won’t be able to function. I race to the pile of foliage and start pulling it off while they all look at me strangely until they see limbs appearing.
“Fuck,” Tanner calls out and then rushes over, her breath labored as she drops to her knees and begins throwing the leaves off in all directions. Crap smacks Axel in the chest and he rolls his eyes at her obviously not taking in the gravity of the situation.
“Kace is he…” Tanner asks, her voice cracking.
“I… I don’t know, Tan. He needs to get to a safe hospital if he’s still with us.”
“Eli!” Tanner calls out as she pulls off the last pieces of foliage covering the branch. She gasps as she sees it impaled into him and grunts as she shakes her head punching the ground beneath her. “Stupid fucking asshole. If you’re dead, I swear to God…” she says leaning down and placing her ear over his mouth. Her face is tense as we all watch and wait. Tanner’s eyes close as every muscle in her body tightens then relaxes as she breathes out a huff of air. “Fuck! Okay. Eli, can you carry him? We gotta get him to a fucking safe hospital—one with people we know are not on Camilla’s books, one that’s off the grid—before I kill him myself.”
“Yeah, no worries, Tan. Kace you’ll be okay without me if I go with her to the hospital?” Eli asks and I nod.
“Yeah, you go keep Tanner in check. You know how she can be when she’s emotion—”
“Hey… right here, asshole!”
“Tanner, don’t burn the hospital down if they do something wrong, okay? Keep a low profile, remember…” I say trailing off.
She huffs and flares her nostrils. “We’re wasting time, Eli. Let’s go.”
Eli nods to me letting me know he’ll keep Tanner under control. The thing about Tanner is she doesn’t handle her emotions well. Instead of getting upset, she gets angry, and when Tanner gets angry things get broken, quick. So I need someone with a level-head there to keep her calm and Eli is the guy for that.
Eli hoists Blair up. He groans out loud and Tanner winces as she grabs his hand and they walk off down toward a car.
Taking a deep breath, I look to Axel and then back in the direction of the cabin. “We need to get our shit together, and then we need to burn the cabin to the ground to destroy any evidence so there’s nothing showing Camilla we were here.”
“Go gather your things, I’ll get the flame thrower ready,” Axel says.
As I watch the cabin smoldering in plumes of amber and crimson flames, I can’t help but think that the life Lily and I had begun to build here is now over. Sure, I knew we were never going to be here permanently, but uprooting this life now too, I can only imagine what kind of effect this is going to have on Lily. I hate that this is the only way. Another safe haven gone.
What the fuck are we gonna do now?
Axel steps up to my side and takes in a deep breath. “There goes your safe house,” he says.
I grunt. “Yeah, I guess we’ll have to go back on the road. We can’t trust The Agency’s safe houses or the assets that were on our side. Who knows who’s been turned under Camilla’s watch? I can’t fucking trust anyone other than you guys.”
Axel tilts his head. “There is somewhere you’ll be safe. Somewhere a little outlaw-ish,” he says raising his brow. I take in a deep breath understanding him completely. I don’t like the message he’s sending, but at this point in time this is probably our only safe-ish option.
“Call Luca, tell him to bring Noah and the girls and to meet us there.” I shake my head and exhale running my fingers through my hair hoping like fuck I’m making the right call.
Axel and I pull down the road on his Harley toward the destination of our new safe house. I spoke to Lily shortly before we both left just to make sure she was okay with Luca and Noah. She was fine, just a little freaked out from hearing all the explosions. She was anxious, but I made sure to tell her I was fine and that I’d see her at the next safe house. Although to be truthfully honest, I’m not sure how safe it will be. Sure, we will be protected from
the outside, but I’m just as worried about those on the fucking inside.
I know most of the people, it’s just the people I haven’t met I’m not so sure on. But Axel has assured me everyone has had their checks, everyone is aboveboard, and wouldn’t be there if they didn’t belong. Now we’re the ones entering into their territory and we will be the ones being frowned upon. I just hope Lily will be okay. She’s already retreating into herself. I’d hate to see her withdraw altogether because of this.
We pull up at a set of ten-foot tall gates. They tower over us as I glance up. The height making me feel inferior as the heavy weight of the thick black wrought iron bars groan. They feel imposing, but they also make sure to let me know I’m most definitely not welcome here. The air smells of stale tobacco and the heavy thumping of bass vibrates through the air from rock music being played inside.
Axel glances back to me with the biggest of smiles on his face.
Glad he feels at home.
A car drives toward us and my stomach settles slightly as I notice Luca’s SUV. Knowing my life is inside that car and will be with me shortly helps me settle somewhat. But somehow I also feel worse knowing that I’ll be taking her inside this place soon… for her safety. Shaking my head, I swallow hard as Axel turns to look at me.
“Take a breath, Kace. Remember, they’re not the normal type,” he says and I nod curtly as the car pulls up next to us and Luca winds down his window.
“Glad you guys made it out,” Luca says as the back door opens to his car and Lily jumps out and hobble-runs toward me. I jump off Axel’s bike and rush to her, picking her up into my arms and holding her to me as her arms encase me tightly.
“Kace… oh God, I thought… when those explosions started going off… I thought I’d lost you… Kace, I can’t lose you,” she says, her voice cracking as she snuggles further into me.
“It’s okay, Lily. It takes a lot more than a few bombs to get rid of me.” I pull back bringing my hand up to her face, caressing her cheek tenderly and then lean in pressing my lips to hers. I don’t care who’s watching, I need to taste her, to feel her, to let her know I’m okay. Her tongue slides against mine and she kisses me back passionately as my fingers glide through her hair holding her to me.