by Roma, Laurie
“Nick is heading out. Cover him, Lynx,” Sin ordered.
“I’m on it.”
“We’re going silent and heading upstairs now,” Sin continued. “Rock, Adrian, I want Kelner alive. Everyone else is expendable.”
“Loud and clear.”
Mikayla switched her scope back to normal to cover the outside of the building while Nick made his escape from the building. She saw him open the side door. The barely clad young women were practically trying to climb up his body as he half dragged, half carried them outside. They were obviously riding high on lust dust. Luckily, they had some of Dr. Ellis’s new tranquilizer that would knock the women out and keep them from messing up the op.
Mikayla’s gaze swept the surrounding area, making sure Nick made it to the van safely as Trinity pulled the vehicle to a stop across the street from the building.
Trinity didn’t hesitate. As soon as Nick made it across the street she opened the door and shot both girls with a tranq gun.
“Damn it,” Nick snapped. He tried to retain his hold on both women as they passed out. “Couldn’t you have waited till they were in van?”
“Nope. That one there”—she pointed toward the blonde—“was going for your fly. You want to try explaining that to Katie when you get home?”
“Hell no,” he responded quickly then laid the women in the back of the van.
Suddenly, several things happened at once.
The agents inside stormed the second floor of the buildings. Gunshots mingled with the sound of raised voices and shouts. The weapon fire echoed outside and through the comms and Mikayla heard cursing coming from her team. She wished she were inside with them, but since she wasn’t, she did what she did best and watched their backs.
At the same time, Nick ran down the street heading back toward the building. Trinity caught a glimpse of the Mercedes coming around the corner again and she cursed under her breath. “Lynx, that Mercedes is coming back around!”
Mikayla swung around and saw the SUV turn the corner and idle about halfway down the street. “Something’s wrong,” she whispered.
“What is it?” Gage asked, looking over the side of the building to get a better look.
“I don’t know…”
“We’ve got the target in custody. Shut the fuck up, Kelner. You’re finished,” Sin’s voice barked out over the comms then he cursed viciously a second before the second floor of the building exploded.
Glass shattered as the windows blew out. Thick black smoke billowed up out of the newly created holes, trailing up and out into the open air. Gage threw his body over Mikayla’s as the blast of the explosion rocked the surrounding area with its shock wave. He covered both of their heads, trying to keep them safe from flying debris.
The impact lifted Nick clear off his feet so his body slammed to the ground, momentarily stunning him, and Trinity was thrown back into the van with a jarring thud. Mikayla struggled to push Gage off of her as she scrambled back to her knees. She lifted her head and her heart nearly stopped.
No. God, no.
This can’t be happening…
“Sin! Rock! Adrian! Team one, report!!” she screamed.
The silence that answered her was deafening.
Chapter Twenty
“They can’t be…”
Mikayla and Gage stared at each other in abject horror as they waited for a response from one of the men inside the building, but there was nothing. All they could hear was the residual rumble from the blast through their comms. Mikayla held her breath as she silently prayed her team was okay. Fear mixed with rage as she called out again. “Goddamn it, someone answer me!”
The seconds seemed like an eternity as she waited. The flood of relief she felt as they heard a voice call out over the comms almost made her knees buckle.
“We’re still here. Repeat, inside team is A-OK,” Sin said.
“Ears are ringing some. Shit, someone tripped a fail-safe and the fucking office blew. We won’t be getting any data off those computers,” Adrian responded.
“We’ve got a big problem! There’s purple shit coming from the sprinklers,” Rock yelled.
“Get your masks on!” Sin ordered them.
“We need to get out of here!” Arvan Kelner screamed.
Oh, holy hell…
“Fuck! Nick, don’t go back in! Stop!” Mikayla cried out in panic as she listened to the conversation going on inside.
Nick got up and ran toward the building. He slid to a stop outside the side door, looking up at her in irritation as he heard her command. He wanted to be back inside helping the team and didn’t understand why she stopped him.
“They put the lust dust into the sprinkler system! Don’t go in!” Mikayla yelled out as she swung her rifle around to train it on the idling SUV.
“Why the hell would Kelner do that?” Gage asked. “He just dosed himself!”
“I don’t think it was him!”
Adrian’s voice rang out over the comms. “Fuck! Lynx, Kelner said the crazy bitch booby-trapped the damn place. We’ve all been dosed.”
“Who did this,” Sin snarled out. “Who do you work for?”
Before Kelner could answer the SUV peeled out down the street, trying to get away.
“Lynx! Stop them!” Trinity screamed as she shifted the van in gear to try to intercept.
Going with instinct, Mikayla aimed low and shot out the front tire without thinking. The SUV kept going so she pulled the bolt action back, extracting the empty cartridge, chambering a new round in one fluid motion and shot another tire of the speeding vehicle. She cursed as the SUV careened onto its side, went up on the curb then flipped over, crashing into Trinity’s van.
“Trinity!”
“Fuck, that hurt…but I’m still functional,” Trinity said then swore a blue streak as shots rang out. “We’ve got three tangos firing from the downed SUV. I’m pinned. Gotta move. Cover me!”
“I’m on it,” Nick said as he returned fire, taking cover around the corner of the building.
“I have no joy. On my way.” Mikayla picked up her rifle and was up like a runner off the mark. She heard Gage’s muffled curse as he ran after her down the flight of stairs to the ground level.
“What the hell is going on?” Gage yelled as he followed her.
“Kelner works for someone. I think the boss is in that car!” Mikayla called back to him as she flew down the stairs.
“Son of a… If you get shot, I’m gonna really be pissed at you!”
Mikayla laughed. “Love you too, and back atcha!”
“I mean it, Mikayla. If you get hurt I’m gonna spank that pretty ass!”
“Only if I get my turn after you’re done.”
Gage knew he was completely lost in love for the woman racing toward danger when his dick pulsed with interest at her words. He had never let a woman spank him before, but he was a little worried when it came to Mikayla. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her and, hell, he might actually enjoy it. Christ, he must be sick. Getting a hard-on in the middle of an op when they were being shot at couldn’t be a normal reaction.
But as Gage followed her down the stairs, listening to her laughter float back at him, something became crystal clear. Here they were, racing into god only knew what and she was enjoying herself. This wasn’t just something she was good at.
She loved her job.
“We can still fucking hear you assholes!” Rock yelled at them through the comms as Mikayla and Gage burst out of the building on street level at a dead run.
Shots rang out coming from the downed vehicle. Nick fired back at the SUV while Trinity took cover behind the van as she returned fire. Mikayla and Gage dove behind a parked car across the street from the firefight as another car came screaming around the corner, three men firing wildly from the opened windows.
“Shit! They have backup!” Nick shouted as he dove for cover. “Second vehicle on the scene. Multiple shooters! Denver cops should be on their way!”
&n
bsp; “We’re coming out!” Rock yelled. “Bomb totally fucked the second floor, but we’re working through it.”
Mikayla fought with Gage as he tried to push her behind him, away from danger. She yanked at his shirt, pulling him down further as a bullet pinged far too close to his head for her comfort.
“Damn it, Gage! Stay the hell down!” she ordered him. She all but climbed on top of him as she propped the barrel of her rifle in between the side mirror and the front window of the car. She got into position and waited for a shot to line up.
“Come on, come on…” Mikayla whispered
She took aim and fired at the driver of the new car. The window exploded and the vehicle veered off, crashing into a parked car. Driver dead, the three other men in the car jumped out and began firing back at her.
“Driver is down. Second vehicle is neutralized. Three shooters still active from the second car. Three on the first.”
“Make that two,” Nick said after he nailed one of the men from the first car. He had to dive for cover again as two of the men from the second car turned to focus on him.
Gage fired his own gun, trying to draw their fire away from Nick again. Adrenaline pumping through his system mixed with the need to protect his woman so that he was practically vibrating with the need to fight. He wanted nothing more than to bundle her up and get her away from all of this madness. It was one thing when she was high above the danger, but now they were in the thick of things, it was different.
He glanced over at her and blinked in surprise. It was like a warzone on this particular street, but through all the chaos she remained cool, calm and collected. Unlike him, who had been shooting frantically, hoping to shoot something, she waited patiently for her shot. And when it came, she made it count.
She was a warrior…and she was all his.
Gage watched as Mikayla pulled the trigger and another enemy hit the ground. He settled back against the car, finally understanding that she didn’t need him to stand in front of her. Mikayla could protect herself far better than he ever could. The only thing for him to really do was be by her side and support her.
To be her partner and guard her back.
Mikayla noticed that Gage had stopped shooting next to her and immediately became concerned. Not taking her eyes off the tangos second car she called out to him. “Gage? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Get those assholes, baby.”
“You got it.”
“There’s no ‘babys’ on an op!” Sin snapped over the comms.
“Damn, what are we supposed to call you then?” Rock quipped as they ran through the labyrinth of the warehouse. They could all hear Sin’s answering growl in response.
All joking aside, that was the issue for Gage. He couldn’t not think about babies since Mikayla was carrying his child and there were bullets flying all over the place. He had to fight down the urge to try and take over, trusting in her and her team to come out of this unscathed. As he reminded himself she was good at what she did one of the tangos’ heads popped out from behind the second vehicle as he brought his gun up to shoot. As soon as he did, Mikayla sighted down and pulled the trigger. The man fell back out of view.
Yeah, his woman was wicked good.
“One down on second vehicle. Two remaining tangos in play,” Mikayla said.
“Lynx…”
Mikayla turned at the sound of Trinity’s calm voice, peeked over the top of the car’s hood, and froze. Next to the van stood a guard holding a gun against Trinity’s head while another woman stood next to them, gun pointed over to where Mikayla hid with Gage. Mikayla felt sick as she recognized the woman.
It was Selma Amit, the other missing geneticist they had assumed had been killed when the other scientists had been murdered in California. The IAD agents had completely forgotten about the other missing scientist, assuming that it had been her that was burned in the fire. Once they had locked onto David Henley, Selma Amit had faded into the background.
Dr. Selma Amit was a woman in her fifties with dark-brown hair and light-cocoa-colored skin. She would have been described as attractive if not for the fanatical gleam shining in her dark eyes. It seemed worse somehow, knowing that a woman was behind the creation of such a horrific drug like lust dust. It made Mikayla want to empty her gun into her, after she reloaded to a full clip.
“Stop shooting!” Selma screamed out. “Come out with your hands up or we’ll kill your friend!”
Mikayla paused, thinking fast. “Sin,” she whispered to her commander. “It’s Selma Amit, the geneticist from Merryl Pharmaceuticals. She’s not dead. They’ve got Trinity.”
Sin curse was loud through the comms.
“I’m gonna buy us some time.”
“Keep Amit alive if possible, Lynx. But if you need to, take the shot,” Sin warned. “We’re coming out.”
“Copy that,” she said. “Don’t go through the front. I need you at the side entrance so you can take the two shooters from the second vehicle.”
“Got it. Side exit in progress…”
“Come out now!” Selma screamed again.
Her eyes met green fire when she turned to look at Gage.
“Are you fucking crazy? You can’t go out there!” Gage hissed out.
“You have to trust me,” she said calmly. “Stay down where they can’t see you.”
He huffed out a breath and nodded then grabbed her, pulling her close. “Stay alive.”
“I will.”
His mouth came down on hers in a searing kiss then he forced himself to let her go. She let go of her rifle, handing it to him. He held onto it like it was a newborn baby, knowing that she treasured her weapon dearly. Gage watched helplessly as she stood, pulling both of her guns out of her thigh harnesses, aiming at Selma Amit and the other gunman as she walked around the car.
“Throw your guns down! You too,” Selma said to Nick, who was pointing his weapon at the two gunman from the second car.
“Not a chance,” Mikayla said. She could see blood dripping from Trinity’s forehead as the other agent scowled at her. “If you hurt her, I’ll kill you.”
“Will you just shoot these fuckheads already?” Trinity snarled then winced as the guard holding her jerked her head back by her hair.
“Shut up! You ruined everything!” Selma sneered. “I should kill you both right now.”
“Why?” Mikayla asked, buying time and keeping the attention focused on her. “Why would you do this, Dr. Amit?”
The woman paled slightly as the sound of her name. “H…how do you know who I am?”
“We know a lot about you. Unfortunately for you when your associates kidnapped me that brought you onto our radar.”
“Damn it, are you a cop? FBI?”
“Something like that.”
Selma Amit cursed again. “I told that worthless idiot to leave you alone, but he just wouldn’t listen. He cost me Dr. Ellis and now this? I hope Arvan suffered when he blew up in there.”
“Was that you? Did you trigger the bomb inside?”
“I couldn’t let you gain access to my records. I have an operation to run.”
“How can you? Your warehouse is blown, Dr. Amit. The cops will be here any minute.”
“Do you really think this is the only location I have? I’ve created an empire with a product that has the ability to alter the mind of anyone who stands in my way,” Selma replied with a grin. She pulled something out of her pocket. “Do you see this? This is a trigger that will blow the entire warehouse sky high. It will be a shame to lose all of that inventory, but I can make more now that I know the formula. When the cops arrive I want you to tell them to stay back. If I blow this place up everyone within a twelve-block radius will be affected by the lust dust. Maybe even more with the way the wind is blowing. I have another vehicle around back that you’re going to help me load up so we can leave.”
“We’re out the side door. Eyes on the two tangos facing off with Nick,” Rock whispered through the comms.
Mikayla shifted her right foot and waited to take her shot. Her eyes shifted slightly to the right and made contact with Trinity. The other agent gave an almost imperceptible nod, waiting for the signal.
“One…”
“Now, I want you to—”
“Two…”
“Put your guns down and—”
“Three!”
At the mark Trinity slammed her head back at the gunman holding onto her. She heard a satisfying crunch before she threw herself to the ground.
As soon as Trinity dropped, Mikayla shot the gunman in the head with the gun in her right hand. At the same time Mikayla shot Selma Amit in the wrist so the trigger in the woman’s hand fell safely to the ground. Trinity picked up the trigger and hobbled away from the woman writhing on the floor.
Near the building Nick had dropped to the ground as Sin and Rock fired on the two remaining tangos from the second vehicle while Adrian dragged an unconscious Arvan Kelner behind him.
It was finally over.
Selma Amit screamed as she held her wounded arm curled against her chest. Blocking out the sound, Mikayla raised a brow at Adrian. He simply shrugged. “He wouldn’t stop crying so I knocked him out. Want me to hit her too?”
Gage ran over to Mikayla as she was putting her guns back into their holsters on her thighs. He jerked her into his arms, holding her tight to him as if he would never let go. “Oh god, you’re okay. You’re really okay.”
“I’m fine, baby.” She pushed his hair back from his face so she could see him. The worry and the love that shone back at her made her smile tenderly. “I’m fine,” she promised again. “I promised you I’d be okay.”
Gage kissed her, letting her feel the emotions boiling inside of him as he did. He needed to feel connected to her. He groaned as her mouth opened for him, allowing him to sate his need for her as their tongues dueled.