“Clear,” Gage reported from his vantage point.
“Clear,” Kaiya echoed.
Quinn waited for them to join him before he eased the door open, leading with his gun. There was no sign of Vanessa or Newman or anyone.
“Gage, go left. Kaiya, take the right. I’ve got the rooms behind the reception desk.”
They split up to search the shelter. With Kilo alert and ready, he entered the offices. They were empty and looked as if they’d been emptied. “Clear.”
“Clear,” Kaiya said. “There’s not even one dog in the kennels.”
“Clear, but I found something,” Gage reported.
Quinn and Kaiya converged to find Gage standing in front of an open door leading to a set of steps. The faint sound of voices drifted up from below. “There has to be a basement exit. Kaiya, go outside and cover it. Gage and I will go in from here.”
“On it.” She took off in a quiet jog.
Quinn eased down the first three risers. He spotted two men facing away from the steps. As much as he wanted to take them out now, he couldn’t shoot someone in the back. It was too risky to toss the flashbang in his pocket without knowing Vanessa’s situation. Using hand signals, he indicated to Gage to take the one on the left while he covered the one on the right. Gage nodded once. Giving Kilo the command to bark, he signaled Gage to go. Kilo let out a loud “woof.” The two guards spun around and lifted their weapons. Quinn and Gage fired at the same time, taking them both out.
Quinn bypassed the steps and leaped to the floor, coming to an abrupt stop. The scene in front of him made his blood turn to ice. Vanessa’s eyes were wide and panicked as she clawed at the arm around her throat. One side of her face was bruised and swollen, but what frightened him the most was the gun pressed against her head.
#
Vanessa’s head jerked up at the loud woof. She recognized that bark! If Kilo was here, that meant Quinn was, too. She lunged for the scissors when gunshots rang out and almost dropped them when a forearm wrapped around her neck and squeezed. Derek jerked her in front of him like a human shield.
Hope soared when Quinn and Gage descended the steps with their guns aimed, followed by Kilo. Relief buckled her knees, and she almost went down if not for the crushing grip around her throat. She had no idea how they found her, but she was so thankful.
“Drop your weapons, or she dies,” Derek ordered. To punctuate his words, he dug the tip of his gun into her temple.
“Okay,” Quinn agreed, as he placed his weapon on the floor, followed by Gage. Then he held up his hands in surrender as he slowly moved closer. Kilo bared his teeth in a snarl.
“Stop moving,” Derek roared. “And shut the dog up. I won’t hesitate to put a bullet in him.”
Quinn gave Kilo a command, and the growling stopped, but he vibrated with tension.
“You have no way out,” Quinn told Derek. “The feds are on their way. Do yourself a favor and give up. I’ll make sure the cops know you cooperated.”
“I said stop moving! Do you think I’m stupid? She’s my ticket out.”
“You try that, and I guarantee you won’t make it out of this alive.”
Quinn glanced at the weapon in her hand and then made eye contact with her. Smiling, he said, “It’s going to be okay. Now.”
She stabbed the scissors in Derek’s thigh. He roared in pain as blood spurted. “You bitch!” The arm around her neck tightened until she couldn’t breathe. She pried at it as a gunshot rang out. Derek pushed her to the ground, pinning her beneath him. It took a moment to realize he wasn’t protecting her from a bullet but dying from one. Before she could so much as whimper, the weight shifted, and then Quinn was lifting her into his arms. Her favorite place on earth.
“Are you okay, baby?” He noticed her cheek and ground his teeth together. “I’d kill him if he wasn’t already dead.”
“I’m fine. I didn’t see you or Gage fire your weapons. Who shot him?”
“I did.”
With a gasp, she turned to see Kaiya walking towards them. She was alive! Tearing herself from Quinn’s grip, she hugged her friend. “I’m so, sorry.”
“Don’t worry—”
“Everyone out! Now!” Gage ordered. “There’s enough C4 in here to blow this place off the map, and something activated the timer. Go, go, go!”
Calling for Kilo, Quinn urged Vanessa and Kaiya towards the steps. She tripped and banged her shin against one of the risers in her haste to climb as fast as possible. Ignoring the pain, she continued up the stairs. Kaiya practically shoved her out the door. She trailed Kilo as he bounded away from the building. Once they were a safe distance, she turned to see only Gage behind her.
“Where’s Quinn?” Her voice was panicked.
Gage glanced over his shoulder. “Kaiya, keep her safe. I’m going back.” He turned around and disappeared inside the shelter.
Vanessa fought the urge to go after him. Kilo felt the same way because he tried to follow. She practically dove to grab his harness and hold on tight. His whine brought tears to her eyes. She murmured to him that Quinn was okay and would be out soon. She wasn’t sure if she was trying to comfort the dog or herself.
It seemed like forever before Kaiya announced, “They’re coming now.”
“Thank—”
Before she could get the words out, an ominous rumble shook the ground, and then the shelter exploded into a giant orange ball of fire.
“No!” she screamed, falling to her knees in despair.
#
Quinn picked up his discarded weapon and was about to follow the others when something clamped onto his ankle and jerked him hard to the floor. His knees impacted the concrete, and he gritted his teeth against the pain. The gun went skittering from his hand. Gage stopped and turned at the top of the steps.
“Go. Get the others to safety.”
Gage looked like he wanted to argue, but with a nod, he kept going.
Before Quinn could move, weight landed on him, forcing air from his lungs. Bloody hands wrapped around his neck, squeezing tight. Desperate men possessed superhuman strength, as he was experiencing firsthand. His vision blurred from the lack of oxygen. If he passed out now, he was as good as dead. Reaching back, he gouged a finger in the man’s eye socket. His grip loosened as he shrieked in pain.
Quinn flung him off before jumping to his feet. One side of Derek Newman’s shirt was soaked in blood from Kaiya’s bullet, as were his pants from Vanessa’s stabbing wound. He was dead, he just didn’t know it yet.
Holding one hand over his damaged eye, Newman smiled wickedly, showcasing blood-stained teeth. In his other hand was a pistol he lifted and pointed at Quinn. A shot rang out. Quinn waited for the searing pain. Instead, it was Newman who reared back and crashed to the floor.
Quinn glanced up to see Gage had returned.
“Thanks.”
“No problem. Let’s get out of here.”
He took the stairs three at a time. They’d just cleared the doorway when a deafening boom sounded, and the shelter detonated. The force of the concussion tossed him high in the air. He knew the landing was going to hurt. He was right. Every bone in his body jarred on impact. He didn’t even feel the pieces of burning debris raining down on him, including the giant chunk of wood that impacted his skull.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Vanessa’s heart crumbled into a thousand pieces. Quinn and Gage were inside the shelter when it blew up. Even from here, the heat of the blaze was scorching. No one could survive that inferno. She felt as if her entire soul was on fire.
“Over here,” Kaiya yelled, tossing charred fragments of rubble away.
A glimmer of hope flared as Vanessa jumped to her feet and took off running. Gage was lying face up and motionless, while Quinn was face down a few feet away, but he stirred. She cried out in relief when he lifted his head.
“Gage?” His voice was a rasp.
Before she could answer, he spotted his teammate and rose unsteadily to his feet
. Kilo bumped against his legs, almost sending him to the ground again.
A piece of burning wood landed in front of Vanessa, forcing her to alter her path. She kicked it aside in her haste to reach Quinn.
Kaiya was checking Gage out when he groaned and opened his eyes.
“Are you hurt?” Quinn asked.
Gage blinked and looked around. “I don’t think so.” He moved his arms and legs. “Just sore from hitting the ground.”
He started to rise, but Kaiya put a restraining hand on his shoulder. “Stay there until the ambulance arrives, and the paramedics check you out. You could have internal injuries.”
He ignored Kaiya and pushed to his feet. “I don’t.”
“You sure you’re okay?” Quinn asked with concern.
“Yeah, you?”
Quinn didn’t answer. Vanessa’s eyes widened in horror when his lids fluttered closed, and then his knees buckled before he plummeted face-first to the ground.
“Quinn!”
Kilo plastered his body against his side, whining softly. Vanessa slid next to him, her hand encountering something sticky when she reached for him. Jerking it away, she gaped at the blood. It covered his entire backside. “Gage.” Her voice was panicked.
“I know. I see it. We need to move away from the fire to check him out.”
Kaiya stopped him. “With all that blood, he might have a spinal injury.”
“But he was awake and walking around,” Vanessa protested.
Kaiya’s face was filled with compassion. “He could have catastrophic, slow-release damage to his spine.”
“The heat is too intense, and our location unstable.” A flaming chunk of debris landed dangerously close to where they were clustered, emphasizing Gage’s point. “Grab his legs. I’ve got his head. We’ll go slow.”
Vanessa helped, holding Quinn’s midsection steady. Kilo followed closely, whimpering as they slowly transported him away from the inferno. When they were far enough from the burning building, they gently placed him on the grass, stomach first. Kilo resumed his sentinel by his side.
Gage gingerly lifted Quinn’s soaked shirt to reveal his Kevlar vest. It was intact, and the skin beneath was clean. “The blood on the shirt isn’t his.”
Her eyes closed in relief.
“But it is on his head. He has a severe gash.”
Head injuries were bad. And scary. He’d been walking around and talking from sheer grit, more worried about others than himself.
Gage removed Quinn’s backup weapon from an ankle holster and unhooked the knife sheath around the other. Kaiya emptied the pockets in his tactical pants of various items, including replacement clips for his gun, flex cuffs and something that looked like a small black ball. She must’ve said something out loud because Kaiya held it up.
“It’s a flashbang.”
“Oh.” She wasn’t sure what that was but assumed it made a flash and a bang, hence the name. Quinn used something similar that first night when the men chased them through the woods, but she’d been too busy running for her life to question him.
“Can I hold on to that?” She indicated his cell.
“Sure.” Kaiya handed it to her.
Quinn’s sister needed to know what happened. Vanessa wanted the news to come from her since she was the reason he’d been hurt.
The sound of vehicles approaching had her head turning to see two police cruisers and one unmarked car screech to a stop. None had activated their lights or sirens. Cayleigh rushed over. “An ambulance is on the way. How is he?”
“He’s got a nasty gash on the back of his head and several cuts,” Gage reported. “I don’t feel any broken bones, but he’s unconscious.”
“You look worse for wear, too,” she noted.
He did. His clothes were grass-stained and singed in places. His hair was askew, and a cut bisected his forehead. “I’m fine.”
“Newman?”
“Hoisted by his own petard.” Kaiya jerked a thumb towards the blaze, still burning out of control. “He’s in there getting a taste of what eternity holds for him.”
An ambulance pulled up, and two paramedics hopped out. Kilo didn’t want to let them near his person, growling threateningly and baring his teeth. Vanessa spoke softly to him and rubbed his back reassuringly. He reluctantly allowed her to ease him away with a firm grip on his harness. He didn’t take his gaze from Quinn.
After the medics applied a bandage to Quinn’s head wound, they carefully rolled him to a backboard and secured his neck. Gage helped lift him to a gurney.
“I’m going with him.” Vanessa’s voice was little more than a whisper. She wanted to break down, but as she’d done for Todd, she would be strong for Quinn, too.
“We’ll drop Kilo at the house.” Gage eased his harness from Vanessa’s grip. “We’ll meet you there.”
Once Quinn was strapped in the back of the ambulance, she climbed inside. Sliding along the bench, she clutched his hand. His was so cold and limp in her grip. She prayed he’d wake up and smile at her, tell her he was fine and not to worry.
One paramedic followed her inside while the other closed the doors and headed to the cab to drive. The woman’s nametag read Jazz. She didn’t know if it was a nickname or one her parents bestowed on her. Jazz reached into a drawer and withdrew a white packet. She squeezed it and then handed it to Vanessa.
“What’s this for?”
“It’s an instant ice pack for your face.” She pointed to her cheek for emphasis. “That looks like it hurts.”
Vanessa forgot all about the injury, even though her eye was pretty much swollen shut. Now that Jazz mentioned it, it began to throb. She hissed when the cold pack touched her battered skin.
“You’ll want to have it x-rayed to make sure your cheekbone isn’t fractured.”
“Thanks. I will.” But not until she found out about Quinn’s condition.
The ride to the hospital passed quickly. The ambulance rolled up to the Emergency Room and the doors whipped open. Two men in white uniforms eased the stretcher out and then snapped the legs in place. Jazz jumped out and followed them with the driver close behind. Vanessa hurried after them, only to be stopped by a nurse when they disappeared behind a door marked Emergency Personnel Only.
“You can wait in here.” The nurse guided her to a waiting room. “Are you family?”
“I’m his fiancée,” she lied, not feeling the least bit guilty. They would only release information to immediate relatives, and she had to know how he was doing. Speaking of family, she needed to call his sister.
Taking out his phone, she keyed in the code he’d given her the night she dropped his original cell in the lake, hoping it worked for his replacement phone—and it did. She accessed his contact list and found the entry for Hillary Steele. With a deep breath, she pressed the button.
“Hey, Quinn. Are you on your way home?” Hillary’s voice was cheery.
“Hillary? My name is Vanessa Lacroix.”
“Where is my brother, Vanessa?” Her tone turned guarded.
“There was an accident.”
Hillary’s sharp inhale sounded through the phone. “What happened? Is he okay?”
“The doctors are with him now. There was an explosion. I don’t know the extent of his injuries yet.”
“Is he awake?”
She closed her eyes. “He was, but then he collapsed.”
“Hold on.” She moved the phone away, but Vanessa could still hear her.
“Kayla, can you get Reed on the phone for me? I need to fly to Minnesota immediately.”
Then she was back. “I’m on my way there now.”
Vanessa gave her the name of the hospital and disconnected as Agent Copeland walked through the sliding doors. Spotting Vanessa, she headed over.
“Too soon for news, isn’t it?”
“Yes. I don’t know anything. He was still unconscious when we arrived.”
Cayleigh’s phone rang and she checked the screen. With a grimace, she sa
id, “I have to take this. I’ll be right back.”
Vanessa was too wired to sit. Her emotions had been on a roller coaster ride first, thinking Quinn had been in the shelter when it exploded, only to be overjoyed finding him alive and talking. Then they plummeted again when he did.
Gage and Kaiya arrived. “I contacted Quinn’s sister to let her know what happened.”
“We know,” Kaiya said. “We called it in, and the bosses already knew.”
“She said she’s coming to the hospital.”
“I have no doubt she will,” Gage replied. “She and Quinn are close.”
Vanessa pointed to him. “You need to be checked out. You were unconscious.”
“I’m not—”
“She’s right,” Kaiya interrupted. “No arguments.” Then she turned to Vanessa. “You, too. No arguments.”
“Well, you’re getting one because I need to be here when the doctor comes out.”
“I’m here, and I’ll let you know. I promise. Let’s go.”
“Wait.” Gage removed his gun and handed it to Kaiya.
“Don’t you have other weapons strapped to your body?”
“I removed them before we came inside.”
Kaiya led them to the nurse’s desk and explained what happened. Soon they were both whisked away to examination rooms.
A doctor came in and inspected her face. He ordered an x-ray to make sure there weren’t any fractures. Thankfully, nothing was cracked or broken. He gave her an ice pack and prescribed a painkiller. A nurse took pity on her and handed her a pair of blue scrubs to wear. She cleaned up as much as possible in the small bathroom and tossed her blood-stained clothes in the garbage. With her Kevlar vest in hand, she returned to the waiting room. Kaiya and Cayleigh stood and came to her.
“Is it broken?” Cayleigh asked.
“No, just bruised. Any word?”
Kaiya shook her head. “Not yet.”
Cayleigh guided her to a chair away from the other people. “While we’re waiting, I need you to tell me what happened. My boss is coordinating the response at the shelter, but he’ll be here soon. I’ll fill him in as much as possible, so you don’t have to repeat the story a hundred times.”
She dreaded reliving the ordeal, but she appreciated Cayleigh taking some of the burden from her shoulders. Before she started, Gage came out holding his Kevlar vest. He also wore scrubs, but his were green.
Worth the Risk (COBRA Securities Book 21) Page 22