by Camryn Rhys
Through the dimmness, one light cut through. It was from the end of Duke’s M4, and it was coming from a low vantage point, like whoever held it was on their knees.
He switched his on as well, and in the apex of the two crossed lights stood an old man in a dark shirt and white pants, holding a young girl in one hand and a gun in the other.
Adrian Rossi.
“Niko,” Dani whispered from the floor behind Viper.
“Fuck,” Duke swore under his breath.
Viper glanced over to see a shadow of his friend on his knees. His head dipped and the gun’s light dipped with it. He moved fast and caught his friend before he hit the ground. “What’s wrong?” he hissed.
“He shot me.” Duke grabbed at his breastbone. “Caught me in the clavicle.”
Viper hit his comm button and gave his call sign. “Ranger down. I repeat, Ranger down. In the bunker.” He lifted his finger from the button and opened Duke’s pack. “Just let me find the woundseal.”
A calm laughter echoed through the dark room and Viper trained his gun back on Rossi.
“Your radios won’t work down here, American.” He continued to laugh, his shoulders shaking. “You really have no idea who I am, do you?”
“I know you’re a bastard and a psychopath,” Viper snarled.
“You don’t even know the half of it,” Gabriel said. “I’ve got him. You take care of your friend.” The man in the loincloth stepped in front of him. “Make one move and I’ll put a bullet right in your brain. And you know I can do it.”
From the floor near the door, Dani’s sobs cut through the sounds of Viper pulling open the woundseal. “Niko,” she whispered. The emotion choked out her full voice. “Niko. Niko.”
He looked around, trying to locate her, and he finally saw her, crouched over the body he’d tripped over. Niko wasn’t moving.
“Just let me finish here and I’ll look at him.” Dammit. Where was Hannah? Why had he told her to stay behind?
“Niko,” she kept chanting through tears. “Niko. Shit, Niko. Say something.”
“Don’t you move,” Gabriel said from somewhere in front of Duke, but out of his beam of light.
Viper’s gun was hanging at his side, which put his light into the ground. Still, there was enough of the other to make out Rossi’s figure, holding the young girl with the blonde hair. She might be a teenager, but she was probably younger. Her face was so blank, like she wasn’t feeling anything.
Good girl, he wanted to say. I’m going to get you out of here.
“What’re you going to do to me, Gabriel?” Rossi said, his tone more patronizing than was probably safe in such a tense situation. “Kill me?”
“That’s what I’ve been dreaming of doing for nine years now.”
“Oh, it’s been much longer than that for you, and you know it.” The old man sneered. “As soon as I told you what this place was really for, you turned against me.”
Viper finished filling Duke’s wound. The bullet had only gone in one side, but he’d still need a hospital pretty damn fast. It was in a part of his neck that might have more damage than would show from a cursory feel out. He patted Duke on his good shoulder. “We need to get you out of here.”
“None of you are going anywhere,” the psychopath snarled.
When Viper looked up, Rossi had the muzzle of his gun pressed firmly to the girl’s forehead.
“You’re going to let me go, or I’m going to kill her.”
Gabriel’s laugh was choked and he took another step forward. “You think that’s going to stop me? You’re going to kill her anyway.”
A sick smile curled across the old man’s face and he gripped the girl’s shoulder, pushing her forward a step. “Oh, Gabriel. I would never, ever, do that to my own family.”
“The hell you wouldn’t,” he snarled. “I’m not going to let you out of here alive, so don’t even try it.”
“Yes, you are, son.” Rossi edged to one side and Viper’s gun trained right along with him.
For the first time, Viper saw what lay beyond Rossi. The room was wide and dark. A bed sat just behind the old man’s white pant leg, and to the right, against the wall, huddled a group of children. They held each other, probably ten of them, all aged eight or nine. Some a little older.
“You’re going to let me walk right out of here, and I’m going to take your daughter with me.” He cooed at the girl like she was a baby.
Gabriel’s gun dropped for a moment. “My daugh—what?” He raised the weapon high, his arms shaking. “You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not.” Rossi drew one finger down the side of the girl’s face. “Tell him what your name is, honey.”
The girl looked up at him, turning her head just enough that the gun disappeared for a second.
Viper’s trigger finger itched. But he had an M4. The bullet spray would catch her.
“Emilia,” she said, her little voice wavering.
Gabriel choked, his gun dropping to the floor. “No. It can’t be. You told me she was dead.”
“What else was I supposed to tell you?” The old man’s weathered hand turned her young cheek so that the side of her face caught the light.
Gabriel reached for the girl, taking a step forward, but Rossi clucked his tongue.
“Now, now, son.” He shook his head, his jowls jiggling. “You’re going to back off. All of you. And Emilia and I are going out that door. Then we’re going to lock you in here with the children.”
“No!” Viper yelled, snaking forward to stand next to Gabriel.
Rossi backed up until his leg hit the bed behind him. “You don’t have a choice, American. Either you move out of my way, or I kill little Emilia here.”
The girl whimpered a bit, but to her credit, she didn’t speak.
Gabriel’s breath caught audibly.
“I know you’re not going to let me take what you perceive to be an innocent life. So you drag your friends over there by the children, and then I’m going out that door.”
“No, you’re not.” Viper took another step.
Rossi sighed. It was a strange noise, like he was dealing with a petulant toddler. He gave a shake of his head and pointed his gun at the wall without looking.
Viper dove as hard and fast as he could to get in front of the gun.
He saw the shot before he felt it. The light filled the whole room, and the noise was deafening in the small confines. The bullet tore through the meaty part of his outstretched arm. He hit the ground hard on that injury and heat lanced through his whole left side.
“I’ll kill them all if I have to, one by one,” Rossi said. “It doesn’t matter. I’m going to have to start over anyway, so none of them matter.”
The words were so cold and matter-of-fact, he might’ve been talking about tomato plants instead of children.
Anger burned behind Viper’s eyes and he rolled to his back, pointing his gun up at Rossi. “Don’t you move, asshole. I’ll kill you myself.”
But before he could even think about pulling the trigger, Gabriel slid in front of the muzzle of his gun.
“Please.” The man’s tone was tortured, broken. “Please, don’t kill my daughter. I’ve… I thought she was dead all these years. Please.”
From the door, Dani’s sobs overtook the room again. She kept repeating Niko’s name and wailing.
Viper couldn’t think straight. From somewhere outside himself, he could feel Hannah’s heartbeat speed. She’d probably felt his injury.
Dammit.
He looked at Duke, but couldn’t read anything on his face, it was so dark.
“Please,” Gabriel repeated.
Viper was not a mercy guy. There was never an excuse to let a bad guy go. And if he’d had his sidearm, he would’ve shot Rossi between the eyes. But he didn’t. He only had his wide-spray automatic weapon. If he started shooting, he was going to kill Rossi and the girl and probably Gabriel, too.
Fuck.
“Move them away from the doo
r,” Rossi said with a nod toward Dani and Niko. “The rest of you, drop your weapons.”
Duke threw his M4 to the ground and whispered, “Do it, Viper. I’m not losing a kid on my watch.”
He couldn’t. The only way Rossi was going to die was if he could manage to kill him. He was the only one with the balls to get the job done, apparently.
“Viper.” His friend’s voice had a hard edge. “Throw down your fucking weapon.”
He took a long breath, in. Then out.
Am I really going to do this? Let the psychopath walk out into the jungle?
“Now,” Duke said. “And that’s an order.”
He threw his weapon to the ground in front of him and sat up. When his M4 stopped sliding, the light fixed on a spot on the far wall, and there was a strange shape in the shadow.
Viper looked to the floor and, just in front of the light was the butt of his M9. The gun he’d given to Gabriel.
“Now, move those two out of the way.” Rossi indicated Dani and Niko, and Gabriel jumped across the room and pulled Niko’s body away from the door.
Dani screamed and clawed at him, kicking him away when he finally dropped the body, but Gabriel was unfazed.
“There,” he said. “A clear path. Go ahead.”
“You move away, too,” Rossi said. He pulled the girl with him and edged around to the opposite side of the room from where Viper was.
Gabriel was just stepping away when Viper dove for the handgun.
His fingers had barely closed around the grip when another flash of light filled the room, along with the loud pop of a handgun.
Chapter Eight
Hannah clutched the small girl’s form to her with her free arm as Adrian Rossi’s body crumpled to the floor.
Blood pooled on the concrete. He was dead. The girl was safe.
Viper was alive, but she could still feel the burning in her arm where he’d been injured.
An emotional cry came from Gabriel in the center of the room. He approached slowly and Hannah realized she was still holding her gun up.
She dropped her arm and holstered the gun. He beckoned the child toward him and Hannah released her.
“Hannah!” Rain bellowed from down the hallway. His boots sent a heavy echo through the bunker.
“I’m fine,” she answered, entering the room. “Viper?”
He was here. Their bond, even though it was only half-complete had pulled her straight to the bunker.
Rain had been following his GPS navigator, but she’d pulled ahead of him by sheer force of will.
A light flashed across her face briefly. Then Viper’s voice called out. The room was dark, and filled with sounds of sobbing. She squinted and moved toward her mate’s voice.
“Follow the light, Hannah.”
The flashlight beam shifted to the floor and led her across the room, into his arms. “Rain told me about the babies here and I—”
His hands cupped her face and his lips closed over hers. Gently. Kissing away the worry that he would be angry she’d followed.
She melted into the kiss, running her hand down his shoulder until he winced. A stab of pain shot through her arm, echoing his discomfort. His sleeve was damp, and the scent of blood hung in the air—Viper’s and others.
Hannah pulled away from his mouth. “You’re shot? Is anyone else hurt?”
“Duke and—”
“Viper? Duke?” Rain’s voice entered the room and a wide beam of light flashed back and forth. “Shit, are you both shot?”
“Yes, commander,” Viper answered, grabbing a pack of woundseal from his vest. “I already sealed Duke’s wound, Hannah’s helping with mine.” He handed the packet to her and shone his flashlight toward his arm.
She tore it open, wincing at the large bloodstain on his sleeve. She made the hole larger, where the bullet had gone through his shirt and poured the powder into the wound.
“Rain,” Dani sobbed. “Niko is…”
Hannah’s body tightened and pain like fire stabbed her gut. No! No! It can’t be true. It can’t.
She finished with Viper’s arm and scrambled away from him, toward the sound of Dani’s weeping. She bumped into a couple of beds before she found her way across the room.
Her hand fell to Niko’s still form. No heartbeat. No breath sounds. He was gone. Really gone.
Hannah rolled back from her heels and let her butt hit the floor. Her friend was dead. She’d never hear his sweet smart-alec voice or joke with him about how crazy his family was again. And gods, what was his family going to say...or do?
Tears burned at the corner of her eyes.
Rain was spouting off orders, but she couldn’t hear them, not till he touched her shoulder. “Hannah, I’m going to carry Niko out of here, but I need you to help Gabriel with all the children.”
Carry Niko out. Cause he wouldn’t be walking. Ever again. Or smiling. Nothing.
He turned toward where Dani crouched on the other side of Niko, and flashed a light on the red-eyed woman. “I need you too, Dani. There are a lot of kids here that need our help. Niko died trying to help them and we’re not done yet.”
“If I’d run faster, maybe I—”
The commander touched her again. “Don’t torture yourself with maybes, Hannah. You did everything you could, just like everyone else in this room.”
It didn’t feel like it. She could’ve run faster. Or refused to stay when Viper asked her to. Any number of things might’ve changed the outcome for her friend.
“Hannah,” Rain said, lowering his voice. “They’d all be dead if it wasn’t for your quick action. I need your head in the game, right now.”
She swallowed. Her mind went into auto-pilot. There were patients. People who needed help. Children and babies who needed help. She jumped to her feet. “Give me that flashlight.” Hannah held out her hand, and Rain plunked the Maglight into her palm. The heavy metal was warm from his grip. She closed her fingers around it and shined a light toward Gabriel, then to the—massive—group of children. Her mouth fell open. “How many kids are in here?”
“Fifty or more probably,” he answered.
Gods! Surely he wasn’t serious. “Where are the rest?” she asked, shining the light along the group of children in the room. They all looked the same age. There had to be others.
“They are in the other bunk rooms,” said a girl’s voice from the back of the group. Hannah shined the light toward the voice.
“He has the keys. We can’t get to them without the keys,” the black-haired girl pointed in the direction of Adrian’s body.
“Are they younger? Older?”
“This is the oldest group. Once they age out of this room, they…” Her voice trailed off and Hannah’s stomach turned at the reality of where that statement had been heading.
“Gabriel, I need you to find the keys. Honey, what’s your name?”
“Maria.”
“Okay, Maria. Are there any adults in this bunker?”
“I don’t know. Usually.” The girl shifted, nervous, her eyes round. “They lock us in here at night, to sleep.”
“Got the keys,” Gabe said, jingling a key ring.
Hannah surveyed the room of children, huddled together. Most of them seemed close to adolescence. But all old enough. “We’re here to rescue you, okay? To take you outside. We need you to help carry the babies. Everyone needs to walk carefully. It’s dark and we won’t have anything but these flashlights until we’re outside.”
She followed most of the flurry of Spanish that flew back and forth between the children. They began filling one-by-one along the wall, around Adrian’s body and then past Niko’s. She flashed a light toward where Viper was, but he’d moved.
“Viper?”
“Over here, Hannah.”
She moved her light. He was helping Duke climb to his feet.
“Get those kids out.”
She nodded, and the responsible cap of being a doctor fell securely back into place. Hannah followed Ga
briel down the hallway, unlocking one door after another. Calming one group of terrified children after another. Luckily they all recognized Emilia and Maria, and settled quickly.
Considering the conditions they lived in, she’d been prepared for much more resistance, but these poor babies seemed to know they were about to get a taste for something they’d never had before—freedom.
Gabriel opened the last door on the hallway and the older girls followed him. They pulled baby after baby from the white cribs built into the walls.
Four, five, six, seven infants. So many children. Hannah choked back the stabbing pain in her chest and inhaled. The worst was past. Right?
Hannah flashed the light along the wall. The never-ending line of children seemed to have only grown. They walked quietly and carefully, just as they’d been told. Any child large enough to carry a smaller one had their arms full. Smaller children were holding the hands of the toddlers that could walk.
Gabriel stopped next to her in the hall. “There’s one more room we need to check. Let me take Emilia with me.”
“Go.”
He nodded and took the girl’s hand. They disappeared into the darkness, only coming into view when a random flashlight waved across them. The stairs up out of the bunker were around a corner and out of sight.
The Rangers had all gone up already. Viper had helped Duke. Rain had carried Niko. Dani had grabbed a small toddler and hurried up the stairs after them. She didn’t hold it against the Hollywood wolf for not sticking around to herd the children.
Dani was grieving. She and Rain were too, but they all dealt with it differently. Hannah needed to be busy. Giving her a job to do had been the best thing Rain could’ve done for her at that moment.
Gabriel came out of the darkness pulling two women hard in his hands. One was much older, with silver streaks in her hair. The other was wearing all black and had her sleek hair pulled up into a ponytail.
“This is my sister, Luna.” He thrust the younger girl forward. “And this is our mother, Christina.”
Both women eyed Hannah cautiously, struggling only a little against his grip. Hannah was shocked at their rough treatment until she realized who they must be.
“You’re the adults who live down here.” Her insides clenched. “You’re the ones who keep these children captive.”