“He’s going to be okay,” Callum said to Isobel. “I promise you. We’ll keep him alive until we can get to a hospital. I’ve dealt with a lot worse than this during combat.”
She sniffed and nodded, but her eyes stayed on Jack.
“The door to the kitchen is barricaded,” Dimitri said. “I’m going to do the tunnel now.”
“Take these bodies and dump them in the tunnel first.” Callum didn’t want them lying there for Sophie and Isobel to look at. Plus, it would make whoever came down the tunnel after these guys think twice.
Dimitri picked up the nearest body, slung it over his shoulder and headed for the tunnel entrance.
They heard a massive crash and the sound of cracking wood.
“That will be the door to the kitchen,” Ryan said as he finished with Elle. “Sit on the bed.”
They were going the old-fashioned route and using gravity to get the blood from Elle into Jack. It wasn’t perfect, but it might keep him alive. No. It will keep him alive. There were no other options.
There was a loud bang that made Isobel jump and hold Sophie closer.
“They’re trying to get through the downstairs door, but they won’t.” Callum kept his tone matter-of-fact, hoping to ease her worry. “It’s steel-plated. I put it in myself.” He’d been having what passed as fun for him at the time, keeping his hands and brain busy while fortifying his grandfather’s bunker. Now he wished he’d finished the job instead of messing with his grandfather’s woodturning equipment.
Dimitri came back and carted away another body. There was another thud at the door.
Callum took a pressure dressing out of the med kit and moved Megan aside to fix it to Jack. There was internal damage and he needed a surgeon. The best Callum could do was stem the blood flow until they got to one.
“I don’t think the knife hit anything important,” he told Isobel. “The biggest problem is the loss of blood. Megan, get Elle orange juice from the fridge. She needs to stay hydrated.”
Megan rushed away. She came back a few seconds later with clean hands and a bottle of juice. Ryan hauled the last body out of the room, and Callum heard Dimitri telling Ryan to barricade the door to the tunnel.
Another thud shook the steel-plated door, but it didn’t give. It wouldn’t give.
“Megan, keep pressure on here while I talk to Ryan and Dimitri.” For once, his trainee didn’t object to being left out of the loop. She knelt beside Jack and took over applying pressure to his gut.
Callum crouched in front of Isobel, reluctant to touch her because his hands were covered in Jack’s blood.
“Isobel, sweetheart?”
She looked up at him, but she was struggling to fight the effects of shock. Callum stood, pulled the blanket from the bed and wrapped it around her and Sophie.
“We’re going to get out of this,” Callum said as he crouched in front of them again.
Isobel’s lip trembled as one huge tear rolled down her cheek. “Will Jack live?” she whispered.
“Aye.” There was no way that boy would be allowed to do anything else. Not on Callum’s watch. “I need to go deal with this situation. I want you to keep Sophie warm. I’ll send in more orange juice for both of you, and you have to drink it. You need the sugar to help you cope with the adrenalin. Do you hear me, Isobel?”
She nodded, her attention straying back to Jack.
“Watch her,” Callum ordered Megan and Elle before he strode from the room.
As he left, he heard Elle murmur encouragement to Isobel, and he was almost overwhelmed with appreciation. Walking wasn’t as smooth as it had been before someone shot at him. His knee joint had suffered some damage. He could still move, but there was a stiffness that hadn’t been there before.
“I’m getting really pissed off with people shooting my prosthetic legs,” he told Dimitri as he came into the kitchen.
“You still able to function?” Dimitri said.
“Aye, I think it’s just dented.” Callum washed his hands in the kitchen sink, watching Jack’s blood drain away and hating every second of it. “What are we dealing with?”
The two men had stacked every piece of furniture they could find against both doors. The team attacking them were still trying to get through the steel-plated door. The thuds and shouting were almost continuous. It was only a matter of time before they tried the tunnel entrance.
“There are at least seven men outside. All armed to the teeth,” Ryan said. “As we came downstairs, two SUVs turned up. So there’s more guys than the seven—sorry, ten, including the three you dealt with—that we know about.”
“Weapons?” Callum dried off his hands, keeping an eye on the door to the room where Isobel and the kids were.
Dimitri held up his handgun. “I didn’t fire, so I still have a full clip.”
“I fired, but I still have most of my clip left.” Ryan gave him a smile. “I took out the gas canister beside the building you use for woodturning. I got two guys coming out of their SUV.”
“That was the blast,” Callum said. “I’ve got half a clip, a spare gun Elle’s holding and a box of bullets. But that’s it. I wasn’t exactly planning on waging a war out here.”
“How long until the cavalry arrives?” Dimitri said.
Callum looked at his watch. “Forty minutes, maybe more.”
There was nothing to say. They knew that forty minutes when under siege by a group like the ACAB Militia was a very long time to try to stay alive. Another thud against the door emphasised the point.
“How secure are we down here?” Ryan asked.
Callum cocked a thumb at the door leading up to the kitchen. “That’s reinforced steel. The tunnel is narrow, so the chances of them using it to rush us are slim, but at some point they’re going to figure out that the best way to get to us is to go through the floor of the house.”
“Are there any parts that are concrete?”
“The section above the bathroom. That’s the securest room down here. It’s also the smallest. The walls aren’t reinforced though, so if the militia get in here, they could break through the walls to get into the bathroom. Or just fire at them until the bullets make their way through.”
“What if we put the women and kids in the bathroom, pad the walls and barricade the door, then we go hunting,” Ryan said. “We can go out through the tunnel.”
“They used the tunnel to come in. They’re probably watching the entrance. Plus, it’s too narrow in there to defend ourselves coming out.”
“We’re stuck down here, aren’t we?” Ryan said.
“Aye.” Callum looked around. “But we aren’t helpless. They’re going to get in. It’s a matter of time. We need to move the women and kids to the bathroom and then position ourselves so we can take out as many as possible once they get in here.”
A large blast rocked the building. Sophie screamed and Isobel cooed at her. Callum could hear the fear in her voice.
“Let’s move them,” Callum said.
The men jogged towards the rest of their team. Megan looked up at them as they entered the room. “How long have we got?” she said.
“Ten minutes, maybe more,” Callum said. If they were lucky. “We’re moving everyone into the bathroom.”
“No.” Isobel held her son’s hand tightly. “We can’t move him. What if it makes him worse?”
Callum crouched in front of her and stroked her hair. “We have to. We have to keep you safe. There’s a good chance these guys are going to get in here, and we need you in the securest room we have.”
“Clam.” Sophie’s red face turned to him. “I’m scared.”
He reached out and lifted her from her mother. “I know, baby, but we’re going to get through this, okay? I need you to be a brave girl and help your mum and Jack. You can do that, can’t you?”
She didn’t look sure, but she nodded before wrapping her arms around his neck. Callum stood, turning to see Dimitri take the door off the closet. They would use it as a stretche
r to get Jack into the bathroom.
“Come on, Isobel.” Callum held out his hand. “Let the guys take Jack into the other room. We’ll grab some bedding and make it comfortable for him.”
Isobel didn’t look certain, but she put her hand in his and let him tug her to her feet. Callum wrapped his free arm around her waist and pulled her into his body. Her bloodstained hands curled in his shirt.
“I’m scared too,” she whispered.
“I know, sweetheart, but we’re going to get through this.” He kissed her hair, hating that the arsehole had used it to hurt her. “Trust me.”
“I do.”
He pressed his forehead to hers. “You’re it for me, Izzy.” Her hands tightened and she pressed closer to him. Callum leaned back. “Let’s go.”
They hurried to the bathroom, where the closet door was placed on top of the bath with Jack on it. He was still unconscious.
“Wash your hands,” Callum said gently to Isobel as the rest of the team went to gather materials to barricade the room. Callum put the toilet lid down and sat Sophie on it, wrapping the blanket Megan handed him around her.
Once he’d settled Sophie, Callum unhooked Elle from Jack and attached a bag of saline solution to the line in her place. It wasn’t as good as blood, but it would help.
“Why do you have that in the house?” Elle said as she put a Band-Aid on her arm. “It isn’t exactly standard first aid stuff.”
Callum almost smiled. “Hangover cure. From my days when hitting a bottle seemed preferable to dealing with life.”
“Nutter.” She shook her head.
Using cupboard doors and mattresses, Ryan and Callum padded the walls between the bathroom and the rest of the basement. Isobel sat on the toilet lid with Sophie in her arms, watching everything with wide eyes. Dimitri nodded at Callum, and Callum crouched in front of the woman who’d come to mean everything to him in such a short time.
“No matter what you hear,” he said, “stay in this room. Do you understand?”
She nodded and tears started falling again. “Come back to me.”
“You know I will.” He cupped her cheek and pressed a kiss to her soft, soft lips. “Look after your mum, Sophie.” He pressed a kiss to her head before turning to look down at Jack. He was grey, but still breathing. And Callum planned to keep it that way. He looked at the two women he was trusting to act as the last line of defence for Isobel and the kids. “Put the mattress and boards in front of the door once we’re out. Stay in the corners, low to the ground. If anything starts coming through the walls, get as many of you as possible inside the bath. Jack will cope with the move if you have to do it.” He looked at the gun in Megan’s hand. “Shoot anything that comes through the door. If it’s us, we’ll let you know. We have about a half-hour to get through before backup arrives. Do whatever you have to do to stay alive.” He glanced at Isobel, Sophie and Jack. He was coming back to them. It was his promise to himself.
Elle put her hand on his arm. “We’ll protect them.”
Callum nodded and walked out of the room.
“Kill as many as you can,” Megan called cheerily after him.
CHAPTER 27
SILENCE HAD NEVER BEEN SO oppressive. Waiting had never felt so torturous. Sophie had fallen asleep in Isobel’s arms, exhausted from all the emotion and trauma she’d been forced to deal with. Jack was lying on the wooden door, on top of the bath. A tube ran from his arm to the bag of fluids hanging from the shower curtain rail above him. The dressing on his abdomen was getting redder by the minute, but the blood wasn’t pouring out of him anymore.
“I wish I was out there,” Megan said softly.
She sat on the floor facing the door, her back to the bath and her legs stretched out in front of her.
“You do?” Isobel couldn’t comprehend such a thing. She wanted to be as far away from the guns and violence as possible.
“I’m only a trainee badass. I’m not allowed to play with the big boys until I graduate.” Megan thought about it for a minute. “I need to ask someone how long this traineeship is. That was never specified.”
Elle snorted a strained laugh. She was sitting Buddha style in the corner beside the door. “The answer is that it will never end. There’s no way they’ll trust you enough to let you out of the trainee programme.”
“I’m beginning to think that there is no trainee programme,” Megan said with a frown. “I suspect they just labelled me a trainee because I wouldn’t go away.”
“And because you were a loose cannon who needed to learn how to play with others.”
Megan shrugged. “That too. I still wish I was out there, though. I really want to shoot these bastards.” She looked at Sophie and winced. “She’s asleep, right? My sister Claire has twin babies, and she’s always telling me to watch my language around them.”
“She’s asleep,” Isobel confirmed, and her eyes strayed to Jack again.
“This isn’t your fault,” Elle said.
Isobel turned to look at her. “I know. I did feel responsible, because I was the one who found the bag and sold its contents, and the one who moved the body. But then I realised I wasn’t the one using the cove for illegal activity. And I didn’t slit that man’s throat. And I didn’t blow up my house. And I didn’t come here and stab my son. This isn’t on me. It’s on them.”
“Well said,” Megan said. “Let’s hope the boys shoot them all.”
They sat in silence again, straining to hear the slightest sound that would let them know what was happening. There was nothing. Isobel was so tense that she thought she might have a heart attack from the stress of it all.
“Twenty minutes to go,” Elle said. “Someone should come to help us soon.”
“The thumping stopped,” Megan said. “I think the morons eventually figured out that they couldn’t get through the door.”
“I wish Callum wasn’t out there,” Isobel said before she could stop herself. She knew he was more than capable and used to dealing with combat, but he was out there. Cornered. Waiting for an attack.
“This is what they do,” Elle said. “I’m the computer person. I’m normally in an office, behind a desk. But these guys thrive on this stuff. They don’t react like normal people. When you and I have gunmen bearing down on us, we freak out, we scream, we cry. These guys get calm, efficient. All their training kicks in and they block out everything except the fight in front of them. They were made to function like this. We don’t understand it, but they are the best at what they do.”
“Plus,” Megan said, “if Dimitri gets shot, I’ve told him no nooky for at least six months. It’s important to reinforce their motivation. Like puppies. They need training.”
The blonde seemed completely serious, and Isobel caught Elle’s eyes and saw that she too was caught between amusement and bewilderment. Isobel thought Megan would fit right in with the men on the other side of the door. There was a certain bloody-thirsty attitude about her.
“I hope you get to graduate to full-fledged badass soon,” Isobel said. “You look like you’d really enjoy shooting people.” Elle smothered a laugh, and Isobel flushed. “That didn’t come out how I intended.”
Megan grinned. “It sounded totally fine to me.”
“Eighteen minutes,” Elle said.
“I wish Callum was in here,” Isobel said again. “Sorry.”
“You’re crazy about him, aren’t you?” Elle said.
Isobel looked at her son and then at her sleeping daughter. “He’s the best man I’ve ever met.”
“But grumpy, right?” Megan said. “I mean, terrifyingly grumpy. Don’t you think?”
Elle leaned forward and smacked Megan’s leg. “He isn’t grumpy with her.”
“Oh, you’re right.” Megan looked at Isobel. “So when this is over, you totally have to come to London and hang out with Callum all the time. Sex obviously improves his disposition, and we could use a lighter atmosphere around the office.”
Elle groaned. “You look
at the two of us and you’d think the one with the blue hair must be the strange one. But you’d be wrong.”
“What?” Megan said. “What did I say? She doesn’t have a house. It blew up. She obviously loves Callum, and Callum loves her. Callum has a house. A big house. Where else is she going to go? And if Callum gets sex out of the deal, and we get a mellow boss, who loses here?”
Isobel found herself smiling and shaking her head. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I have a tendency to rush into relationships, and it never goes well. I’ve only known Callum a few days.”
“Yeah,” Megan said. “But they were intense days. And intense days should be measured like dog years. Emotionally, you’ve known him about a decade.”
“Please come to London,” Elle said. “I could use someone normal to talk to.”
Isobel smiled. “He hasn’t asked me.” She wasn’t sure she wanted to go, but there still hadn’t been a conversation.
“Maybe you should ask him,” Megan said. “Girl power and all that.”
That wasn’t going to happen. Isobel reached forward and held Jack’s hand. He was still breathing normally, and that was good. She knew the women were trying to keep her mind off things and keep her calm. She appreciated it, she did, but it didn’t change the fact that she was barricaded in a bathroom with her seriously injured son and her traumatised daughter.
“Fifteen minutes,” Elle said. “Why does time slow down when you want it to pass?”
“Horrible things always slow down time,” Megan said. “Like childbirth. Claire said her labour lasted almost four months. Grunt said it felt like longer.”
“Grunt?” Isobel said.
“My monosyllabic brother-in-law. Built like a mountain. Looks like King Kong. Talks in grunts.”
“Oh.” Isobel looked at the door, wishing she could see through it to the rooms beyond. Was Callum even still out there? Had he gone out to fight the men upstairs? Would they hear it down here if he had?
“Fourteen minutes,” Elle said.
“Stop counting. You’re making it worse,” Megan said.
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