Page 15 of Chaos & Carnage
The two of them share a quick glance. “We have to get you out of here,” Dante orders.
“No!” I’m immediately shaking my head and planting my feet. “I’m not leaving them.”
“You’re injured,” he bites out, rounding on me with fury in his eyes like nothing I’ve seen on him before. Except, underneath all that heat, I see the real emotion that’s bothering him—fear.
“I’m not that bad,” I promise him. I’m not, not really. I’m not so bad that I’ll willingly leave my Rejects behind. Not when they are only in this position because of me—because they had my back going in to rescue Luc.
Both of them stare at me, and I dart my gaze back and forth between them. I don’t know what they see in my eyes, whether they can tell I genuinely am okay enough to fight, or the fact that I will not leave here without ensuringallof them come with me. Whatever it is, Enzo relents.
“Fine, but the three of us stick together when we leave this room.”
I nod in agreement, even though I’m still locked in a silent stand-off with Dante. If I don’t get him on my side, he’ll happily ignore Enzo’s orders and my demands and throw me over his shoulder. After a long, tense moment, his lip lifts in an angry snarl, and his nostrils flare, but he growls something incoherent that I take to mean is an acknowledgment of Enzo’s plan.
Now that that has been sorted, I scurry into the bathroom and grab the other gun Cain keeps hidden in between the spare towels, tucking it into the back of my jeans. I take a second to slip into my Reaper identity, letting her cold detachment wash over me as everything that makes Sawyer, Sawyer, is shoved into a box. When I’m ready, I walk back into the bedroom. I don’t know if Dante or Enzo can see the difference, but Enzo cocks his brow in a silent question. I nod that I’m ready to go, and adjusting my grip on the gun, the three of us edge toward the door.
Enzo reaches it first, placing his ear against the wood as he listens for any sounds on the other side, although I doubt he can hear anything over the high-pitched shrill of the alarm.
Cracking the door an inch, he peers into the hall before opening it further. He pops his head out, before waving for us to follow him out of the room. Once we’re standing in the hall, I can hear it. Even over the ear-splitting scream of the alarm, I can make out the distinctly more reverberating pop of gunfire.
When the sound of the alarm suddenly cuts out, the noise only becomes more deafening—hammering in tune to my erratic heartbeat. It sounds like it is coming from all angles, and I can’t pinpoint if we’re being shot at from the front or all around us.
“We need to move,” Enzo orders, already ambling in the direction of the bar. Dante yanks me in front of him so I’m safely wedged between the two of them.
We don’t make it far before a crashing noise behind us has all three of us spinning. Taking a step to the side so I can peer around Dante’s broad frame, I raise my weapon as a door at the far end of the hall flies open. Light streams in, and all I can see is a dark silhouette, unable to tell if it’s a friend or foe. However, as he steps forward, several more men piling in behind him, I recognize the arrogant swagger and swish of pant trousers.Fucking Antonellis.
Without a moment’s hesitation, I press down on the trigger, firing off a shot. Despite the fact they are shooting at their own people, Dante and Enzo don’t hesitate as the intruders return fire, and the three of us form an impenetrable wall, each picking a target and eliminating them one at a time until we’re the only ones left standing.
“Fuck,” I pant, when silence reigns supreme. “They must have made it past the perimeter guards. That can’t be good.”
Rough hands grab a hold of my shoulders, and I’m abruptly turned until I’m facing Dante, his hands maintaining their painfully tight grip as he runs his eyes up and down me. “Are you hurt? You’re not even wearing any goddamn Kevlar.”
“I’m fine,” I assure him.
“We need to keep moving,” Enzo urges, but I don’t miss how he conducts his own assessment of me, needing to check for himself that I’m unharmed. When he’s satisfied, he barks out, “Stay behind me,” spearing me with a deadly look until I nod in agreement before slowly continuing our journey down the hallway.
With every step closer, the sound of gunfire gets louder, until it and shouting are all I hear. By the time we step into the bar, it resembles a war zone rather than the bar I remember it to be. The men from earlier are hidden behind overturned tables, lined up along the wall, shooting at whoever is outside. My eyes scan the room in a panic until I spot Cain and Oliver in the thick of it.
“Over there!” I point in their direction, my voice barely carrying over the rattle of gunfire and men shouting. As if they hear me, both of them turn, with matching pissed-off expressions on their faces when they spot us through the chaos.
Cain shifts as though he’s going to come over here, but before he can take another step, a fresh round of gunfire goes off, windows shattering and stray bullets embedding in the walls. I duck at the same time a hand presses on the top of my head, forcing me to the ground. I can feel a weight above me, one of the guys practically lying on top of me. My body cries out at the pressure and at being pushed onto the hard floor beneath, but I can hardly feel it over the pounding of adrenaline and the carnage building around me. Every time I lift my head to look, Dante’s hand pushes my face back against the floorboard.
A heavy weight thumps against the ground in front of me, and I push against his hand until I can see a body. My eyes travel up over his boots, jeans, and Kevlar vest until they land on his face, my composure cracking.
“Dax,” I gasp, trying to wriggle out from beneath Dante to check on him.
“He’s dead,mia vita.” It takes a second for his murmured words in my ear to register, and when I look back at Dax’s face, I notice how his eyes stare blankly at the ceiling above, unblinking.
Emotion swells in my throat. “No.” The fight drains out of me as I stare at him, tears biting at the back of my eyes. I didn’t know Dax well, but I know he was with Cain since the beginning. He was one of the men Cain trusted most.
I feel Dante shift behind me, Enzo taking his place while Dante reaches toward Dax. “What are you doing?” I ask as he undoes the Velcro straps of his vest and lifts it over Dax’s head, pulling it out from under his body.
Crawling back over to me, he doesn’t answer as he slides it over my head instead, redoing the straps so the vest sits flush against my chest and back. Our eyes meet, his are their usual blankness, like we aren’t in the middle of a shootout, and mine are probably dilated with adrenaline, panic, and grief.
Cain army crawls his way over to us, stopping when he reaches Dax’s body. I see the flash of pain in his face before he reaches out, closes Dax’s eyelids, and mutters something too low for me to hear. He takes a moment to say goodbye, and when his head snaps up, his gaze colliding with mine, there’s nothing in his eyes except pure, unadulterated anger.
“You need to get out of here,” he yells when he reaches us, flicking his gaze up to look at Dante and Enzo.
“We’re not leaving without you,” I shout back.