Page 73 of Broken Love

“Fox—” Caleb’s voice cuts off.

“Man down!” Rhys says. “Fitzpatrick, we’re going in. If you get a shot, take it.”

My heart stops.

“Who’s down?” I ask. “Fox, who’s down?!”

“I don’t know,” he says.

Another wave of gunshots spills out, flooding the air with a popping echo. I freeze in the sand, ready to bury my head in it, but I can’t stop staring at the warehouse.

Caleb.

She’s in there. I can’t do a fucking thing from back here.

I push up off the sand and start running.

“Boxcar, stop!”

I ignore Fox’s warning, forcing one foot in front of the other. Regret builds with each step, but I swallow it down between heaving breaths. The warehouse draws closer every second but each one that passes could mean a bullet through Caleb’s perfect green eyes.

Finally, I charge through the front door and my nose twitches with the scent of blood.

Rhys. West. Rogers. Each of them lies on the floor, face down and still, with a pool of red flowing out of their heads. I slink back as a wave of nausea hits my gut.

“Holy shit!”

A giant hand slaps my shoulder. His voice echoes in my memories, that same barking drawl that bossed me around for days.

“It’s you!”

I look up into the hard, black eyes of the bald man and cringe. For a second, I wonder if it’s a good thing that he looks happy to see me but then I realize that it just means he gets to tie up a loose end.

“Boxcar…”

Caleb’s whimper breaks my heart even more. She sits in the chair at the table with her fingers weaved together behind her head and for a moment, I breathe easier. Then, I notice the bearded man with his gun pressed against her head and it all melts away.

“Please, don’t hurt her,” I say.

The bald man forces me into the chair beside her. She stares back at me with a blood-splattered face, her eyes drifting behind my head as I feel the hard, metal tip of a gun push against my skull.

“The Boss will be delighted to know we found you,” the bald man says. He pulls back the hammer beside my ear and I flinch. “Don’t worry about the lady. We won’t kill her… yet.”

The bearded man’s laughter cuts short and his body crumbles to the floor behind Caleb’s chair.

“What the fuck—”

More blood strikes Caleb’s face. I spin around in time to see the bald man’s eyes roll back into his head before he joins his friend on the floor. My jaw drops at the dark red dots in the center of each of their foreheads.

Fox fucking Fitzpatrick.

I heave a nauseous breath, full of happy relief, and turn to look at Caleb.

Her palm crashes into my face.

“Ow!” Pain fires down my neck as she climbs to her feet. “What—!”

“What the hell were you thinking?!” she shouts. “Running in here like that. Are you insane?”

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