Page 115 of Agony

Fisher turned toward Crow, thinking of where he could shoot the guy and not cause death or too much damage.

He needn’t have bothered with that because Azrael went ballistic.

“I can’t be here!” Screaming at the top of his lungs, Azrael ran toward the bunker door and slammed against it, sobbing and banging his hands on the heavy iron with dull thuds. “Let me out. Let me out!”

He, including Crow, Garrett, and Tanis, was taken aback. When Azrael slid down the door to his knees and showed no signs of slowing his breakdown, Tanis took action.

“There, there, I’ll let you out,” Tanis soothed the boy with the lie and lifted the sobbing Azrael up from the ground. Easing the boy toward Garrett, Tanis turned to the vault.

With his eye to the laser, his thumb on the mechanism, and his voice activated, the bunker door locks disengaged and rolled open with a deep resounding clunk. Once the locks were done, the door popped open automatically.

“I have a nice bed for you to sleep in,” Tanis told Azrael and took him back from Garrett.

The door swung wider beneath Tanis’ hand and Fisher got a look at the room. It stretched probably fifty feet with cages lining each side. Some were filled and others were vacant. Each cell had a bed that looked comfortable and Fisher didn’t need to imagine how Tanis used those beds. The boys of various ages jumped to their feet and some gripped the bars, others cowered in the back of their cells in fear.

Crow hit the button on his hip that was hidden in the man’s belt and Fisher knew the calvary was coming.

Now they only had to get—

Crow launched at Garrett and Fisher lifted the gun to shoot Tanis, only Azrael was in the way.

“Get down,” Fisher ordered Azrael, but Tanis snatched the boy before he could move.

“Let him go,” Fisher snarled.

Tanis kept his head behind Azrael’s, not giving him a clear shot.

“Can you get down?” Fisher said exasperated and Azrael grinned, a gleeful gleam in his eyes.

Oh hell, this was not going to go well.

Fisher could hear the thundering footsteps of the team coming down the hallway.

Real came through the door along with Stone and Steel and several darkly dressed men.

Garrett’s firearm discharged with a tat, tat, tat, as Crow knocked it out of the man’s hands. Fisher had no clue where the rounds had gone.

The next moment, Garrett and Crow locked in a wrestling match that was brutal and deadly, and he was tempted to turn his weapon and shoot Garrett in the head. He couldn’t though, because more than likely, Tanis had a weapon down here.

And he couldn’t get dead, he’d promised Justice.

A few things happened simultaneously. Azrael spun around and head-butted Tanis, knocking the man away.

Justice slammed through the door at the same time and fired, shooting Garrett somewhere, not killing the man because his screams of pain filled the room. Crow lunged free of the big fucker and kicked the guy in the head, knocking him out.

The room grew noisy and filled with snarls and sobs from the caged boys.

Tanis backhanded Azrael in the mouth and sent the slighter boy flying against one of the cages.

Justice grabbed him around the waist and spun him around, taking his aim from Tanis. Not that he could have shot the guy because someone was now in his way and that someone was Real.

When the big soldier took in the scene and realized that Azrael was on site, all fucking hell broke loose. Fisher spotted blood dripping down Real’s side, one of the bullets from Garrett’s gun, he was sure.

Tanis lunged for what Fisher suspected was a weapon, but the man never made it.

Real converged on Tanis and lifted the man by the throat before pushing the guy’s head against the nearest cage bars. Thankfully, that cage was empty.

Tanis screamed and scratched at Real, but with the military gear the man wore, nothing penetrated.

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