Page 75 of Sanctuary

Despite the noise, no one else appears. Maybe nobody heard it.

Aidan opens the door.

The first person in from outside is Cole. His big, familiar form briefly fills the doorway before moving aside. More people file in after him and move in different directions. Some are going to take care of the guards and other stragglers in the courtyard and then wait until one of another group lets them in through the front. More will cover the other exits to catch anyone trying to escape or anyone arriving from outside to help. The rest of us will work on clearing out each floor of the main building.

There’s too much to process all at once, so I focus only on my own responsibilities. Aidan returns to me with Cole and the short-haired woman named Gail that I met yesterday.

The four of us are headed to the right side of the fourth floor. Our numbers are smaller than most of the other groups because, according the Aidan, the fourth floor is used to house captives and servants. There won’t be many fighters up there, so we won’t need as many guns.

Aidan also said he’s pretty sure Cole’s brother does shifts up there. That’s why Cole is with us and not where we need our best fighters.

No one has yet found the dead body of the first guy Aidan killed in the back hallway. It’s quiet as we speed walk toward the stairwell on the right side of the building.

Soon, however, we start hearing gunfire from the front. Then a clanging of an alarm. A few guys run out of the kitchen behind us, obviously summoned by the alarm and looking to help. Aidan and I are in the rear of our group, so we turn around and fire on them before they can process our presence in the hallway.

We’ve still got silencers on our guns. Not that it matters anymore.

Cole bursts through the door to the stairwell and starts running, taking two steps at a time. Gail follows closely and then me with Aidan right behind.

I’m breathless when we get to the top—more from dazed tension than from effort. I’ve never been in a situation like this before. I’ve killed men. I’ve fought and protected myself. But I’ve never been part of a full-scale attack.

It feels like a battle, and it’s entirely new to me. I wonder if everyone goes through it with the same weird detachment—like everything is blurred except the few feet directly in front of them.

I can barely even remember the emotional minutes I shared with Aidan less than an hour ago.

I can barely remember Del’s face.

There are a few guys running down the stairs from a higher floor, but Cole and Gail take care of them with quick efficiency. When we’ve reached the fourth level, we fall into a square formation with our guns raised. I’m behind Cole and next to Aidan.

At the first doorways on the hall, Cole gestures toward me. I get ready. He kicks the door on our side open, and I enter, covering the left half of the room as he gets the right. Aidan and Gail are doing the same across the hall.

The room is filled with women and girls, lounging on mats and filling every available space on the floor. Some look startled. Some terrified. Some barely awake. One little girl who must be barely thirteen is crying. There is one man in the room, clearly on duty to make sure the women don’t escape. He doesn’t try to fight back and hasn’t even pulled out his gun. He’s got both hands high in the air.

Cole ties his hands behind his back and leaves him face down on the floor while I guard the door.

“Y’all stay in here until you get the all-clear that it’s safe,” I tell one of the older women. “Then you can get out of here.”

A murmur of surprised relief runs through the group, and the woman I spoke to nods and gathers a couple of the younger ones closer to her. Cole and I step back into the hall right as Aidan and Gail are doing the same from the room across from us.

Aidan’s eyes run up and down my body quickly, obviously checking my condition. When we reach the next rooms on the hallway, someone comes out of the one on the left. He’s got a gun in his hand but not aimed. All four of us target him.

“Wait,” Cole mutters abruptly, lowering his assault rifle.

It’s his brother. It’s got to be his brother. He joined the group of Weasel and the others that were taking me here last year, but only on the final night, and it was after I went to sleep so I never actually saw him in more than brief, passing glances during a gunfight. He’s younger than Cole, but he doesn’t look like it. His face is worn. Grizzled. His clothes and face are dirty, and his hair is pulled back in a greasy ponytail.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” he bursts out when his eyes land on Cole.

His name is Mark, I suddenly remember.

“What are you fucking doing here?” he demands, still holding his gun but not raising it. “Are you crazy? You’re going to get yourself killed! Get out of here, you fucking moron!” The rough tone is angry. Outraged. But not full of hate or bitterness.

He sounds almost—almost—like a brother.

“Not without you,” Cole tells him. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been looking for you?”

“Way too fucking long.” Mark turns his head at the sound of gunfire from downstairs and outside. “How many people do you have? What the hell kind of suicide mission is this? What the fuck are you even trying to do?”

Aidan and Gail have exchanged looks while Cole and his brother are talking, and they must come to a silent agreement to clear out the room on their side of the hall. Aidan kicks the door in, and then he and Gail charge in.

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