Page 41 of Carter's Battle

She nodded but coughed some more.

“Stay low. It will help with the smoke.

“Okay,” she said. Her eyes were watering, and she started coughing again.

Carter turned, bent over, and waited for Mia to grab his belt. When he felt the tug of her hand, he started forward. Flames flared up every wall. Only the center part was clear since there were no pallets stacked there.

Carter led Mia down the center of the warehouse toward the door. A stack of pallets on their left gave way and fell in front of them. Carter swore but moved to his left and made it around them. The door was not far ahead, but pallets on the floor in flames were blocking it. They were going to have to go around them on the right.

Carter got them close to the obstacle and turned to tell Mia what they were going to do when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned back only to catch a two-by-four to the arm, knocking his gun out of his hand. Mia’s uncle swung the board again and Carter had to jump to the side, pulling Mia with him. The board narrowly missed her, but she let go of his belt.

Carter pulled out another gun but lost Makaio in the smoke. He looked around but didn’t see Makaio. He turned to get Mia when the kingpin came out of the smoke again, two-by-four raised above his head. Carter raised his gun, but Mia was faster. She came out of the smoke and hit her uncle dead center of his chest with a burning hunk of wood. Her uncle dropped to his knees as an explosion rocked the warehouse. A stack of pallets started to fall. Makaio looked at the falling pallets and screamed.

Carter grabbed Mia’s hand and ran as fast as he could through the smoke to the doorway. They didn’t stop running until they reached the fire engines outside.

“Stop staring at me,”Mia rasped. “I’m fine.”

God, he’d almost lost her. It was a miracle she was sitting on the floor of the ambulance in one piece. He was slowly starting to process that Mia was okay. All he wanted to do was pull her into his arms and never let her go. “Put the oxygen mask back on,” he growled as he tried to rein in his emotions.

“Mia,” Emery said as she came over and gave her friend a long hug. “I was so worried about you.”

“Me too,” Mia said.

“Girl, you ever hold out on me like that again and I will kick your ass from here to next week. You understand me?” Emery demanded.

“Understood,” Mia responded in a solemn voice.

“Good.” Emery gave her another huge hug. “My people are going to want to talk to you about all this, but it can wait until the morning.” She turned to Carter. “You take care of her.”

“Will do.” And he would, no matter what it took.

“Glad to see you’re in one piece, Mia,” Flint commented. He turned to Emery. “Did we get everyone?”

She nodded and pointed over towards a group of police cars. There were ten men in handcuffs. “All of Makaio’s henchmen and Bobby.”

Bowie and Quinn joined them at the back of the ambulance. “What about Mia’s uncle?” Bowie asked.

Emery shook her head. “We didn’t see him.”

“He’s dead,” Carter supplied and then squeezed Mia’s arm. He knew there was no love lost between them but still, he was Mia’s family. “He tried to take us out on the way out the door, but Mia decked him and then a stack of burning pallets collapsed on him.”

“I’m sorry, Mia,” Bowie offered.

She shook her head and removed the oxygen mask from her face. “It’s not a loss to me. He killed my parents.”

Carter stared at her. “Are you sure?”

She nodded. “He confessed it to me earlier today. My mom called the cops on him back when I was gambling, and he lost his gambling ring. He wanted revenge for it.”

Carter put an arm around her. He couldn’t take not touching her any longer. She leaned into him, and sweet relief swept through him..

Emery grabbed Mia’s arm. “I’m so sorry, Mia. You told me you thought your parents’ deaths weren’t an accident. I didn’t listen.”

Mia shrugged. “There was no proof. It’s fine. My uncle got his punishment.” She took a pull from the oxygen mask. “And so did Donny. He was about to shoot me when Carter got him first.”

Emery glanced at Carter, and he confirmed it.

Flint crossed his arms over his chest. “So it looks like our work here is done.” He winked at Emery who just shook her head at him. But a soft smile played on her lips.

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