Page 123 of Deception

There’s only fire and blood.

Adrenaline fuels my pumping legs as I rush on, and I realize I’m screaming her name at the top of my lungs.

“Isabella!”

Another asshole goes down before he can draw his firearm, a second panicking and dropping his gun right before Adriano caps him in the head. We’re twenty yards from the huge bay doors when the side of a van opens, unveiling an M134 minigun.

“Down!” I shout and burst into a sprint.

Pitter patters of bullets trail me, pinging off of another van as I dive for cover.

I’m pinned down. We all are.

Until I hear the sound of my favorite car’s engine rev hard.

“Shit. No!”

I break cover in time to watch my car rocket into the van, rolling into a metal ball of fire and death, tumbling into the siding of the warehouse.

“Ero!” I shout, making a dash for the door, firing off cover for my brothers.

“You need a new car.” His calm voice nearly stops my heart, right behind me in my mad dash.

“You scared the shit out of me!”

“Glad you care.”

“I meant just now!” I growl, rage doubling in my chest. “And I’m glad you’re not dead.”

We take cover on either side of the bay doors, a signal from Adriano cluing me in to what’s coming next. Six heavies with automatics crunch onto the gravel.

Before they can make formation we dart off, all four of us in different directions. Ciro and Ero pop off the ones on the wings, diverting the remaining four’s attention. Adriano sprints out, diving onto his knees, kneecapping the two on his side, finishing them off with a double tap of his Glock.

My last bullet takes the one closest to me in the neck and I shove him out of the way as he gags, swinging my gun behind me on its strap. The other heavy squares up, about to raise his weapon.

He doesn’t expect me to hit him head-on.

And he doesn’t expect someone his size to be as fast or agile as I am.

I flick a kick to knock his gun barrel to the side, booting him right in the gut, taking him under the chin with my dagger in one smooth motion, leaving his corpse to slump to the ground in my wake.

We regroup, marching toward the gates of this fortress, fires blazing behind us.

“Isabella!” I roar, a battle cry, a warning to those still inside.

Let them piss themselves in anticipation. Or save themselves and run.

Nothing can stop us.

I’m a few steps from the door when I hear gunfire inside, a few shots. We’re right in the open when I see it, the barricade, a line of artillery aimed right at us. I duck inside, Ero slipping in and vanishing as Ciro and Adriano dive back outside to avoid the onslaught of bullet rain.

It follows me along the wall, whizzing past my head as I sprint the length of the warehouse, spinning behind a huge grinder and firing off a few shots around a massive pipe.

A scream echoes through the chamber, followed by more gunfire, and I break for it, targeting more of the scum setting a trap for us behind their makeshift wall. One, then another, and I notice the other bodies scattered around the room.

Ero?

But I spot him up on the catwalk high above, slashing the throat of a sniper taking a bead on me. He flicks two fingers to my salute before signaling down below him, guiding my attention to the man standing out in the middle of the floor, working his way toward the doors, a smaller, struggling figure in his grasp.

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