Page 98 of Final Exit

The look on his face told her she wasn’t making him feel any better. And it highlighted one of the major differences between the two of them. Killing mercenaries who had no loyalties other than to the almighty dollar didn’t even cause a blip on her guilt-o-meter. And yet, every time Kade was forced to shoot one of Faegan’s men she could see him die a little inside. She’d tried not to think about what that said about her. Maybe she really had been doing this job far too long.

“Two more rooms to clear and we’ll be there,” he told her. Then he headed out into the back hallway.

No one else tried to stop them, and they were soon poised at the door where they knew the gunmen were holed up who were trying to kill Jace and his men.

“I wish we knew how many were in there,” Kade whispered. “I’ll go in high, you go in low. Ready?”

She moved her finger from the frame of her gun to the trigger. “Ready.”

Kade slowly and quietly turned the knob. He held up the usual three fingers, then two, then—

The door yanked open before he could push it open.

“Hold it, hold it!” someone yelled.

Kade grabbed Bailey’s gun, shoving her hand up just as she let off a shot. It went wild into the ceiling above them. Then she realized who was in the room.

“Oh my God,” she whispered, horrified. “I almost killed you.”

Jace had gone pale, and wiped a shaky hand across his forehead. “Maybe not, if you’d hit the vest. Still, that was close.”

She squeezed Kade’s hand in thanks, still shaky from her near-miss. Working in teams was definitely not her forte.

Kade and Bailey stepped into the room with Jace. Four gunmen lay dead on the floor. One of the Equalizers who’d been with Jace was currently handcuffing two more gunmen back to back. But both appeared to be unconscious.

The door to the outer hallway was open, and in the hall could be seen another body.

“Oh, no,” Bailey whispered. It was a member of their team who’d been pinned down with Jace.

Jace’s tortured gaze met hers. “He put up a damn good fight. We wouldn’t have been able to charge the room without him, and without you shooting in that back hallway. That distracted them, gave us the window we needed to rush them.” He checked the loading on his gun and popped in a new magazine. “Let’s finish clearing this floor. Sounds to me like most of the action is going on downstairs without us. I haven’t been able to get in touch with Mason or Devlin.” He tapped the earpiece he was wearing. “Hopefully their equipment’s just messing up.”

She exchanged an uneasy glance with Kade.

Jace’s jaw tightened. “Let’s go. We’ll start with the next door down on the other side of the hall.”

He peered out into the hall, then ducked around the corner.

Kade reloaded, then looked at Bailey. “Ready for round two?”

She glanced at the dead Enforcer, picturing Hawke’s face there, and swallowed, hard. “Ready.”

They peered down the hall, left and right, then ran for the next door. The rest of the floor was cleared in just a few minutes. The four of them raced back toward the stairwell, slamming the door open without even pausing.

A gunman was in the stairwell and whirled around toward them.

Kade slammed his body against the gunman, sending him careening over the railing. Kade winced but pounded down the stairs after Jace and his teammate, with Bailey following behind.

They took up positions on either side of the door, pistols out, backs to the wall. Kade did the countdown, then pulled open the door.

Boom!

Chapter Twenty-three

Friday, 7:13 p.m.

Kade blinked up at the sky above him. A red sky. Solid red everywhere he looked. Wait, that didn’t make sense. His ears were ringing. But other than that, everything was quiet. Jumbled images bumped through his mind. What was the last thing he remembered? The field, leaving Austin there, standing on his new prosthetics. The helicopter. Bailey, looking terrified but doing her best to hide it. She was so damn proud, and competent in so many skills. But deathly afraid of flying, or “landing” as she’d informed him. And of being cremated. Odd things to learn right before they went into battle.

Bailey.

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