Page 181 of Shadow

Lorenzo was on his feet, not seeing me, and rushed into the fray, leaving Ethan behind.

“Go,” Asylum said.

I nodded and surged forward with him.

Ethan’s face was fucked. He’d clearly been fighting before he’d lost it. His lip was split, and he appeared to have checked out.

He didn’t even raise the gun in his hand as Asylum moved in and stabbed him in the neck with the needle.

“Easy. Easy,” Asylum murmured to him. “Don’t fight it. Don’t fight. There you go.” Ethan jerked and twitched for a moment, a tear slipping from his eye.

“Rosalie,” he choked out before going silent.

My heart hurt for the guy. It hurt for Rosalie, a woman I didn’t know, because I knew she’d suffer his loss.

“Come on,” Asylum said grimly.

Stitches joined us and helped us rush Ethan from the noise and gunfire to the storage room. I shot a few more people along the way, but we got Ethan into the tunnel where Church and Sin met us a moment later, looking disheveled.

“Good. Let’s go,” Church said, looking down at a passed-out Ethan.

We put him on the cart Church had grabbed. There were various strewn throughout the Underground for purposes just like this.

We carted him wordlessly for several city blocks before we reached our destination.

“I shot Lorenzo,” I finally said. “I was trying to get to Ethan.”

“Kill him?” Church asked.

I shook my head. “No. I don’t think so. He may be dead now, though.”

Church nodded tightly as we walked the ramp to the entrance.

“You guys can return to Sirena and Shadow. I will take it from here,” Church said grimly. “Asylum, go to Shadow and Sirena. Make sure they’re OK. You can’t be seen working with us.”

Asylum nodded without a word and left.

“I’ll stay. We’re a team,” I said.

“Ghosts of the Underground,” Stitches added. “Or monsters, depending on how you want to spin it. We’re with you until the bitter end, man.”

Church nodded and pushed open the door to the city his father had created.

We hauled Ethan inside and down more hallways until we met Everett.

“Good. You have him. Bring him to room three ten.” Everett seemed frantic but excited. Almost manic. I glanced uneasily at Stitches, who glared at Everett’s back as we followed him.

When we got to room three ten, screams in the distance that made my skin crawl, we went into the dingy room to find another man bound on the floor, a gunshot wound to his shoulder.

I frowned.

I’d seen him before.

“Why the fuck do you have him?” Church demanded, spinning on his father. “That’s Fox Evans. You wanted Ethan Masters. How the fuck did you get him here?”

“Well, that’s an interesting question. We’ll talk in a moment. Leave Ethan here with him. We can go to my office,” Everett said.

Church scowled but nodded for us to leave Ethan. We unloaded him from the cart and followed Church and Everett to his office at the ground level.

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