Page 205 of Darling Wildfire
We made it as far as the door of the server room before guards streamed in and immediately started to fire at us. Ghost returned fire, shoving me around a corner. Both sides were pinned down with bullets flying everywhere.
“We need to move,” Ghost growled.
He leaned out and delivered a barrage of bullets, taking that moment to look towards the exit.
“On my go, run,” he glanced at me briefly.
“What about you?”
He didn’t answer, simply poked back out and yelled at me to go. I didn’t hesitate, knowing better than to ask questions. Staying low I sprinted to the door, flying through just as bullets bit into the wood frame. I slammed into the bank of security monitors, barely catching myself on one of the chairs. I turned back to run and help Ghost when an arm wrapped around my neck from behind.
My gaze connected with Ghost and then I was fighting to get out of the hold. Somehow I got out of the man’s grip—whether it was training or a miracle, I didn’t know—and quickly put a bullet in his head. I tried to get a second one off as another guard came at me but he was too fast and knocked the gun away.
A hard hit stunned me long enough for him to disarm me entirely. A second hit sent me to the ground. My ears rang, the gunfire sounded muted and I heard yelling. I looked up and the last thing I saw were the guards standing over an unresponsive Ghost before everything went black.
FLASHBACK
THERON
ROME, ITALY
It killed me to leave Kaelin. But the thought of finding my daughter overrode everything—even though I knew I was probably leaving Kaelin in some asshole’s careless hands. I wanted nothing more than to take the men I had with me and take her from Cooper by force but I didn’t have time.
My team picked me up at the Warren and Nyx immediately filled me in on a message Deathwing had sent. He’d scheduled a raid and he’d heard someone matching Emersyn’s description may have been there—may still currently be there. So that’s where we were headed.
We landed in Rome, and Deathwing was waiting for us with a blacked out SUV on the airstrip.
“How was the Warren?” He asked as we greeted each other.
“He found himself a girl,” Nyx said over my shoulder.
Deathwing raised his eyebrows at me, something close to a smile pulling at his lips as he greeted Nyx and Atlas next, before nodding to West and Lachlan behind them.
“That’s unexpected,” he said.
“Tell me about it,” Nyx continued. “Apparently we have to extract her though. Cooper is holding on a bit too tight.”
“Well, if you need help, let me know,” he gestured to the SUV, and we all piled in. “What else did you find?”
“I laid the groundwork with Greg and should have an invitation to the next Red Auction.”
“First name basis already?” Deathwing glanced over at me as he pulled out of the airport. “You move fast. You sure you don’t want to come work for me?”
We got to the safe house and Deathwing led us immediately into a largeroom for a briefing.
“Gentlemen,” he said, addressing his team of men already gathered around. He pointed to two floor to ceiling screens where Rune had the mission specs pulled up. “This specific operation distributes to Palmero and Mahoney, however there are also a few middlemen we’ve seen come and go. North and his team are here to assist—it’s rumored his daughter may have been sighted in this den.”
Deathwing went over the mission plans and the directives which were to sweep the warehouse, take one or two of the men captive for questioning and then send the recovery and clean-up crew to take care of the girls and sweep the place for all information.
“We move out tomorrow at 0600,” Deathwing said. “Dismissed.”
The next morning, I stood at a table in the safe house aggressively cleaning and loading my guns.
I was trying to keep myself under control when all I wanted to do was to storm the place immediately. Screw guns, I wanted to get at these people with my bare hands. Just the thought of how Emersyn could be in there right now was driving me insane. But this was Deathwing’s operation, and I knew better than to let my emotions dictate my actions. As much as I wanted to go rogue, that would only get me and my men killed.
The rest of my team had arrived late last night and I nodded to Tex, Sakari and Knox who were inventorying their own weapons and making friends with Deathwing’s crew. I felt Nyx’s eyes on me from across the table where he was cleaning and readying his own guns—a lot less aggressively. I looked up, and he raised his eyebrows, a ghost of a smile on his lips.
“You good?”
