Page 25 of Destroy Me
The area around the apartments was walled, to keep out the noise, Harry said. Lyse thought it might be to keep the sight of all their cars from bothering the neighborhood. “A house. I can’t remember who lives there.” Thank God it was past nine and most everyone had left for work by now.
Fionn nodded. “You covering me, Mack?”
“I’ll have to,” the older man said. “Siobhan is their target. I won’t leave her.”
“You better not. I’ll go.” Fionn moved around to crouch over Lyse. His heat at her back steadied her like nothing else could have. “Let’s get a look here.” He tugged her hands away from Sean’s chest. Blood continued to ooze, but maybe more slowly than before. God, let it be more slowly than before.
The sound of Mack’s voice reached her, but not his words. Fionn heard it too. “You calling the station, Mack?” Fionn asked.
“I’m calling,” Mack growled.
“It won’t be long now,” Fionn said, his breath in her ear. “Don’t you be worryin’ now, love.”
She chuckled, the sound cutting off at the hitch in her side. “Yeah, right.”
Fionn replaced the padding on Sean’s wound, settled her hand over it, and moved his to her belly. “You always were trouble.”
It wasn’t his words that took her breath, it was his touch. She flinched away when all she wanted to do was lean into him. “Fionn?”
His cursing in her ear seemed to fade in and out as Fionn rolled her onto her back. Pain lanced through her, harder than before, pulling a startled cry from her throat.
“Fionn, what’s wrong?”
Siobhan’s voice was strained, worried. She might’ve birthed a warrior, but the woman was too full of emotion to cut it off; she wouldn’t be cold. She’d be warm, and Lyse needed warmth a whole damn lot right now. She refused to ask for it, though, refused to put her friend in danger. Instead she bit down on her tongue until it bled. No more crying out, no calling for help. She might not be able to fight like Fionn, but she wouldn’t get anyone hurt either.
“We’ve got two, Mack,” Fionn said above her.
Two what? “Fionn?”
Green eyes met hers, and they weren’t cold anymore. “You’ll be all right.”
“What’s wrong with me?”
“Just a nick,” he said, but the grim lines bracketing his mouth didn’t agree. “We’ll be fine till help gets here.”
She nodded even though she didn’t feel fine. But whatever the problem was, it couldn’t compare to Sean’s. He was the one who needed help. They had to get out of here. “I’ll be fine.” She rolled back onto her side to face her friend, stifling a cry at the pain. “You and Mack do what you have to do to get us out of here. Keep Siobhan safe.”
“That’s my girl.”
The words sent a flutter of warmth through her despite knowing Fionn didn’t mean them. He thought she was a traitor. A liar. He didn’t want her.
She closed her eyes, forcing them back open when she realized her grip on Sean was slacking.
Fionn reached over her and laid something next to her hand on the ground. His knife. “Use this if you need to,” he said. His warmth disappeared. “Let’s be going, Mack.”
The gunfire had been intermittent, only when their attackers could gain a target, she guessed. Now it came again, this time closer. Mack was firing, she realized. Giving Fionn cover. She heard Fionn’s boots hitting the gravel as he ran in the opposite direction from the front gate, away from Mack. Separating the targets. She’d watched enough ops to recognize a few tactics. What she didn’t have the brain power to figure out was why Fionn was running to the blind end of an enclosed parking area with no way out.
Before the pain and worry cleared enough for her to think, a massiveboomcame from the gate. Mack scrambled back toward Lyse and Sean, herding Siobhan as he came, his muttered curses telling Lyse that whatever was coming, it was bad.
“Is that a car?” she heard Siobhan ask.
A car? They were ramming the eight-foot, solid wood gate with a car? Holy shit. The gate didn’t stand a chance, and once their attackers were inside, neither did they. “Mack?” She bit down on a scream as she forced herself to roll onto her knees. Agony notwithstanding, she couldn’t just lay here and let them kill her or anyone else. Holding the pad over Sean’s heart firmly in place, she settled her knee on it and grasped Fionn’s knife in slippery hands. “Mack?”
“Easy,” Mack said, the sound almost a croon except for the deadly intent underlying it. “Just a minute more.”
In a minute they could be dead. Theboomcame again, this time with a loudcrack. Lyse glanced around. Where was Fionn?
The revving of a car engine registered in her ears, then the squeal of brakes—the car reversing. A sudden surge in noise warned her right before a black SUV busted through the gates and into the courtyard.
