Page 26 of Destroy Me
“Mack!”
Siobhan yelled it with her. Lyse had never felt so helpless, crouched over Sean’s bloody body with the deadliest knife she’d ever held, facing a group of men as they jumped from the vehicle with what looked like small machine guns in their grips. She couldn’t stop them, couldn’t protect her friends. Or Fionn.
Just like last time.
She tightened her fingers around the textured grip of Fionn’s knife.Please, God, not like last time.
One man, his face covered in a black balaclava, rounded the end of Mack’s car. “Hand over the woman!”
Before he’d finished the words, Mack’s gun discharged. The man screamed, grabbing his leg. The attacker fell, another taking his place just as a shout came from the direction of the gate.
“Hey!”
Relief caved Lyse’s chest in. Fionn. He must’ve climbed the wall to flank them.
“You’ll be wanting to put those weapons down, gentlemen.”
The words should sound polite, but the ice dripping from them made Lyse shiver. The man staring them down from behind his mask froze, gun raised.
Another sound near the gate, an angry shout. A gunshot quickly followed.
“Two down, two to go,” Fionn called. “I’m not feeling so generous now.”
A clatter came from the other side of Mack’s car. A gun being dropped? Gravel crunched, and she knew the other gunman was getting on his knees.
The man in front of them didn’t seem to move or even breathe. He stared Mack down. Deciding which was the lesser of two evils, being shot or being arrested? What would his boss do if he was taken? Was it one of those “better off dead” scenarios?
His chest rose—a breath. Mack’s gun fired. At the same moment another shot went off. Both caught the gunman in either thigh. Time seemed to slow as the man’s legs buckled, his finger tightening on the trigger. Several shots bit into the air before he hit the ground.
Chapter Twelve
“So you found her in the same village as your mother, in Ireland?”
Fionn wished he could laugh at Deacon’s surprise. Unfortunately none of this was funny. His mam had almost been mowed down by a group of Ferrina’s thugs. Sean and Lysehadgone down. It had been a helluva morning, as his friend would say, and they were no closer to finding a way to protect Siobhan from Ferrina. “I did.”
“So what do you intend to do with her?”
“Bring her home,” he barked. What else was he supposed to do? Lyse had committed a crime, for feck’s sake. And yet the thought of her punishment didn’t bring the satisfaction he normally felt. He didn’t know what he was feeling right now other than a jumbled mess. “You can help me. When you get over here.”
“What?”
In the few minutes it took to explain about Ferrina and this morning’s attack, Fionn could sense Deacon’s tension ratcheting up. “What do you know about his current organization?”
“Only the little Lyse has explained to me so far. We were after gathering her research when Ferrina’s men appeared.” Luckily her laptop hadn’t been hit—the bag had been on her opposite shoulder. Fionn had it stowed in the SUV to look at when they returned to Mack’s.
“I’ll get Tucker on it, see what he can dig up as well. It might be tomorrow before I can arrive. I’ll have to arrange things with Sydney and Elliot. How’re the locals?”
Fionn sucked in a lungful of cool Irish air as he glanced around him, aware of people coming and going through the doors of the emergency room, up and down the sidewalks, but despite being busy, no one lingered near him. “Problematic. The only people who knew our location were at the station. We weren’t followed into town.”
Deacon was quiet. Fionn could feel his friend thinking through the implications of his words, assessing, the pieces of the situation fitting together in his mind. The man was a master at strategy, which was why he’d risen to team lead so quickly at Global First.
“I have Mack,” Fionn said, “and he’s good, but it won’t be enough.”
“Give me twenty-four hours. Think you can hold out till then, brother?”
“I can.” He could hold out forever knowing backup was coming. A sudden spike of pain hit him, longing for his team, for Trapper and Inez and Dirado and Farley to be here with Deacon, the six of them falling into the natural rhythm that made them unstoppable. But his friends were dead, and Trapper would never do fieldwork again, his injuries from the torture Mansa had put him through too extensive. He’d always have pain, limited mobility. It clawed at Fionn that he couldn’t help his brother. It was only him and Deacon now.
He and Mack would regroup tonight, and by the time Deacon arrived, they’d have a better idea of what they were facing.
