Page 40 of Echos and Empires
“She’s been kidnapped.”
Chris’s eyes narrowed with purpose, turning from man to soldier in an instant. His rifle lay forgotten, guts splayed open for cleaning. Nothing mattered now but this: find Emma. “You’re sure?” Chris’s voice was already geared for action, each syllable a loaded bullet. He stood, movements sharp, jaw clenched in a line of raw intention.
“I saw it happen. I was right there.” Alex’s breath came in heaves, chest rising and falling like a bellows feeding panic. “Fuck, man. I couldn’t stop them. I was worried if I didn’t play along they’d hurt her or the babies?”
“Who?” Chris fired off the question with surgical precision. “Who took her?” Chris vaguely heard the plural but had no time to ask Alex who else was in danger.
“The nurses. The doctors. Both.” Alex spat the word out as if it were poison. He ran a shaky hand through his hair. “Everyone is coming in with weird symptoms and one minute they were trying to send Emma home for the babies protection and the next they were demanding she go with them while I stay behind.”
“And you fucking left?” Chris’s eyes blazed with a heat that threatened to torch the room.
“I thought the five of us would have a better chance of getting her back. We need to get everyone.”
“You left?” Chris repeated, trying to understand what Alex told him with what he wanted to do to the man for leaving just because he’d been separated from her.
“Chris, there’s fucking twins! There’s two little ones and we need to be careful or they could hurt her. I had to leave so we could get her.”
The world closed off, plunging him into darkness for the quickest of moments. “Twins?” he hissed the single word, uncertain if there was another woman in danger now.
“Twins. Two. I saw them and heard the heartbeats. It was when we reported it to the doctor for Emma and the babies’s safety that their tune changed. Chris, I’m worried they might lock her away. Twins must be huge.”
“Twins,” Chris repeated, the world titling as badly as it had the day the bombs dropped.
“Are we going to get Bash and Liam?” Alex’s voice steadied, sculpted now with the sharp edge of resolve.
“Damn right. Grab your gear. We leave in two.” Chris’s commands were the iron binding that held panic in check. He moved with the unthinking precision of instinct, every gesture a strategy, every breath a plan. “Bash! Liam!” Chris howled through the house, the world still unsteady but there wasn’t time. They had their family to save.
Chris moved like a missile locked on its target. No distraction. No hesitation.
Bash popped up at the top of the stairs, his eyes calculating and quick. “What’s wrong?”
“They have Emma,” Chris barked, the words falling like an incendiary. “The medical team she was supposed to trust. They took her somewhere.”
Bash rushed down the stairs, the loaded weight of his anger doubling the size of his already large frame. “Where?” He was already strapping on his holster, checking the ammo with lethal efficiency.
Liam emerged from the back living room, Ranger at his heels. “What the hell are we shouting about?”
“Emma’s been taken,” Bash growled, beating Chris, the words like jagged glass in his mouth. “At her appointment.”
“Christ.” Liam vanished into his room on the other side of the downstairs and emerged with his pack, securing the straps with deft, quick fingers. “Let’s fucking go, then. Ranger, stay.”
The dog gave a small whimper but laid down on the tile floor.
Chris’s eyes were flint, sparking with grim intention. “We take whatever we need and burn it all down if we have to.”
“Chris,” Alex seemed to urge.
Sighing, Chris relayed the message. “You should know, it’s not one baby. It’s two. Emma is pregnant with two small lives depending on us more than Emma ever had. We don’t fuck this up.”
Chris heard the responses but really couldn’t tell who said what as his blood still seemed to rush loudly through his ears with his anger.
The group moved like a single organism, each man a vital part of the whole. Bags were thrown together with fast, ruthless efficiency. Ammunition, weapons, grim determination—all checked and double-checked.
“They better hope she’s not hurt,” Bash muttered, rage threading his voice.
“They better hope they can fucking run,” Alex shot back, fire lancing through his tone.
Liam joined the verbal onslaught. “They don’t know who they’ve fucked with.”
