Page 70 of Ravaged and Ruined
Another explosion rocks the building. Wood splinters. Glass shatters somewhere above.
“Did they find us?” she asks.
“Damn right they did.” The last of the rope comes loose. I drag her into my arms, just for a second. Just to feel her.
“Stay behind me,” I order. “No matter what.”
I turn, just as Garett steps into the room alone, dragging a crowbar behind him. “You son of bitch.”
I smirk. “Never underestimate a Royal Bastard.”
I meet him halfway into the space, ducking the first swing of the crowbar and burying my shoulder into his gut. We slam into one of the support beams hard enough to rattle the building. The crowbar clatters across the floor. My fist connects with his ribs. Once, twice, three times, until I feel something crack under my knuckles.
Garett snarls, grabs my hair, and slams my head into the beam. The world flares white. I stagger back, tasting blood.
He charges again. I duck low, sweeping his legs out from under him. He hits the floor with a bone-jarring thud, and I’m on him before he can rise. My fists pound into his face, feeling hisnose break under the third hit, watching blood explode across his teeth. His screams fuel me.
“She’s mine,” I snarl, grabbing him by the collar.
He spits blood at me. “She’s just a bitch with a bastard…”
All I see is red. I slam his head into the floor so hard it echoes. Again. And again.
He twitches. I grab the crowbar from the floor, driving it down until there’s nothing left of his face but shattered bone and blood.
Lacey turns her head away.
I drop the crowbar and suck in air. My hands are slick with blood. My arms tremble with exhaustion.
Outside, it hasn’t quieted. I grab the crowbar again and move toward the front of the warehouse. I peek past the shattered window frame and catch a flash of chrome. Grizzly’s hog, mounted with his custom barrel shotgun. Padre’s right behind him, rifle steady against his shoulder. Pike and Rancor storm the east side on foot, ducking into shadows and cutting down anyone in their path.
I turn to find Lacey crawling toward me, teeth gritted, one hand holding her side where the assholes bruised her when they took her. I yank her into my arms and press a kiss to her temple. “It’s almost over.”
“It better be,” she mutters. “I’m running out of adrenaline.”
Thunder cracks again. Another explosion. Closer this time. The back entrance erupts in fire and smoke. A man stumbles out screaming, both arms lit up like torches.
“Stay down,” I bark at Lacey, and she nods, ducking low as I rise to meet the fight.
The next fucker to round the corner doesn’t stand a chance. I shove the crowbar through his throat and rip it out sideways. Blood sprays the wall behind him in a fan, dark and wet. His body collapses at my feet like a sack of meat.
Another comes at me with a knife. I twist his arm, snapping his elbow in the wrong direction, and throw him into the beam. His skull cracks with a sick thud.
Crank bursts in through the side, face streaked with soot, eyes wild. “We got ‘em pinned! Backdraft’s laying fire on the west side!”
“Where’s Sophia?” I yell over the gunfire.
“No sign yet,” he growls. “You want her alive?”
My jaw clenches and a deep growl rips from my throat. That’s enough of an answer for him. He nods and disappears into the smoke.
Tango slides in through a blown-out window, an SMG in his hand.
“Glad to see you bastards.” I slap him on the back.
“You can thank Hashtag when we get you out of here.”
A scream slices through the chaos. I wrench my head toward the sound, and freeze.
