Page 73 of Oath
He waserasingthem.
I shook myself and raised the baton just as one of the stunned guards staggered toward me, half-conscious. I cracked the stick across his jaw with a grunt, then brought it down on the back of his head. He collapsed at my feet.
Bones turned toward me—blood dripping from his knuckles, chest heaving. His face was stone.
“Still with me?” he rasped.
“Yeah,” I said, breathless. “You?”
He gave me a crooked smile—barely there. “Let’s go.”
O’Rourke’s voice cut through the cacophony like a scalpel. “Hallway clear. We’ve got maybe ninety seconds before the next patrol sweeps back around. Move now.”
I nodded instinctively. “Coming,” I said, grabbing Bones by the hand. His skin was hot under my fingers—fever-hot—and slick with blood, but he didn’t flinch. Just moved with me.
We jogged down the corridor, shoes slapping against concrete—well,myshoes. Bones ran barefoot, silent. Every step had to be agony, but he didn’t make a sound.
“Three hostiles coming up on your two o’clock,” AB warned in my ear. “I’ll draw ‘em off. Wait for the cue.”
A thundering bang echoed from somewhere above us—explosives, maybe, or a breaching charge. Real human screamsjoined the racket from the security system. Then gunfire. I’d never realized just how distinctive that sound was. I’d never mistake fireworks for it again.
The feed in my comms flared with updates—Voodoo’s voice sharp and low, Legend barking orders. They were tearing through the hidden compound and the museum like a storm.
Distraction successful.
Too successful. O’Rourke wasgone.
“Come on,” I hissed, dragging Bones into a side alcove. He pressed back against the wall, sweat and blood glistening under the flickering emergency lights. His eyes were wild—flicking down the hall, up at the ceiling, then back to me. He was scanning for threats even now.
I wanted to stop. I wanted tolookat him, take in what they’d done. The lashes across his ribs. The mottled bruises. The burns that peeled in places, raw and angry. But we didn’t have time.
“Can you keep going?” I asked.
“I’m already gone,” he said, voice like broken glass. Any other time, he might have deadpanned it. Right now, he was just breaking my heart. “You just haven’t caught up yet.”
O’Rourke reappeared in the corridor like a ghost—no warning, justthere. His tuxedo was splashed with someone else’s blood, and his expression was ferocious. Far angrier than I’d ever seen him. His glare seemed fixed on me.
“I saidninety seconds,” he snapped, glancing past us. “You’re down to thirty.”
I met his eyes. Cold. Calculating. And yet—still here. Seriously, I didn’t know what to make of him much less what to do with him.
I didn’t trust him. Somehow, I doubted I ever would. The animosity between him and the guys was just too palpable. No matter what decisions he was making at the moment, he’dbetrayedthem in the past. Forgiveness, much less trust, seemedlike a real stretch. Thankfully, right now, I didn’t have to rely on him for much. We just had to use him.
After looping Bones’ arm over my shoulder again, we moved. He leaned on me more than before, though he didn’t want to. I felt the tremble in his arm, the slip of his foot when the concrete turned slick. I tightened my grip.
Frankly, I’d never been so glad for all the runways I’d walked in ankle breaker heels. I could keep us both balanced.
Mostly.
Another corner, another stretch of hallway. Lights flickered—some shattered from the blast above, others barely holding on. Overhead, the ceiling groaned with weight and movement.
“Stairwell ahead,” AB said via comms. “Two contacts. I can give you ten seconds. No more.”
“We’ll take it,” O’Rourke said and was already moving before he finished speaking—knife out, fast and low. No hesitation. No mercy. He flowed from one guard to the next, a blur of precision. One throat slit, one temple stabbed. No wasted motion. No sound, either.
Like Bones earlier, he wasn’t just clearing opposition, he was exterminating it. The wet slices and meatythunkswere enough to penetrate the tumult. My stomach rolled, but I focused on moving again. The smell of sweat and blood that clung to Bones was overpowering, but breathing through my mouth helped.
We pushed past the bodies and hit the stairwell. Bones staggered against me, and for a split second I thought we were both going down. I shifted to use the wall to brace us both. His grunt shivered with pain and I grimaced.
