Page 50 of Lost (Powertools: The Shields 2)

Jordan didn’t cheer, but his grunt sounded satisfied. “That’s our boy.”

Kennedy froze. Knox snatched the formula from Vex’s lifeless hands and held it as if he was staring at it for several heartbeats. He could steal it. Could control the rest of the cartel goons who already knew him and were used to power exchanging hands when someone became more powerful and devious than the previous boss and usurped control.

But what he couldn’t do was go rogue and still ensure everyone made it out alive.

Knox paced the office for a second or two, as if trying to formulate a plan. Then he snatched up a lighter from Vex’s desk before scribbling something on the back of the formula. He held the paper up, aimed toward his chest so they could read it.“No other way out. This recipe dies with me. Love you both. RUN”

Kennedy clawed the ground as Aarav physically restrained her. “No, no, no, no.”

“Son of a bitch!” Jordan sounded like he might have punched something.

“He’s not going to—” James gasped. “He is.”

Jordan bellowed to the rest of the Shields, who were still huddled on the main floor, patiently awaiting instruction as they side-eyed their guards. And when Jordan’s orders came, they responded, all at once. “Team, Knox is going to blow a crater in the jungle a mile wide. He’s about to set the cooking vats on fire. Get out. Now. All of you.Go!”

The drug runners, who vastly outnumbered the Shields, didn’t see it coming. All at once, the Shields bolted for the windows they’d come through not that long ago.

At the same time, Knox dropped the burning paper and the lighter off the catwalk. They fell into the air laden with so many fumes it shimmered. The flames didn’t even make it halfway to the surface of whatever the hell was bubbling away in the vat below before it went up, initiating a chain reaction.

Aarav released Kennedy and started shooting again, laying cover for the agents sprinting toward the waiting getaway vehicles. He was a high-performance machine, entrancing her with his methodical, lethal, yet somehow beautiful motions. Kennedy scrambled to her feet and bolted, her goggles still showing her the view from Knox’s camera, at least until it was completely engulfed in fire and cut out.

She sprinted through the trees, vines whipping her face, chest, arms, and legs.

Kennedy had almost made it to the clearing, prepared to do the only thing she could and give aid to anyone who’d been injured while fleeing, when the night lit up with a flash. It was so big and bright it made the lightning that had destroyed James’s car seem like a sparkler compared to Middletown’s main fireworks display.

The percussion from the blast sent her sprawling, flying flat onto the ground, stunned for a few seconds before she resumed moving with a crawl before she could start running again, if hunched over. Had anyone survived the impact of that shockwave up close?

Kennedy made it to their cars, and waited, a wall of smoke cutting off her vision. She tapped her comms but nothing worked. A few seconds later, Aarav came up behind her, lugging his gun and scope. His lip was cut and a trail of blood trickled down his chin.

Before she could tend to it, movement registered in her peripheral vision.

Both she and Aarav froze, him drawing a handgun from somewhere and aiming at the flickers.

“Is that your gun or are you just happy to see me?” Sola asked, the quirk of her sooty brow making it clear that humor was the only way to avoid less productive emotions. There would be plenty of time for panic attacks when they got home.

Behind Sola, the rest of the Shields emerged from the jungle, Nolan limping and Liam favoring his arm. Their clothes were bloodied and charred in places, but as Kennedy counted their heads she realized they were all there. All but one.

“Marcus!” she shouted. “Where is he?”

“I thought he was right behind me.” Legend fanned smoke from in front of his face.

“Last I saw, he hesitated.” Tavish shook his head. “I think he went back. For Knox.”

“There is no Knox.” Nolan looked at the new guy like he was an idiot. “Did you feel the fireball that tried to burn its way up our asses?”

Kennedy’s eyes grew wide. If there was any chance, any at all, she had to find them. Had to take care of them. They almost certainly would need a medic.

“Oh shit. No.” Aarav grabbed for her, but it was too late.

She dodged him and pumped her arms, sprinting into the jungle faster than she’d ever run before. She crashed into things in the dark and ash, careening toward the inferno that raged in the direction the complex used to be in. “Marcus! Marcus!”

Kennedy screamed his name over and over. Her lungs filled with acrid smoke until she was choking on his name. If he hadn’t made it out, it didn’t matter if she damaged them irreparably. She wouldn’t survive the loss of him and Knox both.

“Marcus!” she wailed.

“Why the hell aren’t you in the car?” A pissed-off grunt accompanied his chastisement a moment before he broke through a cloud of smoke. “I can’t carry you both.”

Marcus looked taller and more handsome than she’d ever seen him before as he tromped through the wilderness with Knox hauled over his shoulder. Knox’s shirt was gone and his light skin showed plenty of red patches that were guaranteed to blister. But could he still be alive? His entire body was limp, flopping with every step Marcus took.

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