Blaze (39 page)
Authors: Joan Swan
As Teague pressed his hand to the wound, Keira kept her fingers on Luke's pulse with one hand, stroked his whisker-roughened cheek with the other. He was willing to sacrifice so much for her. She would find a way to do the same for him. He just had to live.
“Mitch,” Teague said. “Get Alyssa on the phone.”
“I told you I shouldn't have taken the vest.” The unfamiliar voice forced Keira to refocus. Cash had crawled up next to her, his expression filled with guilt and concern, and pressed his own fingers to Luke's neck.
Her guilt for allowing Luke to give the vest away nagged at her. One more thing to make up to him. They had to find a way to be together, because it would take the rest of her life to make things right.
“He's too fucking stubborn to die,” Teague said. “He'll be fine. This will only slow him down and shut him up for a little while. We should enjoy it while we can.”
“Heyâ” Mitch called their attention and pointed to the Bluetooth in his ear. “Get on the line.”
Everyone clicked on and Alyssa's controlled but stressed voice filled Keira's ear.
“We were making small talk about Panos's childhood in Greece,” she said. “Someone came to his door, which he thought was odd because he wasn't expecting anyone. I heard the locks as he turned them, heard the hinges of the door squeak when he opened it. Then a pop. Just one. Then that crackle you get when someone drops the phone. I called his name, but he didn't answer. Then the line went dead.”
“Did you try calling him back?” Mitch asked.
“Are your men still at the house?” Teague asked at the same time. “Do they know?”
“Yes and yes,” Alyssa said, amazingly efficient. “I called back and got no answer. The men here know and they've called in reinforcements.”
Fear pulled at Teague's features. “Hang tight, baby. We'll be home soon.”
A tremor shook the ground. Small, barely there. But it sent a shiver up Keira's spine. She was just about to ask if anyone else felt it when the familiar
whap-whap-whap
invaded her head.
whap-whap-whap
invaded her head.
“Damn,” she whispered, her gaze searching for cover. None. “Choppers coming.”
“Choppers?” Kai asked. “As in more than one?”
“More than one.” She couldn't tell how many. “Two for sure. Maybe three.” She pushed at Luke's shoulders, lifting him toward Teague. “I'm going to take you up on that offer. You carry, I'll shoot.”
“I don't hear anyâ” Cash's statement was interrupted by the swoosh of a chopper as it crested the Castle and dove toward them. He rolled to a crouch, M14 in hand.
“Do you speak Greek?” Keira asked him.
He sent her a distracted look. “What?”
“Greek. Your son speaks Greek. Do you?”
“It's rustyâ”
“Better than nonexistent. Just translate what he says to you the best you can.”
“I don't understandâ”
“I'll explain later.” Another chopper swung in from the north, panning its beam along the ground. “If you want to get out of this alive, talk to your son.”
“That's not what I need to hear.” Alyssa's voice floated into the black night. “It was disturbing enough to hear a man I didn't know get shot thousands of miles away.”
A third chopper came in from the south. All three swept the area with floodlights. All three had artillery jutting from their flanks. All three had a man in fatigues hanging out the side door with a subgun in his hands.
“Sorry, Lys,” Keira said. “Can you get Mateo talking to us? We need an escape route.”
“He's right here, looking at the phone like it's a pastry.” Alyssa clicked the phone to speaker. “Go ahead.”
But Mateo was the first to speak.
“Baba! To'ksera oti tha erthis gia mena, baba!”
“Baba! To'ksera oti tha erthis gia mena, baba!”
Cash sucked in an audible breath. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
The choppers made another sweep, closing their search circles.
“Cash,” Keira nudged.
He nodded and finally spoke, his Greek coming in fits and starts with lots of hesitation and âums' in between. But the two evidently communicated, because Cash turned and started into the desert at a forty-five-degree angle to where their vehicles were parked.
“Follow me,” he said.
“The trucks are over there.”
“But he says cover is over
there
.” He lifted his chin in the direction he was headed. “Those choppers are going to close in fast. Let's go.”
there
.” He lifted his chin in the direction he was headed. “Those choppers are going to close in fast. Let's go.”
All Keira saw was rolling desert terrain in the distance. Then again, she hadn't known that hatch had been there, either. Mateo had a one hundred percent accuracy rate so far. No sense in doubting it now.
Teague hefted Luke over his shoulder and fell into line with the others. To keep her eyes off the sickening sight of Luke's limp body swaying with every step Teague took, Keira brought up the rear, watching the choppers turn in smaller and smaller circles, twisting her stomach in tighter and tighter knots.
“How much farther?” she called ahead.
“He's not sure,” Cash said. “He says we might be halfway.”
“Remember,” Mitch said, “he's not good with distances.”
Keira swore, cutting her eyes between the untraveled path beneath her feet and the threat above her head, already creating plans A, B, C, and D. “What kind of cover?”
“A bunker they used for training.”
“Who used? What training?”
“The government, and who knows? We're on the edge of Area Fifty-one. Nobody but insiders knows what happens here.”
“Seems to be a lot of that going around,” she muttered.
Above, one of the choppers made a sharp turn, picked up speed, and swooped their way. Keira's stomach dropped.
“We've been spotted,” she called. “Run!”
But as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she knew Teague would never make it anywhere near fast enough carrying Luke. The chopper was moving too fast.
Within seconds, the pop of rapid-fire weaponry tattered the air. The thud of bullets hitting the ground cascaded across the desert floor only a foot away. Her heartbeat spiked. An involuntary scream rose in her throat. She kept moving, kept pushing forward, as mini-plumes of dust created a temporary veil of concealment. When the next chopper swooped in the first's wake, his shots were more than five feet off-target.
The other five men were a good twenty yards ahead of Teague, Luke, and Keira now, weaving to make themselves difficult targets. The chopper's windstorm picked up grit and blew it into their eyes. Teague swore and spit. Keira's eyes burned like they were on fire.
Another round of shots startled her. She hadn't seen the third bird coming. Didn't know how close they'd hit. She stopped and turned, searching for the enemy. They were diving right at her, the artillery mounted on either side of the chopper sparking orange in the night.
She tripped over a clump of brush, fell backward. The chopper bore down on her. The panicked call of her name drowned in the bird's churning engine, the burst of gunfire.
In that instant she knew she was going to die. But, dammit, she was going to make sure those goddamned sons of bitches died with her.
She aimed her gun, focused the pilot in her crosshairs, and pulled the trigger. Held it down as she panned her weapon, tracking the chopper's trajectory.
Pang-pang-pang-pang . . .
Her bullets continued to punch metal and glass. The dirt around her kicked up as a storm of gunfire from the chopper hit. She curled into the smallest target possible. The angry roar of the engine changed pitch. Angled downward. Then the ground convulsed. Followed by an ear-piercing crash of metal.
Her bullets continued to punch metal and glass. The dirt around her kicked up as a storm of gunfire from the chopper hit. She curled into the smallest target possible. The angry roar of the engine changed pitch. Angled downward. Then the ground convulsed. Followed by an ear-piercing crash of metal.
Stray shrieks and scrapes of metal continued to erupt from the downed chopper as Keira finally drew air. And promptly choked on sand. Still coughing, she repositioned her helmet and night vision and scanned the terrain. The helicopter lay in a smoking pit of sand, blades winding down like a broken windmill half a mile away. She scrambled to her feet and took off in the direction the others had gone. Luckily, none were in sight, which she had to assume meant they'd found the bunker. Now, if she could just find it before the other choppersâ
Seth's earlier words rattled in her head.
Too late.
Too late.
An engine growled behind her, becoming a roar in her ear as it grew closer. Keira sprinted, pushing as far as she could before she turned, set her stance, and aimed.
This chopper started shooting sooner. So did Keira. She aimed at the gas tank, a larger target than the pilot. Her chest filled with adrenaline-laden vengeance. And it was intoxicating. She pulled the trigger and held it down with all her strength, letting the rifle kick her shoulder again and again as she trailed the chopper overhead and away, relishing that familiar, repeated
pang-pang-pang
of metal.
pang-pang-pang
of metal.
Droplets hit her face, as if it had started to rain. Then the pungent, unique scent of aircraft fuel reached her nose and satisfaction filled her chest. But not for long.
A burn in her right thigh dragged her attention to her fatigues and a dark stain growing there. “Dammit.”
When she tried to take a step, her leg went out from under her and she landed in the dirt. Pain dug in, transformed into a deep, piercing throb that traveled like poison in the blood.
“Are you hit?” The voice startled her. She swung her weapon up and around with one hand, the other pressed against the wound on her thigh. “Whoa. It's only me.”
Cash looked down at her. She dropped her weapon, her gaze turning back to the sky and the third chopper making a final, tight turn toward them. “Get back to the bunker.”
“You're coming with me.” He bent to pick her up, sliding one arm under her knees and one low on her back.
“No time.” She pushed him away. The last helicopter came at them with all the fury of revenge for its lost comrades. “Cash . . . Shit.” No time to run. “Get the fuck down.”
Keira lifted her rifle. The gun fell from her hand, tumbling end over end, stopping five feet away. Her arm dropped to her side. When she looked down in panicked confusion, she saw another stain of blood spreading over her sleeve.
“Goddammit!”
She looked up at the chopper again. Red flashed on either side of the gun podsâmissile ports ignited. Yep, they were officially pissed off and going to make sure there was nothing left of her to bury.
“Cash, run!”
He laughed, the sound an evil, vengeful chuckle. “And miss this fun? No way.”
The helicopter angled in. Two missiles shot from the bird's tubes.
Pop-shhhhh-boom.
Cash covered Keira with his body. She curled into his protection as the world exploded around her. If she died, at least she wouldn't die alone. She'd found her family. But Luke . . . God, how she'd miss Luke.
Pop-shhhhh-boom.
Cash covered Keira with his body. She curled into his protection as the world exploded around her. If she died, at least she wouldn't die alone. She'd found her family. But Luke . . . God, how she'd miss Luke.
Plumes of fire ebbed to smoke, then to sand and dirt.
Cash stood, drew his arm back, and bulleted something toward the chopper on its way out of the swoop, yelling, “Lousy aim, jerkoff!”
Another explosion. Midair. Huge. Violent. The chopper burst into a fireball, pieces flying off in every direction. Blades, gunpods, wheels, tail rocketing at the desert floor in a three-hundred-sixty-degree trajectory.
Cash covered Keira again and ducked his head. She watched from his protective hold as the chopper's momentum carried the remaining bulk of the bird toward the compound. Toward one of the buildings on the east side of the property. The fireball smashed into the building.
The crash initiated another explosion, one that seemed to come from within the building. A second later another explosion. And another. A chain reaction, ravaging the entire compound.
Keira's mind jumped back to the warehouse fire. The way those barrels had exploded with unexpected violence, taking out everything around them. “What the hell was in there?”
Cash pulled away from her and stood, hand to his forehead in distress. “Chemicals. A shitload of fucking chemicals. It hit the lab. God,” he ground out with anguish. “I hope Q . . . I hope they took Q out before . . .”
As Keira watched the fire destroy building after building, portions of the flames shifted from neon orange to purple. At the center of some of the explosions, cobalt blue sparks jetted against the violet flames.
Yeah, there were chemicals in there, all right. The sense of satisfaction, of payback, of a certain justice rendered was there, but veiled by Cash's tormented concern for Q's fate.
Keira scooted toward her gun and studied the sky. What next? Would they send out the air force after them now?
But as the compound continued to burn and explosions continued to burst, she wondered if there would be anyone left alive in that facility to send anyone anywhere for any reason. Including Dargan.
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