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“Always,” I replied.
The rusted latch of the silo door gave way under my grip. The metallic screech cut through the oppressive silence of the night, and I winced; it’d warn anyone inside we were coming if this was where they’d sheltered.
The air was thick with the scent of damp earth and decay. Corn fell at my feet when I pulled the door open, joining other hard kernels that crunched underfoot.
My stomach knotted, every sense warning me that we weren’t alone.
Before I could fully process what was happening, instinct took over. I lunged at Greyson, my body slamming into his with the force of a body check on the ice. We hit the ground hard, corn dust billowing around us.
Just as the gunshots cracked over our heads. Once, twice. The noise was unbelievably loud in the cavernous silo.
Greyson’s breath was quick and hot against my skin. I’d have felt embarrassed, but I had no time. I rolled off him, swiping the gun from the floor where it had skittered away.
There was almost no cover in here. I lunged for an abandoned palette, with Greyson on my heels. Someone had thrown a bunch of trash into the silo when it was abandoned, and that created a labyrinth of hiding places.
Lucky us.
It also meant, though, that we didn’t know where our enemies were.
For a few seconds, our breaths were loud in the silence. I found a piece of broken concrete and rose to lob it, knowing that someone was sighting in on me and would track the movement with their rifle. I needed to figure out where they were shooting from. A shot went off, loud—following the path of the concrete. It was a split second mistake, but it was enough for me to know where the shooter was hiding.
I ducked as two more shots rang out overhead. They came from a different angle than the other two, as I replayed them, and I signaled to Greyson.
He nodded.
The two of us were up and running, parting ways. Greyson fired off shots, trying to cover us both. I was pretty sure we were taking shots from behind a pile of abandoned copper tanks, so I came up on the side, already firing. If I was wrong, I was exposed. I knew a bullet would punch through me before I had time to recover. The noise of Greyson’s covering fire echoed through the silo.
A surprised face, a gun raised toward me.
I fired. Again and again.
Velasco’s body leapt back, each shot punching him backward. He looked at me in astonishment as he fell onto his back, blood blooming across his chest.
The last of Greyson’s shots faded. I looked up to find him still standing, and I checked Velasco’s pulse before moving to join him.
Dust hovered in the air, motes dancing in the sparse light. The coppery scent of blood was thick, mingling with the musty aroma of corn.
Greyson’s boots crunched softly on the scattered kernels that littered the floor. Ahead, Borvosky’s body lay sprawled, the life seeping out of him and staining the yellow beads of corn.
“Looks like I’ve got a hell of a guardian angel watching over me, Sebastian,” Greyson quipped, a wry smile tugging at the corner of his mouth as he nudged one of the bodies with his foot.
I glared at him, my heart still hammering from the adrenaline. “Don’t mention it. Seriously.”
I wasn’t sure when or how my protective impulses had extended to Greyson, of all fucking people.
Greyson’s expression sobered as he surveyed the mess before us. “We needed answers from these two. This is inconvenient.”
“Tell me about it.” I crouched down, scanning the pockets of Velasco’s jacket. “We need to know if anyone else is gunning for Kennedy, or if taking out these three is enough.”
“Exactly.” He ran a hand through his hair, frustration etched on his face. “Now we’re flying blind again.”
The drive back to the penthouse was quiet, the hum of the engine soft. This time, though, the silence didn’t carry the simmering tension that had been between us earlier.
As the city lights began to twinkle in the distance, I thought of Kennedy, safe and warm in our place, probably laughing at something Jack said or cozying into Carter’s side. That image, the thought of her safe, made all this worth it.
For her, I would walk through the shadows, so my girl could stay in the light.
And I knew, without a doubt, so would Greyson.
