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He pants a strained, “How do you—”
“We know,” I say with far more confidence than I feel, although I want to trust that Liam will make it here in time. “They’re coming for us.”
“And for you,” Ivy adds as our captor, Craterface—who smells like beef jerky and looks like the Gimp when wearing a mask—raises his gun on us.
And in a flash, everything comes into question. Every bold and reckless choice that led to being here. Maybe I should’ve hedged my bets this time.
LIAM
A black SUV arrives at the warehouse while the Skulls are still piling boxes into trucks. I’m betting that’s the leader. If so, our unfortunate delay just morphed into the mother lode—nothing will remain of this underground faction after today.
Take out the queen bee and most of the colony, and anyone left buzzes the fuck off.
As hoped, Silas—the asshole who runs this crew—steps out, glancing around while his security men hem him in. His eyes flit around the forest, lingering on our position. He senses us, but he stupidly brushes it off.
Dumb fucker.
Swallowing instincts means losing your life on a battlefield—his permanent residence. Even Ivy gets that.
After a hasty powwow in front of the open loading-bay door, which I assume is a debriefing on our girls, he saunters inside, and they close the warehouse back up.
Go time.
Ty and Gage made the trek through the woods about ten minutes ago, which gave us plenty of time to devise our plan. About nine minutes longer than required. Wells and I will be the first team in. Ty has overwatch from a perch in a tree. He’ll take out any squirters—guys attempting to run.
I sprint over to the outer east wall of the warehouse, where we saw the crates packed in, and squeeze a tube of industrial glue on the exterior so I can adhere a block of C-4. It has a remote detonator the size of a ballpoint pen sticking out of it. Gage has the trigger.
Wells adheres a breaching charge to a door on the southwest side of the building. It’s an explosive strip that will blow the door open for our entry. Gage slashes the tires of all the vehicles, and the three of us convene by the southwest entrance.
Our electric company contact is on standby, so at the swipe of a button from Wells’s phone, a one-square-mile grid will be shut down. This is close-quarters combat, so we’ll be entering in a stacked formation, one after another until we can fan out inside, engaging tangos as we encounter them.
Anticipating total darkness inside, as there are no windows, we each have our Daniel Defense AR-15 rifles with holographic sights, infrared lasers, and our night-vision goggles. With our goggles, the infrared laser projects a green beam on our target that’s invisible without them. And should we have to flip up our NVGs, we can switch to the holographic sight. Gage also has an M203 grenade launcher mounted on his rifle that he’ll use to take out full areas once we have a twenty on the girls secured.
Wells flicks his chin with the go-ahead, and in the course of a single breath, the east side of the warehouse explodes, the door before us blows, and the lights go out.
CELESTE
The gun stares us down, mocking my swarming how did I get here questions. My heart clambers to my throat.
Crack.
Flash.
An ear-splitting roar resounds as we’re shrouded in utter darkness. Shots and chatter, screams and chaos ensue.
For a split second, I lose my mind, a sob rumbling out of me, assuming Ivy is shot.
Pressure drags my arm down.
The one she was stationed beside.
It’s her.
“Stay flat and against the wall,” she whispers, pushing me to lie on the ground. “They’re here. They won’t stop until everyone’s dead, and we don’t want to get in the way.”
LIAM
The explosion creates a diversion from our entry point, but I launch a bunch of flash-bangs inside anyway. The stark flare of light against the sudden darkness, accompanied by a reverberating bang, temporarily stuns and blinds anyone who may be just beyond this door. Then, I’m in.
