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"Amelia, darling, he wasn't the only person who cared about you. I care about you."
"Why? Because I looked like some drugged out girl you used to..."
I didn't get the rest of my sentence out, mostly because Luis' control slipped and his arm flew out and backhanded me across the face.
"Don't," he growled and, for the first time, I could see how ugly he was behind his handsome face. "Don't make me do that again, Amelia. I don't know what that man has done to you, but this behavior doesn't suit you."
"You don't know the first thing about me, Luis."
Luis sighed like I was exasperating him and shook his head. "Good thing we have nothing but time," he said, turning away from me. "I do hope you're not afraid of heights, darling."
"Heights?" I asked, despite not wanting to engage him anymore.
"Private plane in an hour. We need to get out of this god-forsaken place."
No. Oh, god no.
"I'm not going anywhere with you, you son of a..."
I'd never seen someone move that fast before. One second, his back was to me and he was halfway across the room. The next, he was in front of me and his hand was spanning my neck and pressing in hard, sealing off my air supply. "You are going to learn to behave, darl..."
The rest of his sentence got cut short.
This was because suddenly the side of his head had exploded...NineteenShooter"Don't want to put my hands on you, sugar," I said, my teeth hurting I was clenching my jaw so tight. "So I need you to let me go, Lo."
We were standing around the corner from the building where Luis and his men were holding Amelia. And every second that Lo was blocking me was another second that god-knew-what could be happening to her in there. I knew that sleazeball wanted her, as in wanted her, and I could never live with myself if she ended up being violated while we were standing around with our thumbs up our asses.
"Shooter, you're too hot for this," she reasoned, shoving her hand into my chest when I tried to push past her. Lo had spent a lot of time training, getting herself into shape so she could go toe-to-toe with most men. When I said she shoved me, I meant back a foot. "I can't let you go in there."
"All respect, honey, but I don't see how you can stop me."
Nothing, literally nothing was keeping me from charging in there and getting her out.
"Do you think we need a fucking bloodbath?" she asked, her fingers curling tighter around my bicep, hard enough for there to be bruises the next day. "We've stayed under the radar because we keep our wits about us."
"So you kept your wits about you when charging into V's compound, guns blazing? And Janie had her wits about her when she blew the fuck out of Lex's place? And Cash had his wits about him when he blinded the fuck who put his hands on you?"
Lo exhaled a breath, knowing I had a point. "Look, I get it, Shoot. But you're not going in there."
"And, again, I don't see how you can stop..."
Then I did see how she could stop me. Because her hand dropped from my arm and she waved it in a small circle and two sets of arms grabbed both of mine. Fucking Hailstorm.
"Sorry, Shoot, but we need to do this smart. Me, Cash, Breaker, Wolf, and two of my guys will go in and get her out. I'll bring her right to you."
With that, she did another hand wave and all the men just fell into step behind her. I watched them move around the corner and disappear, Breaker giving me a shrug before he was gone. I yanked at my arms uselessly. If there was one thing Lo and Hailstorm knew how to do, it was train and the men holding me were solid walls of muscle.
There was a small, feminine sigh from my side and my head turned to see a slight, dark haired, blue-eyed, tatted girl in black jeans and a black tank walking up. Janie. She was Wolf's woman. She was also Lo's protege and the best tactical mind that Hailstorm had to offer. "Hey Shoot," she said, stopping in front of the guy on my left, her gaze toward the apartment building. "You know..." she said as if she was having a casual conversation, but I could tell from her pursed lips that she was trying to get a point across, "the top of that Chinese food place has a direct view into the fifth floor of that apartment building."
"Fifth floor," I repeated, back straightening.
"Can see right in through one of those broken windows. Know what else is interesting?"
"No, kitten, what?" I asked, smile tugging at my lips.
"Someone left some kind of abandoned sniper rifle up there. Careless, that. Don't you think?"
The smile was no longer tugging, but full. "Yeah, careless. Who would do such a thing?
"Who indeed?" she asked, turning to face the three of us.
"Janie..." the guard on my left started, his voice a warning.
"One two three," she counted way too fast for me to gauge her plan before the guy to my left was flying back a foot. I didn't stop to see what she was doing to him, just wrangled free of the other guard, slammed him backward and tore off down the street toward the Chinese restaurant in question, my heart seemingly wedged up into my throat and I realized that Lo was right; I was too hot to go in there. If I went in there, the cops would be finding entrails, blood spattered across the walls like a horror movie. But I was never too hot to handle a gun. In fact, as I jumped up and pulled down the ladder to the fire escape, I felt a strange calm sweeping over me.
By the time I got on top of the building and found the gun nestled up against the edge of the wall, I knew that Lo and the rest were likely breaching the bottom floor, working on taking out the three guards Luis had with him. I lifted the gun, positioning against the wall and bending down to look through the scope. It took all of two seconds for my eyes to find Amelia. She was standing, arms bound around a brick support beam, the side of her face busted, drops of blood running down her arms from rubbing against the sharp bricks. Luis was halfway across the room, saying something to Amelia that made her straighten, her face twisting in horror as she muttered one word I couldn't make out. Luis responded, still on the move across the room.
