“We’re wasting time,” Julian insisted. Slipping the M4-Carbine over his arm, he walked over to the vehicle and eased inside. Sunny and Reggie followed behind, entering the tank. Each of them found a position where they could secure their weapons and shoot if gunmen were waiting to ambush them.
“We’ll enter the hangar in twenty seconds. Wait for my command,” Reggie instructed.
Julian focused his eyes on the hangar. The vehicle jerked forward, speeding ahead. An agent sitting next to Julian handed him a vest of bullets.
“You might need this,” the agent said, then turned to look through the front windows of the vehicle.
Reggie shouted over the loud engine of the truck. “Be alert and vigilant before firing to ensure we don’t take out anyone we should be trying to save.”
The truck blazed forward. Julian could see the Gulfstream inside the hangar. The loud hum of the plane’s engines started, whirring as it prepared to taxi out onto the runway.
As they neared the entrance, Julian jumped from the moving truck followed by Reggie, Sunny, and the other agents and stormed through the hangar, with guns raised.
Shots rang out from the plane.
The agents scattered, seeking cover and returning fire. Julian pulled the trigger of the M4 Carbine, pelting the side of the plane with bullets as he rushed toward the airplane door. He scanned the windows. Mena’s face stared at him in shock. Julian unloaded on the plane’s door, riddling it with bullets that bounced back toward him, making small dents in the surface.
Bulletproof?
The door shifted open. Julian pointed the rifle at the figure hovering in the crack.
“Open the damn door! Now!” Julian screamed, squeezing the trigger. A blaze of bullets clattered against the plane. Reggie and his men had taken out the snipers and had the aircraft surrounded.
The door opened wider. The steps, unfolding slowly, descended toward the floor of the hangar. A man stood in the gap.
Adam Russell?
Adam was supposed to be in witness protection, waiting to testify. What was he doing here? Why did he want Mena?
Realization struck Julian. Fuck!
Adam didn’t want Mena, but Priscilla Dumay sure as hell did.
Julian aimed his gun at Adam as the man hurled a container down to the ground. The glass crashed onto the concrete floor as Adam disappeared back into the cabin of the plane.
A dense fog of gas filled the hangar, burning and clawing at Julian’s eyes. The fumes filled the space with a vengeance, the harsh chemicals assaulting his nose, and burning his lungs. Julian stumbled backward, dizzy, and disoriented. The ASF agents were disarmed, vomiting, and crawling away from the hangar, trying to get out to fresh air.
Julian couldn’t go back. He had to get to Mena. Pressing forward, he reached the bottom step of the ladder leading up to the opening of the Gulfstream. His eyes glued to Adam Russell’s face peering at him through the window. Vomit and bile wretched in his abdomen. Julian stopped as the liquid spewed from his mouth, leaving a sour after taste. His vision was blurred, eyes watering and burning, but he couldn’t give up. He needed to get Mena off that plane. A fit of coughing launched out of his body, rocking him as he struggled to breathe. He could barely move, his muscles seizing and constricting, growing numb. The agents had all collapsed, unmoving in the hangar. Reggie Kamau lay on his back, a stream of vomit bubbling out of his mouth. Sunny was staggering out of the hangar, crawling on her hands and knees.
Julian tried to move his arms and legs, but they weren’t responding. Closing his eyes, he inhaled a deep breath, then coughed violently, seizing internally from the fumes.
A coldness infected his body, despair settling within him. He wouldn’t save her this time. He wouldn’t be her hero. Mena would be delivered to Priscilla Dumay and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
Julian coughed again, the metallic taste of blood spreading in his mouth.
He wanted to see Mena one last time. The woman he loved more than he’d thought was ever possible.
He needed to lift his eyelids, to see her face one more time.
Struggling to open his eyes, he gazed toward the window he’d seen Mena looking out of, her mouth was moving as she banged against the window. Tears streaming down her face. She was so beautiful. She’d blessed him with a gift he’d never thought he’d have after all the damage he’d done. She was strong. She’d escaped before and he prayed she would again. Even if he wouldn’t be around to be with her after it was all over.
Chapter Fifty-Five
A bright light filled his vision.
A blank canvas of white, warm, and inviting pulling him forward like a moth to a flame.
“Come …”
