Clay’s jaw flexes.
“Probably.”
Meaning whoever runs this operation is already repositioning forces.
Or preparing another transfer.
Neither option is good.
Lucas appears through the smoke carrying an exhausted little girl against his chest.
“South exit’s collapsing,” he says. “We need another route.”
“The office corridor,” I answer immediately. “There’s a secondary loading dock behind the storage rooms.”
Clay looks down at me sharply.
“You saw that?”
“I was kidnapped, not unconscious.”
Miles laughs breathlessly somewhere behind us.
“I missed her.”
Heat flashes unexpectedly across my face.
Wrong timing for that reaction.
Very wrong.
Gunfire erupts outside again.
Closer.
One of the younger boys screams near the overturned crates while smoke thickens around us.
“We move now,” Russ snaps.
Everything becomes motion after that.
Fast.
Chaotic.
Violent.
Lucas carries two children while Miles helps the wounded civilians through the darkened corridor behind the offices.
I keep one arm wrapped around a terrified little girl while trying to keep pressure against a man’s shoulder wound with my free hand.
Clay stays directly behind me the entire time.
Close enough that I can feel him there even without looking.
Watching everything.
Tracking every threat.
