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The front door burst open, and at least a dozen men charged in through it. More leapt through the window we’d opened and smashed others besides. In an instant, we were all but surrounded.
My hand shot to my ever-present weapons, a gun at one hip and my knife at the other. Garrison dropped his satchel and brandished his own pistol. Blaze and Julius whipped out their weapons. Dess waggled the butcher knife she was still carrying, her free hand dipping toward the gun strapped to her calf.
We might have retreated into the rooms we’d just left, but the incoming attackers charged at us without giving us a second to prepare. As they opened fire on us, I leapt toward the cabinets along one wall for some kind of shelter, dragging Dess with me and shooting as I went. Weirdly, the second I had my arm around her, the bullets flying my way seemed to falter. But bangs were still echoing all around me.
My comrades had all dived for whatever other cover they could find. Our attackers kept shooting in their general directions, but they all marched toward the spot where I’d ducked down with Dess next to me.
An icy sense of understanding snapped into place in my head.
They were here for her. They’d kill us to get to her, but they didn’t want her dead. They were aiming to take her back, just like Garrison’s contact had threatened.
Fury unfurled in my chest, searing hot. They’d only capture her over my dead body, and I didn’t intend to give them that.
I fired off a few more shots, and the advancing men fell back to the side where I couldn’t reach them without leaning out of the minor shelter I’d found. My gaze caught Julius’s, and then Blaze’s, and then Garrison’s around the room. A matching rage shone in all their gazes.
All of us were ready to fight to the death to protect this woman. I had no doubt about that. She was one of us now, and we protected our own.
Bullets started rattling the side of the cabinet, some puncturing one or two layers of metal. It wouldn’t be long before they passed right through the side where we were crouched. Dess sucked a breath through her teeth with a hiss, and I knew what I needed to do.
Yanking the cabinet door in front of me like a shield, I lunged out and squeezed the trigger.
