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“I don’t hear anything,” Liam said.
“’Cause you’re both old as shit. I’m at my peak, bro, and I’m telling you”—I raised my knife—“something or someone isn’t as quiet as they’re trying to be.”
Liam drew his weapon, crouching lower on approach from the corners.
“Sunny, switch,” Bane hissed.
“What?”
“You’re carrying in your left hand.”
I stiffened, flicking down to the metal glinting in my left. “I know. I’ve been training with my left. I can throw just as good.”
“Now isn’t the time for just as good. Stop messing around. Switch.”
“Right.” Cursing internally, I switched to my dominant hand. Of course Bane, the highly trained fighter and weapons expert, had to notice.
Needles stabbed my shoulder as I gripped. Lately that was all it took, a squeeze or a clench, and pain flooded me.
I pushed it aside, listening for him to make another sound. It was close—a couple of rows ahead of us. He must’ve slipped in during the day with the workers and hid while everyone left.
Beep.
“Over there.” I shot out in front of Liam, pressing my back to the metal. Nodding at them, I counted one, two, three and whipped around the corner—knife pulled back to let fly.
Nothing.
“No one’s there,” Liam said.
Beep.
“I’m still hearing something.” I frowned. “Boxes of rice don’t make noise.”
Beep.
“I heard it that time,” Bane said.
“Me too.” Liam stepped lightly, inching down the aisle. “What is that?”
He stopped in front of a stack of loose boxes piled on the bottom shelf. Bending down, we pushed them aside, listening to the beeping grow louder.
I tossed the final box on the floor, and my penlight fell on the display.
Ten.
Nine.
Eight.
“Bomb!” I bellowed. “It’s a bomb! Get out!”
MACKENZIE
“It’s a trap.”
Sienna threw the door open, racing for the warehouse.
“Sienna, wait!” I tugged on my seat belt. It stuck fast. “Wait for me!”
I yanked on the nylon, stabbing the release. The belt refused to free me. Bellowing, I thrashed in the seat, throwing my weight against the jammed restraint.
Sienna was running straight at a trap that Sunny, Bane, and Liam were in the middle of springing. I had to get out. Now!
Giving up, I snatched the switchblade from my pocket. “Sorry, Masie.” I held the edge to the belt.
Boom!
Percussive heat blew me against the seat, light exploding in my eyes. Dazed, the world came into focus on a single point.
Warehouse Nineteen burning.
“Sienna!”
Flames engulfed the bitter remains of the structure, devouring every splinter, beam, and person in its path.
“Sunny!” I slashed the belt, flinging it away. “Liam, Bane, p-please, no.”
I threw myself on the door, and our eyes locked. Artic-blue orbs beheld me through the window, driving straight into my soul. The assassin snapped back faster than my racing heart skipped beats, and aimed.
Screams ripped from my throat. Throwing up my hands, I flung away already knowing it was too late.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The shots ricocheted in my skull, loud as my screams, trumpeting the crackle of broken glass. Trembling, I lifted my head to the near splintered but still-intact glass. The windows were bulletproof.
Roaring, the hairless killer smashed the gun’s butt on the window. My foot jerked, punching the gas. Masie raced off, thudding over something. His shouts became screams.
My face was soaked. Fear and adrenaline ravaged my lungs. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t stop the fire. Couldn’t see Sienna, Sunny, Liam, or Bane.
I drove as close to the warehouse as the flames would let me and tumbled out of the car, weakened knees dropping me to the pavement. Where is he?! I looked back but there was no sign of him.
“Sienna?” Flames poured from the busted windows, eagerly consuming oxygen to grow, spread, destroy. “Sienna! Guys?!”
I had to get to them. It couldn’t end this way. They had to be okay. They had to be!
Shrugging off my jacket, I held it over my head and rushed the door.
Chapter Fourteen
“Kenzie, no!” A human missile knocked me off course.
We collapsed on the ground, Sienna strangling me. “I’m okay,” she sobbed. “It’s okay.”
“The guys are in there! Get help! I have to get them out—”
“Kenzie?” Sunny appeared through the haze, stepping out from the other side of the smoldering rice factory. “Are you okay?”
He ran over to us, and behind him ran Bane, Liam, Makai, and Ryker.
“We got out, Kenzie.” Sunny held me as I cried into his shoulder. “We got out in time.”
“He’s h-here,” I croaked. “The bomber. The man who tried to kill you. He was right there, Sunny. He tried to shoot me through the window.”
“Fuck! Spread out,” Liam bellowed to the men escaping from the shadows and surrounding warehouses. “Find him! That son of a bitch doesn’t get away.”
He did get away.
They searched the entire district, looking inside every warehouse that wasn’t locked. All they found were a set of tire tracks from a car that peeled off fast.
Sunny piled me and Sienna in his car, driving behind Liam and Bane for home. There was nothing more we could do.
