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“Relay?” Killion called out. “Relay, answer me.”
“She’s out,” Gannon said. “Shit! I didn’t know there was a tree house in there.”
“There isn’t,” Killion informed and began to scan the atrium from the cameras looking at the northwest corner she described. “Shit. Part of the playground is in the tree from the blast. She thinks it’s a tree house.”
Killion went to his office closet and pulled out two duffel bags. “Take these med bags. You’re going to need them. She wasn’t wrong…”
Gannon’s stare was trained on the screen, and he leaned in for a better look. “That… that’s blood.”
Killion nodded and tapped his comms to mute himself. “Go. I don’t think you have much time.”
Gannon rushed out of there, leaving Killion and his family alone in the office. He looked over his shoulder to find Rainy relaxing on the pull-out bed, leaning against the back with her eyes closed while feeding both babies. He could breathe –– at least for the moment. His family was locked away in their proverbial tower, safe from the outside world with a sea of bikers swarming his floor, looking for a fight, should anyone get that far.
Killion leaned back in his chair, fingers laced behind his head, and watched the commotion from around the building on his screens and listened to the chatter on his comms but remained muted himself. He needed a minute, or perhaps a week, to process what they’d just endured, and what remained of their teams worked like an indestructible machine, already done with the battle and now clearing the bodies. Chaos. Death. Destruction. That was what they were dealing with. They’d been consumed by it for days, and today was just as abhorrent.
“We’ll have the building cleaned up and repaired enough to be secure by day’s end,” Cane said through the comms. “Reconstruction will operate around the clock until it’s fully repaired.”
Good, Killion thought. One less thing to worry about. Bringing in the MC would certainly help with security, as would the police presence outside the building and patrolling the area. He continued to watch, unaware of much other than what was happening on the screens and the bits of information that came through. Most of the chatter fell on deaf ears, but keywords caught his attention.
“Update on Relay?” Hen asked.
A few moments passed and Doc Mendoza chimed in. “She’s serious but stable. It’s still early, but I think she’ll be okay.”
Killion listened as he recalled watching Gannon and his guys rush several stories down the stairwells to get to her. Mendoza had heard the call and joined them, determined not to let anyone from BK die on his watch. It wasn’t surprising. It was what they did. Jumped in where they could and had each other’s backs.
“Mostly dealing with blood loss here.” Mendoza continued. “She took some shrapnel, mostly glass, and a couple of bullets that were mostly superficial, but we got her all cleaned up –– lots of stitches for this one. Bled out pretty good, and that’s our biggest obstacle at the moment. The sight of it is probably what knocked her out. She was in shock.”
Relief. Relay was going to be okay, it seemed. Killion was grateful for that and felt like he owed her the world because it was Relay who saved his. There was no telling how it would have gone had she not been there. He didn’t want to consider those possibilities.
“We’re having our own people work on identifying the bodies of the breachers.” Brody came through the comms. “Might lead us somewhere. Also, worth mentioning that the two out front died of gunshot wounds to the head, not the explosion. We definitely had interference on the outside. Need to determine whether it was a friendly or someone else racing to the prize and taking out their challengers.”
Killion chuckled at that. He was a prize? He supposed he was to the right people. There wasn’t much optimism on his part as it related to identifying the dead and finding answers in who they were. It was either Lindstrom’s cronies or randoms like before –– knowing wouldn’t lead anywhere. It hadn’t thus far, anyway.
One thing Killion did know for sure was that the gunner on a nearby building who shot down the front breachers was a friendly. He’d put money on it. If he was a betting man, he’d wager it was Cormack Meyer, protecting his children and grandchildren once again. The reason the team didn’t find anyone on the rooftops across from the building was because he was already long gone by the time they’d arrived. He’d likely rounded the building and went for the shooters coming through the atrium. Relay had help. She had to have.
There were two of them, and she had a weak vantage point and a single weapon with limited ammo. The amount of gunfire he heard all the way up to his floor far exceeded her weapons capabilities. It was also worth noting that when all was said and done, one of the bodies in the atrium was lying in such a way that he had to have been shot from behind. The gaping gunshot wound on the back of his head confirmed it. He’d run back the outside feeds later and confirm his suspicion. It seemed Killion was falling deeper into Cormack’s debt, and he was grateful for it.
“Detective Payne is on scene,” C.T. chimed in, catching Killion’s attention. “They’re officially calling this a gas leak gone bad as far as the public is concerned. That’ll give us about twenty-four hours of street closures too.”
“That’ll help us with security,” Wit said next. “Waterfront too?”
“Affirmative.”
Killion tapped at his comms, turning on his mic. “How’d they get this close without warning? How were they able to get around my security and jammers?”
There was silence, and Killion snickered. “Don’t worry, it was a rhetorical question. I already know the answer. It was my fault. The systems I built for all our clients over the years are based on ours. Someone found a backdoor I probably use to upgrade and test systems and found a way into mine. Once again, using my own technology against me. I’m the real enemy here.”
A deep sigh came through. “Killion—”
“No, no. I get it, Cane.” Killion interrupted. “It’s a message. Between burning my house down and every home around it, running everyone, I know off the road, attacking my city, the drones outside my balcony, and now the attack on Watermark… they know where to find me, and they’re not going to stop coming for me until they get me.”
“We’ll get them first, brother,” Cane said for all to hear. “We own half the buildings in the area and put snipers on all those roofs. We’ll have plainclothes operators on the streets all over the area too. Anyone even remotely out of place will be brought in, questioned, and assessed. We’re completely locked down here. Nobody is coming for you. Not on our watch.”
“What about Montana? The Wyatt Ranch?” Killion questioned. “We make it too hard here, and they’ll go for someone else just to get to me.”
“Not a single threat,” Brody chimed in. “Just got off the phone with Mercy an hour ago and brought him up to speed. They’re adding security as an added measure. Your family is safe out there too.”
“Feel like a broken record saying this, but…” Killion paused. “For how long?”
