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“Cal’ll drop that guy, any second,” Kian told him. “It’ll be okay.”
Then a shot rang out and Danny jerked on the ground and let out a heart-rending scream of pain. I put my hands to my mouth in horror. The sniper had shot him again, just to lure us out.
And it worked. JD took two quick steps towards the end of the car. Gabriel and Colton were busy trying to hold back the gunmen who were still advancing from either end of the street. Kian tried to grab him but JD shook him off.
I lunged forward and grabbed JD’s hand just before he stepped out into the open. “No, no, John, please. He’ll kill you!”
JD pulled savagely against my grip. I was about to lose him. I grabbed his hand with both of mine and grimly hung on. “Please, please we need you here!” I was sobbing, now. “We need you here!”
JD tugged against me, raging and straining, but I hung on, pleading with my eyes. And finally, he stopped. For a few seconds, he just crouched there, staring at the red lake surrounding Danny. Then he bellowed in rage, pounding his fist on the car door hard enough to leave dents. I pulled him to me and clung to him.
Cal, I begged silently, where are you?
48
CAL
I was thundering up flight after flight, fast enough that they didn’t seem like stairs anymore, fast enough that I just saw floor numbers flashing by.
Five.
Six.
I hadn’t run like this since Idaho and that hadn’t been up stairs. But I didn’t have time to be out of breath, didn’t have time for my lungs to hurt. I was running on pure adrenaline…adrenaline and hate. Move your ass, you big dumb fuck. How could you pick the one building with an elevator that wasn’t working? It’s your fault if he dies.
Seven.
Eight.
I wasn’t used to cities. All the right angles didn’t sit nice in my brain like the soft contours of the woods. But I still had that hunter’s instinct that stops me getting lost. As I corkscrewed up through the building I knew that now I was facing north, now east, now south…and I could picture where the sniper was.
Nine.
Ten.
I burst onto the tenth floor and straight up the service stairs that led to the roof. There was a locked door at the top but I didn’t even slow down, just shoulder-charged it.
The sound carried across the street and I saw the sniper look up and raise his rifle. But I already had mine up to my shoulder, the scope to my eye. I got a close-up glimpse of the guy’s face and the tattoo on his neck and then I squeezed the trigger and he fell.
49
LORNA
A single shot rang out from behind us, echoing off the buildings, and the whole team was up and moving before Cal even hollered from the rooftop that it was clear. They trusted his shooting that much.
Gabriel and Colton took up better positions and started forcing back the advancing gunmen. JD, Kian and I ran to Danny.
“Oh crap,” whispered JD. Danny was deathly pale. We could see the ragged wound in his chest, now, and the second wound in his leg. And there was so much blood, God, a whole spreading pool of it around him. JD grabbed my hands and pressed them to the leg wound. “Press on it!” I pressed hard, tears filling my eyes. JD did the same with the chest wound and I flinched, expecting Danny to cry out in pain. But he barely reacted, and that made my stomach drop.
Gabriel and Colton stopped firing. A moment later, they jogged over to us. “They pulled out, boss,” said Colton.
Then Cal staggered over, chest heaving. “Elevator was out,” he managed.
Gabriel patted his arm. “Not your fault,” he said gently. But Cal wouldn’t acknowledge him, just stared down at Danny, his jaw tight.
Kian had been feeling up and down Danny’s neck, pressing with two fingers. “I can’t find a pulse,” he said quietly.
“Where’s that ambulance?” roared JD. There were tears in his eyes.
I pressed hard on the leg wound, tears rolling down my cheeks. And prayed.
50
JD
At the hospital, the whole team waited in silence. They’d rushed Danny into surgery three hours ago.
I sat in the center of the long row of chairs, with my arm around Lorna on one side and Erin on the other. My mind was playing an endless loop of all the ways in which this was my fault. I should never have involved the team. I should have checked out the area better before going to the diner. I should have been the sniper bait, not Danny…
Lorna was hunched over next to me, staring at the floor. I’d told her, again and again, that this wasn’t her fault, but she was convinced it was because we’d all been protecting her.
