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Walton cried out and peed himself. “You won’t. Not you, Talis. You’re one of the good guys.”
I crinkled my face in disgust. Not only at his filth, but at myself. I stood and stepped back. I wouldn’t kill him. Fuck.
But I shot him in his other leg. That was for endangering Callista. I turned from him as he screamed once more.
Levi didn’t even look in Walton’s direction and stood in front of the screens and motioned to three of them. “Van is chasing after two of the gunmen from the kitchen toward the north-east side. One patrol is having a standoff with two guards they left with their rafts on the west side. And there’s another six coming through the upstairs.”
I couldn’t waste any time questioning Walton. We needed to get out there and help. Yet having six coming in from upstairs meant the house wasn’t secure, not even the hub. I didn’t know how much info they had. We’d have to take Callista with us.
Glancing at her, she trembled still but she slowly crawled over to Walton. She’d taken off the sash of her sundress and spoke to him softly. “I’m going to wrap your knee.”
He murmured his thanks and apologies as he removed his hands to grip his thigh as she wound the blue sash around his wound. It wasn’t a fatal injury, but I had no doubt it hurt like hell. It offered no solace.
I looked back to the screens again as Levi hurried to the fire cabinet which held another set of Glocks, cartridges, and a shotgun. Walton’s sudden shriek had me pointing my gun at him again.
Callista knelt beside him, pulling each end of the sash with all strength. Bone crackled against bone. “It was my father, wasn’t it?” Walton screamed and she jerked his leg. “Who was it?”
“It was Birk! Julian Birk!” Walton screeched and flailed, almost hitting her. “Make her stop!”
Holy shit. I reached for her, but stopped myself. She was done. She’d gotten the answer she wanted. The courage in this beautiful Omega. I was in awe and yet my heart ached that she felt she needed to do that. I’d take away all her misery and pain in an instant.
Callista dropped his limb and scurried back to the other side of the room. She pressed her palms to her eyes, shaking her head. “I’m so sorry he did this to you. To all of you.”
The fucking bastard behind it all. A little part of me had thought maybe it was Grant sending these men as retribution, but no, he didn’t have the balls. Birk was the kind of asshole who would make sure a job was done, though.
He would not have Callista. Whatever his nefarious plans were, I wouldn’t let him take her.
I gathered her and held her in my arms. “It’s okay, love. You don’t have to apologize for your father’s actions.” Her sweet scent was thick with terror, but the sweetness was becoming muskier. The surges of adrenaline were going to trigger her heat. “Take some deep breaths. We’re going to get out of this.” I kissed the bruise on her neck where I’d bitten her. She was mine and no one would touch her. “This is what we do. I’ll protect you with my life.”
“I don’t want you to die,” Callista murmured against my shoulder.
“I don’t plan on dying.” Not when I had a lifetime with her ahead of me. It used to be that I could only think of my company. It had been my dream, but she had so quickly replaced it as the number one priority in my life. “You are all I want, my dream, and I’ll fight forever to be by your side.”
She hugged me tighter and tilted her head back to kiss me. The strength of emotion in her beautiful dark eyes steeled my will even further.
Levi hit the alarm button and stepped over Walton as if he wasn’t even there to go to the door. “Alarm on. Authorities alerted. Kathryn’s upstairs shooting it out with the gunmen. We need to get moving.”
“Kathryn?” Callista squeaked, panic filling her face again.
Flashing a grin over his shoulder, Levi slowly opened the door and peered into the stairwell. “Kathryn’s a crack shot. Better than the whole lot of us. Best keep that in mind when she tells you to clean up your mess in the future. Don’t even think about getting distracted by a video game.”
“He speaks from experience.” I managed a smile. Everyone who worked on the island was formerly in the military, and Kathryn did have the most experience.
Callista jittered by my side no matter our attempt to soothe her. “We have to go help her.”
Levi cocked the shotgun. “On our way. I’ll take the lead.”
“Stay behind me and low to the ground.” There was no way I was going to leave Callista with Walton who still cried with his pain. I locked him in with my emergency code and followed about five feet behind Levi.
I was hyper aware of Callista behind me. The warmth of her body, her quick breaths, her fingers which touched me now and then as if making certain I was still there. My Alpha instincts wanted to throw her over my shoulder, run to my plane, and fly her as far from here as we could get. Protect her and kill anyone who tried to stop me.
We could not do that. I worked to push past my primal urges and focus on the situation at hand.
The gunshots grew louder as Levi pushed open the hub door at the top of the stairs. He eased out, shotgun at the ready and strapped with three other guns. I had my two, and I made a mental note of where there were other weapons hidden on the island.
We made our way through to the common area and headed slowly upstairs to the second floor. From the sounds of things, Kathryn was holding her own. She seemed holed up in the office at the end of the hall to the right.
Levi gave me the hand signal that he had two men in his sights. From the gunfire, I counted at least one more, but one at a time.
