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Reaper, who was on the comms with the MI6 team, marked out entry points and divided us into four groups of three.
When he separated Verity and me, I didn’t argue. Macht would be with her, and I had to trust two things. First, she knew what she was doing. She was trained for this and more. Second, Macht would have her back.
“Faster,” I urged, knowing the overheads could track the man we were searching for as long as he was outside the hotel, but once he entered, we’d have to wait to see if those in Shere could hack into the security camera footage to locate him.
We pulled into the lowest-level parking area of the hotel that was designed to look like the sail of a ship and had been builton an artificial island connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge.
Once parked, we split up. Two of the teams, mine and Verity’s, headed to lifts on opposite sides of the building.
“Stay alive, Ver,” I repeated through the comms.
She turned, faced me, and gave me a thumbs-up before rushing off with Macht and one of the MI6 UAE team members.
“Ready?” Reaper asked when I stood watching her go for a couple of seconds longer than I should have.
Once inside the car, another of the UAE team bypassed the lift block that required an access card to reach the helipad and overrode the call button so we wouldn’t stop on any other floors. We arrived at the top in a few seconds.
“Team one in position,” I heard Macht say as I scanned the empty helipad from one of the few places where there was enough cover to remain hidden—which also meant I couldn’t see where Verity was positioned.
Under two minutes later, I heard the thrum of the incoming blade and crouched down, ready to spring into action.
“Lift ascending,” Macht said through the comms. I readied my weapon. “Three, two, one,” he counted.
I could see a woman step out of the car. She was a few paces from it when I heard Verity shout,“Freeze and drop your weapon!”
“Sheka!”the woman spun around and screamed. She pulled out a gun, raised it, and got off two shots before my bullet hit her in the side and she fell to the ground.
I was already running toward the lift when I heard Macht shouting,“Man down! Man down!”
While I ran as fast as I could, it felt like slow motion once I saw two people on the ground. One was a man; the other, Verity.
The helicopter powered down behind me, and several people were yelling, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying above the sound of blood rushing through my body.
As I ran toward her, Reaper sprinted past me in the opposite direction. Maybe the woman was still alive. Maybe she still had the gun. I didn’t care. Nothing could stop me from getting to Verity, even being shot.
“There’s a lot of blood,” Macht said, holding something under Verity’s arm to stop the flow.
“We’ve got transport!” Reaper shouted, racing toward us.
I put my arms beneath her while Macht held a cloth against her wound.
“The pilot is unarmed. He said he received a call from central dispatch to transport a couple from the hotel. Says he’s former special ops. I’ll ride along with you,” shouted Reaper.
“This way.” The man with an American accent directed us inside. Reaper, already on board, took Verity from my arms, set her on the bench seat, and put pressure on her wound.
I looked over my shoulder before getting all the way in and saw the man who had also gone down reach for another weapon. A split second later, multiple rounds of shots fired hit him. While there was no question he was dead now, he’d gotten one shot off first.
“Go! Go!” I shouted, jumping from the landing skids so the blade could lift off.
“She’s still alive but is bleeding out!” shouted Macht, who was kneeling next to the woman I’d shot.
“Who the fuck are you?” I shouted at her right before she breathed her last breath.
“Zep, your leg.” Macht pointed to the blood seeping through my jumpsuit. “You need a medic.”
I now knew where that last bullet had hit. “I’ll be all right. It’s a flesh wound.” The truth was, I could barely feel where I wasshot even as I stalked over to the man who now lay dead near where Verity’s blood had spilled.
I used my uninjured leg to kick him onto his back.
