His words hit me like a freight train and my knees go weak. I reach out to steady myself and Draven—seeing me falter—starts toward me.
Just in time, it seems, because a second later, a bullet slams through the window and into the wall right where Draven had been standing.
Chapter 24
For a second, nobody moves. Then all hell breaks loose.
Draven dives for me. Dante dives for Rebel. Nitro—God bless him—runs into the bedroom after Riley. And Jeremy…well, Jeremy dives on top of his electronics. No surprise there.
Another window shatters as a canister of some sort comes hurtling through it. Followed by another. And another. Within seconds, noxious smoke fills the apartment.
“Tear gas,” Draven mutters bitterly in my ear. “We’ve got to get out of here.”
“But that’s what they want! They’re waiting out there.”
“Yeah, well, they’ll wait a couple minutes for the tear gas to do its work and then storm in here. We’ll be totally screwed. We have to go. Now.”
He’s right. That’s exactly what’s going to happen. But that doesn’t make it any easier for me to do what needs to be done. Not when my heart is pounding like a metronome on high and I can’t catch my breath. Not when I know what the heroes are capable of, what the trouble outside might bring us.
I can see it so clearly: Draven, captured by the heroes, bloodied, beaten, destroyed. I want to grab on to him, to beg him to stay here where I might be able protect him.
But it would be a lie. There is no safety here. No safety anywhere, really. Not when Rex Malone is determined to bring us down.
My eyes water as hell rains all around us. It’s an impossible situation. Stay until they come in, or run out into their trap. Through the pain I try to wrap my head around what I can do to save Draven and Rebel. Jeremy, Dante, Nitro. And myself. I’d really prefer to make it out of this alive, but there are no guarantees.
“Let’s go,” Draven yells, pulling me up into a crouch as a spray of bullets comes through the already-broken windows.
Dante uses his wind power to clear the air around us as much as he can, but there’s a lot of tear gas in the apartment now and I can barely see.
“Where are we going?” I demand as Rebel and Dante fall in behind us. “How are we supposed to get out of here? Mr. Malone isn’t stupid. He’ll have people in the hallway as well as on the street. We’re trapped.”
“The roof?” Jeremy suggests hoarsely between coughing fits. He’s crawling along behind us, his and Riley’s laptops tucked into the backpack slung over his shoulder.
If we were smart, we’d surrender. Or at least barter Rebel and Riley for our own escape. Except that’s not how this team works. Corny as it sounds, we’re not leaving anyone behind, not even Riley. Once we’re on the street, he can go his own way. But for now, we’re all in this together.
“Not the roof,” Draven says, his voice just as rough as Jeremy’s. “They’ll be waiting.”
“Well, then, what the hell are we supposed to do?” Dante asks. He’s got his hands up, creating a light wind tunnel around us in an effort to keep the tear gas at bay. It’s helping a little bit, but the sound of boot steps in the hall tells us we’re out of time.
“We’ve got to get the hell out of this apartment,” Nitro says as he starts building a fireball.
I can see where this is going—he’s going to end up accidentally burning down the whole damn building in his efforts to save us. It’s late; people are sleeping. No way am I going to let Nitro set the place on fire and kill everyone who lives here.
“Draven, our only chance is the hallway!” I shout.
“You just said there will be guards out there!” Rebel gasps between coughs.
“There will be,” I reply. “But it’s our best shot. We’ve got this.”
“How?” Jeremy demands.
“Rebel can move them with her mind. Dante can use his wind. I’ll apparently make their electronics go nuts so hopefully they can’t radio our position to anyone.”
I’ll do my best, anyway. Whatever it takes.
“They’re hero SWAT, Kenna,” Jeremy tells me. “They’ve got special suits that neutralize powers coming at them.”
“How do you know that?” I demand.
“How do you not?” Jeremy replies. “I mean, come on. Your mom helped design them!”
“So what are we going to do then?” Rebel asks.
“I don’t know.” I’m out of ideas.
There’s a loud crash in the hallway, and seconds later, something heavy slams against Riley’s reinforced door. Battering ram.
“Screw this,” Nitro says, walking over to the common wall between Riley’s condo and his neighbor’s. The slamming against the door gets worse. Nitro lets loose a fireball that blows a hole straight through the drywall.