He reaches down and wraps a hand around my upper arm, yanking me to my feet and dragging me behind him as he moves down the hall, my heart hammering in my chest.
The fire extinguisher is right there. It’s small, about the size of a two-liter bottle, but it’s something.
With a prayer on my lips, I pretend to stumble, throwing myself toward the wall and wrapping my hands around the red metal as I catch my fall. The bracket breaks and suddenly I’m not pretending anymore when I trip forward, going to my knees. The canister lands beneath me with a thud.
“What the fuck?”
Vander swings around as I wrap both hands around the cold metal and swing for his crotch. He’s too confused by what the hell I could possibly be doing to react before the fire extinguisher connects with his balls.
Vander goes down. Hard. His gun skids down the wooden floor of the hallway back in the direction of the room we came from. I pop up and scramble after it.
With one hand on his nuts, Vander flails with the other, reaching for my newly bandaged ankle.
“You little bitch!”
I kick off his grip, falling forward as I go flying again. My hand lands on the gun, and I wrap my fingers around it. I roll over and sit up to point it at his head.
“Back. Off,” I say through gritted teeth.
Vander lifts one hand above his head, the other still cupping his nuts. “Oh, little Kat, you’re a feisty one. But can you really kill a man?”
I don’t blink. I pull the trigger.
It clicks, but nothing happens. When I squeeze it again, Vander’s laugh fills the hallway.
“Safety first, Kat.”
He pounces at me, and I kick upward as hard as I can, catching him in the jaw. His head snaps back, and he lands on my legs as deadweight.
Oh my God. Did I kill him?
Sounds of more yelling and gunshots come from above. They’re getting closer.
I pull myself along the floor and out from under Vander. As I rise to my feet, a man dressed all in black bursts into the hallway. He stops when he sees me.
“Kat.”
My fingers are still curled around the gun. I don’t know where the safety is, but if he’s a bad guy, I’ll find it and shoot him.
“Lower the weapon. I’m with the good guys. DC will be fucking happy to see you.”
“How do I know?”
My entire body is shaking, and the barrel of the gun bounces in the air between us.
“I’m Rome. I was at your wedding.”
My brain spins, trying to remember, but it’s too much. “No one was at our wedding. We eloped.” My thumb feels around the side of the gun for a button or switch or something.
“He didn’t want us to meet you, but we couldn’t let our brother take the plunge without us there. You wore a short white dress, and when you tripped on a step about two feet from him, he caught you.”
Oh my God. He couldn’t know that unless . . .
The memory of the random hot, ripped guys who had been hanging around the resort about the time of the ceremony filters into my head.
“You were there.”
He nods. “We gotta go. Give me the gun.”
I pray to God I’m making the right choice as I lower the gun and hand it to him.
He shoves it in his pants. “Now come on, follow me.” To someone else, or maybe into a radio, he says, “Package acquired. Moving out. Let’s wrap this shit up and go home.”
“Not yet!”
Vander’s voice comes from behind us as hot pain slices along the side of my thigh.
We both turn, and I’m confused because instead of running toward us, Vander is running down the hallway away from us.
“Fuck. Cover your ears!”
I do what Rome says, and he unloads bullets in the direction of a fleeing Vander.
“Come on, let’s move.”
Even covering my ears, they still ring from the noise. I look down, and there’s a tear in my pants and blood soaking the white material. Vander’s knife is embedded in the hallway floor two feet ahead of me.
Rome follows my gaze. “Fuck! Can you walk?”
His knife sliced me as he threw it?
Whatever. Not important. I’m still breathing.
“I’m fine. Get me out of here.”
“Good girl. Stay on me like a fucking shadow. I’ll block anything that comes from the front. They won’t shoot you from behind. You’re too valuable.”
I don’t have another second to think about his plan because he’s moving, and my leg burns as I follow him. I suck up the pain and force myself to keep up.
“Get the bird ready; we’re coming. Exfil in two.”
Again, I assume Rome is talking to someone on the other end of a radio.
“Yeah, DC, I got her. Get your ass to the bird.”
Shots still come in bursts, and when a man in the uniform I’ve come to associate with evil darts out into the hallway, Rome doesn’t hesitate. I cover my ears instinctively, and he shoots.
I step over the body and we head up a set of stairs to the deck. The rotor blades of a helicopter are spinning, and two more men in black are clearing the deck. One of them limps as he fires, and I know it’s Dane.
Rome pushes me ahead of him, and I scramble up another set of stairs toward the helicopter. “Get in the bird. Now. Keep low.”
I run for it, and bullets ping off fiberglass around me. The men fire back as I dive into the open door of the helicopter.
A man in the pilot’s seat turns to face me. “Hey, sweetness, good to meet you officially. Strap your ass in. We’re about to get the fuck off this boat.”
Rome climbs in. “Everyone’s coming! Get ready!”
Vander bursts out of a door, spraying bullets everywhere.
Ten feet shy of the helicopter, Dane stumbles backward, landing on his ass, and dread rushes through me.
Dane’s been hit.
Chapter 40
Dane
Fuck. Even though the shots hit my vest, they still knock the air from my lungs.
Bullets are flying from all directions as Vander races across the deck, dodging them before taking cover and moving my way.
Tanner rushes toward me, sliding to his knees. “You hit?”
“Vest!”
“Let’s get the fuck out of here.” He yanks me up by my good arm.
I only lose track of Vander for a second, but it’s too long. Tanner freezes when the pistol jams against the back of his head.