Chapter Twenty-Six
M arek led, I followed, and Luna trailed my six.
Dark as shit, mosquitoes swarming, their buzzing rivaling the high pitch of the cicadas as they dive-bombed us, I couldn’t see ten feet in front of me.
Only a yard ahead, I could barely make out Marek past the heavy overgrowth of palmettos, scrub pines, vining shit, and about a hundred other plants and trees I couldn’t name. “How much further?” Talerco had to be at the house by now. I’d heard tires in the distance five minutes ago.
Marek stopped walking, and if it weren’t for the screen of his cell lighting up as he glanced at it, I would’ve run into him. “Security feeds just went down.”
Fuck. “Did Talerco tell you his plan for when he got here?”
“His call cut out before we could discuss anything.” Marek shoved his cell back in his pocket.
“Then why are we approaching on foot?” Why the fuck weren’t we at the house waiting for him. “He needs backup now.” Not when we get there after trekking through fucking swampy forest.
Marek cut left like he knew where he was going. “He knows what to do.”
What the fuck was that supposed to mean? “Meaning?” I demanded.
Throwing me a look over his shoulder that was meant to intimidate, he didn’t respond.
Goddamn it. “He has a civilian with him.”
“I know who he has.”
I turned and looked at Luna for help. “Do you know what Talerco’s planning?”
Luna used his rifle to shove a hanging palm frond out of his face as he stepped over a fallen branch. “Talon doesn’t need a plan. All he needs to do is get her into Marek’s house. They won’t penetrate Marek’s security if he gets her inside.”
That didn’t make me feel any better. “ If being the operative word.”
Marek threw up his arm, elbow bent, fist clenched. Both Luna and I halted.
A second later, gunfire erupted.
I shoved past Marek, and I was running.
Dodging between the trees, jumping over branches, palms lashed at my face and arms, but I kept running until I hit a clearing.
Talerco was behind the open door of his Challenger unloading his AR15 at the gray van as Genevieve scrambled up the front steps of the house on all fours. She hit the top step, shoved the front door open and fell inside.
But she didn’t close the door behind her.
Goddamn it , she didn’t close the door.
My rifle trained, I stepped out of the tree line and moved toward the front of the van.
The driver was dead, a masked man was returning fire from the opposite side of the van and another took off toward the house, skirting behind Talerco.
I raised my gun at the man running for the house.
Marek came out of nowhere, his hand slamming down on my piece. “Take care of the remaining shooter.” He strode toward the house.
Enraged, I cursed and redirected my aim.
“Leave him alive so we can question him,” Luna clipped, moving to my right, his gun trained on the closed back doors of the van.
Fuck . I fired off a single shot.
The asshole dropped, grabbing his thigh.
I didn’t spare him a second glance. I sprinted toward the house just as Talerco saw Marek.
Talerco stood up from behind his car door and grinned. “Damn, Ink, ’bout time you showed up.”
I ran past the van toward the front steps of the house and the still-open door. “One made it inside!”
“ Motherfucker ,” Talerco swore as Ty came around the last bend in the driveway, gunning the Escalade.
I hit the porch steps and flew into the house as the rear doors of the van burst open and gangbangers spilled out.
Gunfire sprayed across the front of the house.
“Ambush!” Luna yelled.