Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Devon crouched behind the planter boxes, peering through the foliage. Two men stepped cautiously onto the deck. One of them stooped to check on their fallen comrade.
He’d just meant to choke the guy out. But the man hadn’t gone down easy, and Devon had felt something crunch inside the man’s neck. The dude likely wasn’t going to wake up again.
But that man had been going after Aurora with a gun. If Devon hadn’t gotten here…
The thought made his blood run hot with rage, but he couldn’t let that distract him. These bastards were the threat now, and Devon wasn’t going to let them get past him.
They were spreading out. They didn’t know yet where he was. That was his only advantage.
He had to direct them away from the emergency exit, where Aurora had gone.
Silently, Devon inched his way along the planters. He peered out again, checking on the position of the others.
It wouldn’t be long now. He had only a matter of seconds.
One of the men started in the direction of Aurora’s escape route. Devon lifted his weapon and fired. His target went down, shouting. Blood spurted from the man’s leg.
The other ran—a pale man with bright red hair. A bullet hit the planter next to Devon, sending out a shrapnel of ceramic shards.
Devon fired. But his shot only grazed the assailant, who had suddenly jagged to the side. More gunshots roared past Devon’s ears. Pieces of the walls and the deck exploded into the air. Devon rolled, taking cover.
But the redhead was on him. For one harrowing split second, he looked up into the cold black circle of a gun barrel.
Click.
The gun was empty.
Devon’s leg shot out, kicking the red-haired man in the knee. The guy collapsed, moaning. Devon stood up. He, unlike his opponent, had counted his shots. He still had several rounds left in his Glock 22.
“Whoever you are, you’re dead,” the guy said from the ground.
“I beg to differ. Stay down, and maybe you’ll live.”
Slowly, he nodded, his hands raised. Devon retrieved the man’s pistol. Across the deck, the guy with the leg wound was whimpering quietly. Devon walked over to the wounded man, planning to disarm him as well.
Then, a movement on his periphery made Devon’s body respond faster than his mind could think. The red-haired guy was barreling toward him. A desperate attempt, and it would be his last. Devon’s trigger finger squeezed.
A dark circle appeared on the man’s forehead. He fell into a heap.
Devon looked back at the man with the leg wound. “I hope you’re smarter.”
The guy nodded. Tears leaked from his eyes into his mustache. He already knew what to do. He gestured at his pocket, and Devon reached in to take the guy’s weapon, keeping a gun on him the whole time.
“Consider this your lucky day. Don’t be like your friends. Don’t come after us.”
The guy nodded again, his hands trembling.
“I’d call 911 for you, but I have no service. Guessing I have you and your friends to thank for that? But the ambulance won’t take too long.” Most of West Oaks would’ve heard the gunfire.
Devon left his phone on a planter and ran for the emergency exit. He raced down the ladder and found Aurora at the bottom of it. She was keeping herself together, but her pupils had dilated, and her movements were jerky.
“All those shots, I thought…”
“They disrupted the security system. Maybe even hacked it. So, I have no idea how far ahead of us they might be.”
“But nobody else is supposed to know about this exit, right? It wasn’t on the schematics.”
“That’s what your brother said.” Her eyes widened at his mention of Max.
But this was no time to start explaining.
“They must have somebody on the inside. Either the DA’s office, or Bennett Security itself.
Because there’s no way Crane’s people should’ve been on you so fast. Until I know who we can trust, we need to get the hell away from here. ”
“What about the ones upstairs? Are they coming after us?”
“No.” He didn’t elaborate.
Aurora nodded, her jaw clamping down on the questions that were no doubt spinning through her mind like a hurricane.
“Stay here. Then follow me at my signal.” Devon counted down in his head, then burst out of the exit door, spinning his body, and pointing his gun from his two to his ten.
But nobody was waiting for them. “Okay, let’s go.”
He grabbed Aurora’s hand, and they rushed along the narrow passage in between Bennett’s building and the next.
Duct work rattled over their heads. They reached a chain-link fence.
But just before the barrier, he spotted a small steel door in the brick wall of the next building.
It had an electronic keypad lock. He input the code Max had given him, and they went inside.
They were in a utility room.
Devon spotted the camera in the ceiling.
Bennett had made a special arrangement with the owner of this building to do certain security updates.
If someone at Bennett Security had betrayed them, or if the entire camera system had been compromised, then it was possible they would be spotted if the bad guys figured out which feed to check.
He lined up his shot and took out the camera lens.
He still had the two extra guns he’d taken from the rooftop. One he hid behind a water heater, and the other he stuck into his pocket.
Still holding Aurora’s hand, he pulled her toward the other end of the room. They came out into a spacious, modern lobby. It was another fancy apartment building. The doorman saw them emerge and jumped up from his seat.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
Devon ignored the man. Through the glass doors of the building, he could see a crowd already gathering. This building had an entrance on a different street than Bennett’s. He could only hope that the men searching for Aurora wouldn’t be within sight.
They pushed out of the doors and melted into the crowd, moving calmly away from Ocean Lane.
“This way.” Devon pulled Aurora across the street and into another alleyway.
She stopped, shaking her arm free of his grip, her face a mask of panic. “Where are you taking me? How do I even know I can trust you?”
“Because Max hired me. I’m your bodyguard. Now, let me do my job and get you the hell out of here.”