15
Thecompounds basement floor was flooded with about two inches of water. We sloshed forward in the dark and damp hallway, trusting the facility’s security footage was on a loop, courtesy of one of Amalia’s girls who had set up in a van just out of sight. Holly and a taller woman took the lead while Amalia and I brought up the rear.
“How are you holding up, Cain?” she asked, glancing back at me briefly. The glow of red emergency lights above our heads highlighted her profile, and I caught her smirk.
“This is a typical Tuesday for me, baby.”
My wrist lit up with a text from Derek, who was with another team on the other side of the building. He was checking my status and letting me know they were about to make entry onto one of the main floors. I knew it had taken a lot for Derek to be here. He’d promised Eva years ago he was done with this life, but he wasn’t willing to let me go alone. Fucking up on my own was one thing, but putting my life in the hands of others, especially ones I was barely acquainted with, was another level of trust neither of us had reached yet. And while we didn’t like the idea of splitting up, I wasn’t going to bitch about it and give Amalia the ammo to shit talk later.
“Does your little friend Rocco ever make it, or does he just send you to do his dirty work?”
She turned to me and fisted my shirt. “I’m no one’s errand girl, and I’m here for my father, not Rocco.”
“You look fucking adorable when you’re ready to kill someone.”
“I’m sure I’ll look just as cute when I put my foot up your ass.”
“I know you will.”
“Cain. Vicious. Head in the game. We’re about to breach the main level stairwell.”
We both snapped our attention toward Holly.
“Don’t do that,” Amalia said, shaking her head and falling back into step with the others. We heard an amused chuckle from the entryway where Holly and her partner had disappeared.
“That’s my thing,” I whispered. “She can’t just take it.”
“Of all the names you could have—”
“It’s perfect for you.”
As hard as she was probably trying to hide her smile, the small lights on the pipes above us were on my side.
She was fucking beautiful.
“Hey.” I caught her wrist, and while she didn’t turn around, she stopped walking, waiting to hear what I had to say. “Don’t chew my head off, but I just feel like it needs to be said. “Be careful.”
“I didn’t know you cared.”
I leaned in, inhaling her soft, unforgettable scent. “You still owe me.”
“Ugh.” She mushed my face back and hurried after the group.
In the next several minutes, we were up three flights of stairs and busting through the door to what should have been a banquet hall occupied by our targets. But it was empty.
“Are we in the wrong place? Bad intel?”
Amalia didn’t answer. She scanned the room, her expression both perplexed and flustered. “No, this was what he said. We confirmed with his guy, and he wouldn’t betray my father.”
“Vicious, everyone has a price. I keep my circle small for that very reason.”
DEREK
First level clear. No one here.
ME
No one here either, D. Head on a swivel. Something is up.
DEREK
Copy.
ME
Shit goes left, get yourself out. You got a wife and kid.
DEREK
We leave together, or we don’t.
ME
Negative. Eva will kill us both even if we’re already dead.
I waited for another text from Derek, but nothing else came through.
“Amalia, I can’t get ahold of Simone. I have no way of knowing if the signal is still blocked. And we’ve got no eyes on the outside. I say we bail before we get caught with our asses out.”
Holly had barely finished speaking when gunfire erupted from the floors below us. We scattered in different directions, taking cover. I took off after Amalia into a narrow hallway seconds before bullets began to impact the walls around us.
She returned fire, but we were outgunned, and fighting back was useless. We’d be dead within seconds. I dragged her into a utility room as she clawed and kicked to escape my grasp, even as the echoes of automatic guns were coming at us from all sides.
“What are you doing?” she shrieked, shoving me hard against the chest and diving back toward the door. My arms came around her from behind, pinning her arms to her sides. “Let me go. We can’t just hide in here. Holly, all of them. Derek—they need us!”
“Sshh, Amalia, shut the fuck up. Derek can handle himself. And we can’t help them if we’re dead. So stop fighting me and listen to reason.”
I released her slowly as her thrashing ceased, but the moment she was free, Amalia turned around and pounded my chest with her fists. “You’re such a fucking coward, Cain!”
“Enough,” I growled, caging her in against the wall, wrists held in my hand above her head. “Do you hear that? That’s what you want to run into? Stop being so goddamn impulsive. We won’t survive.”
“I told you to stop pretending you give a damn about me.”
I clenched my teeth. “You’re exasperating.”
“You’re not exactly a peach yourself.”
Gruff voices filled the hallway, spewing commands in a mixture of Spanish and English, followed by more gunfire.
“We’re fucked,” she whispered, backing into a corner when I let her go. As Amalia slid to the floor, three bullets pierced the room’s metal door, and I threw myself over her body, our eyes connecting through the madness. “Kai, if they find us, they’ll kill you…but they’ll take me. And I can’t…I won’t…” She lifted her gun to her temple.
“The fuck they will,” I seethed, as my hand wrapped around the barrel of her Glock. “I won’t let that happen. I already told you no one touches you.”
She scoffed and flashed me a frail smile. “Don’t be stupid, Cain. You’re not bulletproof, and it’s only a matter of time before they come through that door, and then we’re both fucked.” Amalia tugged at her gun, but I held firm. “Let go.”
“No.”
“Fuck you. I’d rather choose how I die. And I refuse to become one of their whores. You’re not going to save me. So let go.”
With her free hand, she reached for the rifle at her back, but I gripped her wrist, again holding it above her head. “I get it. I’m not just going to sit here waiting to die, either.”
Her eyes were on my lips, a grin on her pretty face. “Going out in a blaze of glory, huh? Perfect. I’m right behind you.”
“Maybe later.” I kissed her jaw. “I figure I better collect what’s owed to me while I still can.”
She chuckled and loosened her grip on the gun, and as I slipped it from her hands, Amalia reached forward and grabbed my already hardened cock.
“I’ve never been one not to pay a debt,” she murmured. Climbing into my lap, she positioned her warm little cunt exactly where I wanted her. “What will happen when they come through that door?” Her hips rocked forward. She felt so goddamn good.
“I won’t let them hurt you.”
“You care about me, Cain? You don’t know me.” A sharp hiss left her lips when my fingers dug into her skin, guiding her movements. “I’m not a good person.”
“Good, because I’m not either.”
Her soft moan sent a jolt to my dick. Fuck, I needed to be inside her.
“You’re different…from your brother. I can see it. Feel it,” she rasped.
She tipped her head back, eyes closed as I bucked into her, desperately seeking relief. “Same monster, different skin, vicious.”
She smiled, undulating her hips with more momentum.
“Vicious, vicious,” she hummed.
Faster, harder. The pressure in my balls intensified with every thrust. “You don’t like it?” I asked, lips trailing across her collarbone to the hollow of her throat. “Then tell me to stop.”
She shook her head from side to side. “No…don’t stop. Don’t you fucking stop.”
More gunfire and shouting boomed from the hallway and what I could only assume was the banquet hall, but we were so far gone, so lost in each other, and on the verge of coming apart, that the whole goddamn building could have crumbled around us and we would have been hard-pressed to care. If we were meant to die in this shithole, then like Amalia said, we’d die on our terms, even if it meant coming in my goddamn pants.
“Kai,” she moaned, “don’t let me die with a debt on my shoulders.” Her eyes were locked on mine, swollen lips between her teeth. “Come for me.”
Leaning forward, I tugged her lip free, kissing her hard enough to break skin. “You first.” I gripped the waistband of her pants and pushed them down over her ass. “If we’re going to die here, I need to die touching you.”
Amalia smiled against my mouth, lifting her body just enough for me to slip my hand between her thighs. “Always so wet for me. I told you, this pretty pussy is mine.” I dipped two fingers inside her and she bit down on my shoulder as I found that sweet spot that made her feral. “That’s it.” I wrapped a hand around her throat and her mouth gaped open slightly as I squeezed and slid another finger inside. “If there was ever a reason to fight my way out of here…” I kissed her roughly, savoring every second, knowing it was my last taste, “it’s to know how it feels to have you wrapped around my cock.”
Amalia’s nails dug into my skin the faster my thrusts and the tighter my grip on her neck became. She came so hard, her body jerked, her nails finally breaking skin.
“Fuck…” she whined, collapsing into me. But we had no time to bask in the moment we’d just shared.
Bullets pierced the wall above our heads, causing pieces of sheet rock and dust to rain down over us. I brushed the white ash from her cheek, where a single tear had escaped, carving a trail along her skin.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
She offered me a slow smile. “For what?”
“For not protecting my wife.” Nipping at my neck, she chuckled between soft pants.
“I’m not your wife yet.”
“Yet? So there’s still a chance.”
Her laugh was thick with emotion, and she shuddered in my arms. I brought my hands to her face, our foreheads together. More ash fell over our heads, her lashes white. “Don’t be afraid, Amalia. Wherever we’re going, we’ll get there together.”
She shook her head. “I’m not afraid of dying, Kai. I’m afraid of leaving my brother and parents behind. Gio will never forgive me…or himself.” She gritted her teeth. “But I won’t die on my knees.”
“Blaze of glory?” I asked, wiping a tear.
“Fuck yes.”
I helped her adjust her pants as we got to our feet, ready to face our fate. Amalia reloaded and racked her Glock. “I owe you twice now.”
“Don’t worry, I’m keeping tabs.”
When I reached for the doorknob, Amalia’s hand suddenly fisted my shirt from behind, tugging just in time to avoid the shrapnel of a shotgun to the chest.
“The vent!”
We’d been so caught up in dying that neither had noticed the partially hidden grates of an air duct. Wasting no time, we lunged toward our only way out, gripping the metal and tearing it open. I shoved her inside and quickly followed down the winding pipe, hoping the damn thing was strong enough to hold our weight.
“Faster!”
“I’m trying. If anyone follows, put a hole in their fucking face.”
“A woman after my own heart.”
Gunfire still boomed around us, but the vent acted like a vortex, making it impossible to guess where the threat was coming from. Our only option was to keep moving.
I shot a glance at my watch. Not a single message had come through since my last text to Derek.
Don’t you fucking die on me, D.