Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
Giana
My eyes fluttered open, the night now shrouding the room in darkness.
Merrick was curled against me, his arms cradling me protectively.
I shifted onto my back, my head rolling on the soft pillow beneath me.
I didn’t remember falling asleep, but I must have passed out during the last movie, and the guys left me to sleep with Merrick for the night.
I scrubbed a hand over my face, wiping the sleep from my eyes. The only thing odd was that I wasn’t usually one to wake up in the middle of the night. I strained my ears for any sounds that might’ve woken me up, expecting to hear Sophia or Zane stomping around the house, but there was nothing.
I rolled out of bed and searched the nightstand, but there wasn’t a glass of water there.
Yawning, I pulled out the few weapons I kept in the drawer, not wanting to be too careful.
It was probably nothing, but if the last couple of months taught me anything, it was that I could never be too prepared.
There was no way someone was going to sneak up on me while I was getting some water.
I strapped the knife holster to my thigh, shrugged on the gun holster, and placed the weapons into them before padding to the bedroom door.
When I reached for the door, the doorknob was already turning. My heart jolted as I reached for my knife, pulling it out just as the door swung open. My foot was already slamming into him as a man dressed all in black stood in the doorway, night-vision goggles obscuring most of his face.
Nope, not one of ours.
He staggered back a step, and I followed, not letting him recover.
I pulled off the goggles and hit him with a roundhouse kick before following it up with the knife to his neck.
He doubled over and sputtered, blood spurting from his lips.
I barely had a second to steady myself before the next one was charging at me.
I threw the goggles at his face, catching him off guard as I took stock of the situation.
There were three other armed men in the hallway, but thankfully the corridor was narrow and they weren’t able to all converge on me at once, especially with their dying friend in the way.
“Code Red!” I shouted down the hallway, grateful we’d made plans for this exact situation. “Code Red!”
“Fuck,” the man in front of me said, pulling out a zip tie from his back pocket as he surged for me.
I swiped out with the knife, and he barely dodged the blow, but I was already swinging with the other fist, following it up with a sidekick to his gut. One of the other guys tried to rush me as the second recovered, but I was already thrusting out the knife.
He hissed in pain and staggered back. I only managed to slice across his arm since he was wearing a vest. Fuck. Okay, go for the neck next time. Noted.
Kellan burst into the corridor, followed by Spade. The two of them took on the remaining two who lingered in the hallway, trying to get to me. Good, that left two for me.
Movement in the room behind me nearly distracted me as operatives two and three rushed me at once.
Fuck this.
I swung out with the knife again, keeping them at bay until I could get the gun out of its holster.
I aimed at the closest one, shooting him right between his eyes, blood splattering my face and the wall behind him.
I took aim at the last one, but before I could pull the trigger, someone yanked me back into the bedroom, and a shot went off, followed by a second one.
The frantic thump of my heart was the only sound I could register for a moment as I blinked; my brain still kicked into fight mode, so it took me a second to catch up.
I hadn’t seen the gun the last operative had pulled out, but Merrick had, judging by the bullet hole in the wall and not through my chest.
“Giana,” Merrick said, pulling me roughly into his waiting arms.
Shivers wracked my body, my eyes still blinking, still attempting to piece the images together, but they wouldn’t meld into a coherent thought.
“Giana.” Merrick drew back to rake his gaze over me, an edge of panic pinching his features. “Were you hurt?”
“I—I don’t think so.” I inhaled a shaky breath, taking stock of myself.
“Giana.” Kellan enveloped me in his warm embrace. Spade crowded in too, pushing the others aside so he could touch me.
“We’ll do a sweep of the house,” Zane said, pulling a startled Sebastian behind him, each of them with their own guns out.
“Sophia?”
“Don’t worry, I locked her in.” Zane took the stairs two at a time while Sebastian shook himself out of his shock and bounded after him.
“I didn’t see…” I trailed off, searching the bodies littered along the hallway. There. The third operative, who I was about to take aim at, was slumped forward, the back of his head—well, I would rather not look at that for too long. There was a gun in his hand.
“It’s okay.” Kellan smoothed his hand along my back, helping to ease some of the tension tightening my chest. “Just breathe.”
I pulled in a deep breath and closed my eyes, letting my three men hold me and comfort me.
“The second one I took out had zip ties. I thought they were trying to take me, not—”
“They went past all our rooms to get to Merrick’s.
” Kellan ran his fingers through my hair, helping to ease the ache as I pulled in another deep breath.
“Angelo probably realized that there were only two of us at the church and put two and two together. He most likely wanted to take out Merrick while he was recuperating, and capturing you would just be an added bonus.”
My stomach twisted at the thought that those men could’ve checked the other rooms. They could’ve done anything to the men I loved or our friends before I’d found them.
Merrick growled but didn’t argue as he tipped my chin up to meet his gaze. “This is Angelo we’re dealing with now, not Tommaso. He’ll take you alive if he can, but he won’t sacrifice more men than he needs to do so.”
I leaned into Kellan, and Spade eased the knife from my grip and sheathed it before taking my hand in his.
“We need someone on guard at night now.” Kellan rubbed my good shoulder, draining the remaining tension from me as my adrenaline faded and exhaustion quickly took its place. “They obviously figured out where we live. Maybe we should move to a different place, even temporarily.”
“I’m not running from them,” Merrick growled.
“Agreed.” Spade’s tone was far too chipper, so I could tell where his mind had gone. But his bloodlust had to take a backseat to our safety.
“We’ll talk about it in the morning.” I slid my gun back into its holster.
“I won’t stay here if it’s going to put us at more risk.
There has to be somewhere else we can go.
Plus, we’ll have to think of a place to hide the town, because if last night was any indication, they’re going after anyone they don’t have in their pocket. ”
Merrick’s jaw ticked like he wanted to argue, but he finally relented, his head dipping in a jerky nod. “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe.”
Spade seemed to deflate at that; some of those shadows I helped to tame last night flickered back to life in his stormy violet eyes. “You’re right,” he said, glancing at the bodies lying lifeless throughout the hallway. “I guess we need to clean this mess up. Good thing it’s not carpet.”
I cringed. “Right. There’s no way we’d get all this blood and brain matter out of it. We’d probably have to buy a carpet cleaner, and even then it would never look the same.”
“Yeah, we wouldn’t get the deposit back if we tried to rent one.” Spade grinned.
“Seriously?” Exasperation laced Kellan’s tone. “The hallway is filled with dead bodies of the people who just tried to kill us while we slept, and the two of you are concerned with carpet cleaning?”
“I mean, we’re not concerned.” Spade shrugged.
“Exactly because we don’t have carpet … it’s like he wasn’t even listening.” I covered my mouth and leaned toward Spade in a mock whisper that I fully knew Kellan would hear and tried my best to keep the smile off my face.
“You’re a troublemaker, little devil.” Merrick scooped me off my feet with his good arm.
“Merrick, put me down! You’re not supposed to be carrying anything, let alone a human being.” I wiggled, trying to get out of his grasp, but he just threw me onto the bed.
“You don’t have to worry about body removal; that’s what we have a cleanup crew for.”
“We don’t even know if the rest of the house is safe yet,” I said and rolled off the bed.
They were being ridiculous now, but if anyone could get my mind off my near-death experience, it was my guys.
I ducked and weaved past Merrick’s grasping hands and staggered into the hallway just as Sebastian made his way to the top of the stairs.
“The rest of the house is clear,” Sebastian said just as the echo of the door slamming shut rang through the hall. “There were two keeping watch outside, but we took care of them.”
“Great.” Merrick sighed. “More bodies. This cleaning fee is going to be through the roof.”
“Well, at least no shots went through the roof, because I’m sure that’d be a bitch to get repaired.” I smiled at Spade, my partner in crime.
“Yup, they’d probably talk you into getting the entire roof reshingled, especially with this old house.” Spade grinned as Merrick’s eye twitched.
“Are they okay?” Sebastian dragged a hand through his sleep-rumpled hair.
“They’re fine.” Kellan sighed, but I didn’t miss the way his lips quivered. We were funny, and he knew it. “Let’s call in a crew before these two start on any more home remodeling humor.”