Chapter 47
Sean
My body trembles as though I’m the only one in this house experiencing an earthquake.
A cloud of pitch-black terror sweeps through my mind as I dodge bullets and the onslaught of terrifying images that are spilling through my brain.
I don’t know how long it’s been since Lou went to get the rocket launcher, but I don’t like that she’s not back yet.
Why isn’t she responding? Is she dead? Bleeding out? Shit. Fuck.
I narrowly miss a round flying at my already aching shoulder.
Torn in half by fear and rage, my nostrils flare, and I growl as I pull the trigger of my new Ruger once, twice, three motherfucking times.
The wall streaks with blood as he slumps to the ground, the soldier looking more like Swiss cheese now than a Green Beret.
On the other side of the room, Mercer grunts as he whacks someone in the face with the butt of his gun. He must be out of ammunition. I retrieve the Glock from the floor where it fell from the deceased man.
It’s impressive how well Mercer is holding his own, considering what shape he’s in. It’s probably the adrenaline. There’s a solid chance I wouldn’t notice if someone shot off one of my legs right now.
“Mercer.” I grab his attention and toss him the firearm.
It’s not the safest thing I’ve ever done, but I can’t let her brother die here.
He catches it and pulls the trigger. The soldier falls back, but not before he gets a shot off, and it grazes Mercer’s bare shoulder.
He hisses but seems to appreciate how lucky he is.
My chest is tight as I call Louhi’s name again.
Still no answer. I grit my teeth against the uneasiness.
Three more soldiers pour into the room. It feels like someone must have a bucket of plastic green army men and dumps another handful onto the property every few minutes.
My rational brain is aware there aren’t that many; we’re just severely outnumbered.
“Baby, tell me you’re alive,” I bellow, no longer giving a single goddamn fuck who can hear me, what I sound like, or that I’m giving away my location. It’s breaking a fundamental rule of war, but I didn’t get any instructions on what to do when the love of my life is missing in action.
“Go,” Mercer orders, his voice strained and chest heaving. He doesn’t have to tell me twice.
In less than two heartbeats, I’m down the hallway, clearing the bedrooms as I go. It’s only when I reach the bedroom Louhi and I have been sharing that my chest squeezes painfully as I see her engaged in physical combat with a soldier who has her pinned to the floor. But she’s alive.
He has a forearm pressed to her pretty throat, the neck that’s mine to squeeze. Only mine. He’s groaning as she digs her thumbs into his eye sockets. She’s thrashing, presumably attempting to knee the asshole in the nuts.
She’s covered in blood splatter and maybe some soft tissue. Her hair is matted and wet-looking. Her face is twisted in pain and savagery.
He squirms, muttering a curse as his fingertips finally touch the hilt of his tactical knife from where it’s been tossed haphazardly on the ground. It takes me three long strides to get to them.
The soldier screeches when the bones in his hand crunch under the weight of my boot. I could press the barrel of my Ruger to the back of his head and pull the trigger, but the set to Lou’s jaw and her hard gaze tell me this kill is entirely hers. Who am I to deprive her?
His broken hand causes him to loosen his hold on her throat. She gasps even while her lips curl into a cruel, stiff smile. The reprieve is enough to gain her the upper hand again. She wraps a leg around him and flips them so she’s straddling him. I pass her my Ruger.
“When you see the flash, make sure to smile,” she teases. His eyes only widen for a second, then she’s pulling the trigger. He didn’t smile.
She pops up and sets the Ruger on the mattress. Her face is practically sunshine when she faces me. “Alright, who’s ne—”
“I called your name a dozen times.”
She frowns, looking up at me as blood drips down her face.
My chest heaves like I’ve just completed a fifteen-mile run with a rucksack strapped to me. “Fuck, Lou. I was so—” I roughly drag both my hands up and down my face a couple times. “Shit. I could’ve lost you.”
Too casually, too easily, she lifts a shoulder, expression softening slightly. “I’m fine.”
“Not good enough,” I grit out, my voice low and gravelly.
My hand finds her throat, my thumb and fingers digging into the sides as I press her body hard against the wall.
Pinning her torso so there’s no escape, my thigh slots between her muscular legs, and my gaze locks onto hers with what I’m sure is a raging fire of intensity.
Her eyes widen, but there’s not a hint of fear.
“Tell me what those Finnish words meant. Right. The fuck. Now.”
Tonight, I was reminded of how short life can be, how risky our situation is, how fallible we are as human beings.
It doesn’t matter that she’s the strongest, most capable person I know.
She’s a human being. I can’t be left on this earth alone, with my soul in tatters and my heart weeping for eternity.
I can’t live one more minute without hearing her tell me she loves me.
It shouldn’t bother me that she hasn’t admitted it because I have no doubt that she does, yet there’s an uneasy quiver that ripples beneath my skin now.
How do I tell the organ in my chest to get the memo?
She rescued me from a prison, for fuck’s sake.
She wouldn’t have done that if she wasn’t in love with me.
Her body turns into a block of ice, completely still in my grasp as her eyes close.
The hands of time move slowly until she shifts.
It’s subtle, just a gentle lift of her chin until piercing amber eyes meet mine again.
There are a thousand emotions swirling in her gaze like a cyclone in the gulf.
My heart thumps loudly enough that I wonder if she can hear it.
“I love you. You light up the darkness for me and make every day brighter than it began. I cannot live without you, Sean Diggory.”
There’s a jolt in my chest that feels like a shot of adrenaline straight to my system, and my body springs to life.
She smashes her mouth against mine in a brutal, commanding kiss, and not even a bullet to my brain could pry her away from me.
The metallic tang of blood hits me first, followed by the distinct taste of Lou.
Cupping the back of my neck, her fingernails dig into my skin that’s slick with blood splatter as she claims me.
The front of our bodies press together so tightly that I’m not sure where I end and she begins.
I let Lou take the lead as her tongue slips between my lips and I surrender to her.
My heart beats against my ribcage more violently than a landlord battering against the door of a delinquent tenant.
When we finally break apart, our chests rising and falling with heavy pants, I drop my forehead against hers.
“You’re the axis on which my world tilts, Louhi.
I would do anything for you.” No power in the world could stop me from being where she wanted me.
She owns me, and I’m just fucking fine with having her invisible leash wrapped around my neck.
“I love you, baby.”