33. Dax
DAX
Hurrying out of the room, Void and I went to the courtyard, knowing it was the only place that made sense to have a tunnel. “Harper, did you get all that?” I asked.
“We all did,” Jaxson answered. “When you find the entrance, let us know if we can fit the tank or if we need to find something else to make it faster through the tunnel.”
The courtyard was a mess, but it made it super fucking easy to find the not-so-hidden tunnel. “There’s no way a tank is going to fit, but you guys stay here and keep an eye on things because there is no telling if he’s going to double back.”
“Dax, no,” Sprocket’s voice cut through the earpiece, making me wince.
“Thank fuck.” I sighed. “Where the hell are you? What happened?”
“We checked out the tunnel when we saw people heading down it. Being underground must have cut out the signal. Sorry, little rebel, didn’t mean to scare you.
The tunnel leads to an abandoned house on the property.
They might have used it as a drop-off point, but it’s got no signs of being used for anything else,” Sprocket answered.
“Okay, that means they’re somewhere in this house and wanted us to leave so they could crawl out of whatever hole they are hiding in.
Why the fuck would he be running, though?
Marco wanted this fight? None of this is making sense,” I muttered, yanking off my ski cap, needing the fresh air on my face.
Then I heard the sound of rubble shifting, and I looked up to spot a shooter trying to sneak closer to get a better shot. “Gun,” I screamed and tackled Void to the ground as the sound of the bullet echoed in the air.
Quickly, we crawled behind a large chunk of what used to be a wall.
Peeking over the edge, I found the whole place filling with people as if they appeared out of the woodwork.
Son of a motherfucking bitch, we were cornered.
We hadn’t had a chance to look at the second floor before getting distracted by Kimber.
They used her to pull focus from his bait-and-switch plan, which made much more sense.
Marco didn’t run from a fight, but we’d truly caught him off guard, and he didn’t like it.
“Harper, shoot the fucking house,” I ordered.
“What? You’re still inside.”
“Yeah, I fucking know that, but we are getting ambushed, and the others got led on a wild goose chase,” I explained. “Now blow this fucking house up before they actually get a chance to kill me. They don’t think you’ll do it, so let’s prove them wrong.”
“This is a stupid fucking idea, Dax. I just want that on the record,” Harper snapped.
“Duly noted, now do it,” I yelled.
Not even a minute later, the wall across from us shuddered and imploded. It drew enough attention that Void and I both started shooting, guns in either hand. It wasn’t going to be enough, but I hoped to God we could hold them off long enough for the others to get the fuck back here.
Seeing a group of men huddled behind a pile of rubble, I looked at Void. “Cover me?”
“Always, little demon,” he said, then popped up and started firing.
I moved over a little, pulled the pin from the grenade, and lobbed it up and over right into the midst of the bad guys. It went off, and screams filled the air in the bloom of the explosion. Then I had an idea to get us out of this fucking corner.
“Void,” I called. “When I set this thing off, we run.”
Nodding, he crouched, ready to move the second we could.
I flipped the lever off the smoke bomb and chucked it in front of where we were.
When enough smoke filled the air, we bolted.
Shots rang through the air, and bursts of plaster where bullets hit bombarded us.
That’s fine, it didn’t matter as long as we got back into the house.
I could hear the roar of four-wheelers coming closer, and I wondered if Marco had more men arriving, but I couldn’t worry about that right now as people appeared out of everywhere aiming at us.
Ducking into a room, I quickly ejected my empty clips and slammed in new ones.
A guy burst into the room, and he got two shots in the chest for it, dropping.
Stepping over him back into the hall, I found Void grappling with someone and moved to help, but then I heard the sickening crack as Void snapped the man’s neck.
“You good?” I asked, panting.
He nodded and switched out his clips just like I had mine. “Caught me before I could reload. Come on, seems like we should look upstairs this time.”
We paused as the sound of the four-wheelers seemed to be coming from inside the house.
Then I spotted Mutt on a four-wheeler with Tilly behind him back-to-back as she took out people as he drove.
When he saw us, his face lit up, and he waved like he wasn’t casually driving through a drug lord’s house with his wife on the back, picking people off left and right.
“Fuck, I’m glad we made it in time,” Mutt said as he stopped before us. “We handled everything at the drug farm. They put up a good fight, but we outnumbered them three to one. It was like taking candy from a baby.”
Tilly took out one more guy before looking back at me. “Hey, girl, thanks for inviting us to this party. It’s been a blast. Hey, where are your other guys? You’re the only one we’ve seen besides Harper out in the tank.”
“Marco played a nasty trick and split us up,” I said. “If you guys can handle what’s happening down here, we need to check out the second floor.”
“Sure thing,” Mutt answered with a salute of two fingers. “Give ’em hell.”
Stepping to the side, they took off with Tilly whooping behind him.
Just as we rounded the corner, I spotted Eagle, and my whole body relaxed as the rest of them appeared too.
I let out a whistle, drawing their attention and motioned to the stairs.
They nodded and headed in that direction with us right behind them.
The second floor was all bedrooms and sitting rooms, but then we came to a section that was closed off with a massive steel door.
Wes got to work dismantling the keypad and connecting his handheld supercomputer.
With all of us together, it was easier to keep the hall clear of any trouble.
I’ll hand it to Marco, though. His men weren’t quitters, and they had done some smart thinking.
Some even came in through the windows or made holes in the ceiling to drop down from.
“How’s it coming?” I asked.
“Almost there, it’s tricky, but since it’s nearly the same as what they used in Diego’s building, it’s going faster,” Wes answered.
Where did these people keep coming from? It was like lemmings or something where there was a never-ending supply of bad guys.
“Got it,” Wes announced, and the steel door sank into the floor, revealing another door. This one was normal, but none of us wanted to take a chance so Cognac rolled a grenade right in front of it as we ducked for cover.
The door exploded, and we surged inside.
This was definitely where Marco did business, but as much as I wanted to poke around, we needed to find the bastard first. The rooms were empty until we came to one that Alvaro and Mariana were tossed into.
It looked a lot like the murder room in Diego’s building, and I prayed to God they hadn’t done anything irreparable to them.
I went right for Mariana while Cam checked Alvaro. Both were still alive—barely.
“We need to get them out of here,” I stated. “Two of you take them back downstairs and get our people to carry them to Harper. They’ll be able to keep them safe or even get them to Billy and get the fuck out of here.”
“You know they won’t leave,” Eagle reasoned. “But they’ll keep them safe. Come on, Picasso, let’s get them out of here.”
“Void, go with them and watch their backs,” I ordered. He frowned then nodded, and the group took off back the way we came. “Let’s see if we can find the bastard.”
“Shouldn’t we wait?” Cognac asked.
“The longer we wait, the more time we give him to come up with a plan,” Sprocket said, agreeing with me.
That seemed to get them all into agreement, and we headed for the last section of this area with two doors left.
Trusting my gut, I went to the left and kicked it open, letting it slam into the wall with the force.
Standing there behind a desk, clutching a little girl to his chest with a gun at her head, was Marco.
While Marco should have had my attention, I only had eyes for the little girl.
She had light brown ringlets and crystal blue eyes that were identical to Devin’s. The shape of her face was more like mine, though, but either way, there was no mistaking she was, in fact, Devin’s daughter. She had some of Kimber in her, but she was way more Blackmore than anything else.
Holy fuck.
“Tabby, this is your Aunt Dax,” Marco introduced with a wicked grin. “Remember what your madre told you about her?”
“That she’s not a good person, and she’s the reason we had to move here to live with you,” Tabby answered in a soft voice, her eyes glassy with tears and body shaking with fear.
“Good girl,” Marco praised. “It’s also her fault I have to hold this gun to your head so she won’t kill me. That’s what your aunt does, she kills people and does all kinds of other bad things.”
My mind was reeling. How did I not know that Kimber had been pregnant, let alone that she gave birth and was raising a daughter?
No, Kimber hadn’t been the one to raise her.
There was no way. Tabby’s lip quivered, but she stood strong, her eyes never leaving mine as if she somehow knew what he was saying was wrong.
“It’s over, Marco,” I said, shifting my gaze to him. “This is your last move, the crowning jewel of all the plans you came up with. Too bad for you, it’s not going to work.”
I lifted my gun and glanced out the window to see the tank rolling up. I knew Harper could still hear everything that was going on, so I used that.