Chapter Fifty-Seven Audrey
Chapter Fifty-Seven
Audrey
I was disoriented, unsure what the heck had just happened. One minute, Rhett was burying his fingernails into my side, holding a gun to my head; then the lights went out and I’d taken the chance to wriggle free of his hold and drop down.
All I knew now was that I was free of him and there weren’t any holes in my body.
“Audrey, you okay?” a voice called from behind me. Male, unfamiliar.
Still on my knees, head cradled between my arms as if I could stop a bullet to the head that way, I blinked into the darkness, seeing nothing.
I searched around, locating a motionless body to my right. The girlfriend.
But the groaning man to my left, the one now reaching for me—
“I got you,” the voice said again, this time closer, more urgent.
Strong arms hooked under mine and dragged me from the cockpit into the cabin. I bumped into another unmoving figure and felt metal beneath my fingers.
“You helped me,” I whispered as the realization hit. Had to be the guy I’d hoped to turn.
He didn’t answer, just shouted, “Clear!” as the cabin door creaked open. “Sounds like Rhett’s still alive in the cockpit,” he muttered to someone outside.
“Audrey?” Alejandro’s voice.
“Audrey!” Ryder that time.
“Audrey . . .” And my best friend.
My name echoed from all sides. Music to my ears. They were here. We were alive.
The man guided me through the darkness toward a figure waiting at the base of the ramp. He had to be using night vision to see me. I couldn’t make out anything.
But the moment I reached him, he pulled me into his arms without hesitation. Not a friendly, brotherly hug. No, this was—
“Alejandro,” I cried as he held me, squeezing me tight.
“I got you,” he rasped in confirmation, voice thick with emotion. “Never letting go.”
At the feel of a hand at my side, I knew who it belonged to. “Glad you’re okay,” my brother said. “Well, more than just glad . . .”
“Everyone okay? Eden? Trevor? Echo?” I asked them, still clinging to Alejandro for dear life.
“Safe and secure,” Ryder answered, and relief filled me. “Get her into the hangar. Be right over.”
Behind us, Rhett moaned. Somewhere nearby, someone reported, “Shoulder wound. Ear clipped. But he’s alive. We keeping him that way?”
I didn’t hear Ryder’s answer because Alejandro picked me up, clearly remembering I was barefoot, and carried me to the hangar, which was still lit up, glowing ahead like salvation.
That feeling of peace left the moment he set me down and I spotted a man dragging a dead masked operator inside to lay him next to two others.
Helix employees who’d chosen the wrong side. The side of greed and evil.
“Never leave a man behind—not even these guys,” someone I didn’t recognize said in a remorseful tone. He knocked his night vision into place once he was back outside the hangar, probably to help search for more bodies.
I shifted back into Alejandro’s welcoming arms, catching his eyes since his night vision goggles were at the top of his helmet.
I didn’t want to see the blood and death, knowing they’d died, in part, because of me.
He cupped my chin. “Not your fault.”
“But this still isn’t over,” I said, remembering. “The evidence is in Tasmania, not here. We were right.”
“Thanks to you, we can get there in time. What you did tonight . . .” His voice was tight. “No body armor. Just armed with courage.”
I sniffled and rested my hands on him, feeling the plate beneath his dress shirt. So, so grateful he’d never had to take a round to test the plate’s effectiveness. “The explosives. You’re clearly in one piece, thank God. What happened?”
“He never planned to detonate. It was a decoy,” Hollis said, coming up alongside us. She pulled me away from Alejandro for a hug. “Hi.”
“Hi,” I choked out as more operators began flooding the room.
One of them had the mastermind asshole behind all this: Rhett. He was bleeding. Bound and gagged. The guy shoved him on the ground. “Celeste,” the guy said in a low voice, nodding at her.
“I just go by Hollis now.” She went over and patted his arm. “Thanks for the help tonight. I was worried for a minute you’d miss all the fun.”
“Of course you two know each other. Why am I not surprised?” Reed grumbled while striding in, letting his sling catch his rifle.
The guy ignored Reed and turned to face me.
“Carter Dominick.” He smiled. “Happy to see you alive and breathing. You were brave.” He focused on Reed and tipped his head toward my best friend.
“And in my former line of work,” he continued—whatever that was supposed to mean—“it paid to know someone like Hollis. Only person who has more money and gadgets than I do,” he added with a light laugh as my brother joined us again.
“What are next steps? Orders from your dad?” Ryder asked Gray, one of the few people here who I already knew, thanks to Trevor’s relation to his wife, Tessa.
Gray looked around at the crowded hangar. “Echo Team will take Rhett on their plane to the States. Delta Shield catches a ride with Hollis to Tasmania and gets the evidence.”
Alejandro stepped off to my side, resting his hand at the small of my back. Part of me wanted to borrow that sidearm strapped to his outer leg and go whack Rhett in the temple the way he had me just a week ago.
“Who, um, killed Cipheria?” I asked in a tentative voice, worried about the men here having to take a woman’s life. Something told me that wasn’t the norm for them.
“I did.” An operator walked in to join us while removing her helmet, shaking out her blonde hair.
“The rings,” she said, passing them off to Ryder before looking at me.
“Sydney Hawkins.” She stood alongside a few other guys from the Falcon Falls team who’d been acting as Alpha Team tonight. “It was you or her. Easy choice.”
“Thank you,” I breathed, relieved Cipheria was no longer a threat. Not so sure how I felt about Rhett living to see another day, though, and I knew Alejandro and Ryder weren’t happy about that, either.
“Come on. Let’s get you to the airport. Trevor and Eden are on their way there now, and they’re eager to see you,” my brother said.
“Did Beau make it out alive, too?” I asked.
Alejandro stopped short, then shot an uneasy look at my brother.
I swallowed. “What is it?” I whispered.
“Well, um,” Ryder started, “Beau had been disarmed, when Eden reached for a fallen weapon. She went to shoot him, and Trevor saw what she was about to do.”
Stomach wrenching, I squeezed my eyes closed at what I knew was coming next.
“Trevor went ahead and took the shot before she could,” he continued, “not wanting her to get blood on her hands.”
“Will do, man. You ever need anything, I’m just a call away,” Carter Dominick said to my brother from inside the private hangar at Queenstown Airport. He pivoted to Hollis next and grinned. “Stay out of trouble, will ya?”
“Me? Trouble?” she teased.
Reed coughed into his fist, clearly calling her on it, which earned an eye roll from Hollis.
Carter slung his knapsack over his shoulder and spun his finger in the air as a directive to his team to move out. Everyone would be parting ways now except Gray. He’d be coming with us to the vault in Tasmania to hopefully retrieve the evidence Mitch had planted there.
We were still waiting on Echo Team’s arrival with Eden and Trevor before we could fly out.
I couldn’t begin to imagine how Eden was feeling right now. Trevor too.
“Sooo.” Hollis turned toward me. “You ready for tomorrow?”
“If it means putting this all behind us once that vault is open? You could say that.” I nervously brushed my thumb along my lips.
“You’ll figure it out; I have faith in you.” Her gaze seemed to snag on something on my hand before she pointed out, “You’re still wearing the ring.”
“Forgot it was there.” I held my hand out in front of me, but before I could decide if I’d be taking it off now or later, two Suburbans rolled up in place of the Falcon’s vehicles that’d just departed.
You’re here.
Trevor stepped out first, catching my gaze.
He circled the vehicle as Wyatt emerged beside him, and they both helped Eden out of the back seat.
She looked pale, dazed, her eyes flicking around like she didn’t quite believe this was real.
Beau—or whatever his real name was—had twisted her entire reality into something unrecognizable.
I stepped away from Hollis to get to them.
On the way, I met Alejandro’s eyes. He was standing just inside the open hangar, arms crossed, quiet but watchful, alongside my brother. He gave me a small nod, and I knew exactly what that nod meant.
No jealousy. No questions. Just his trust wrapped around me like armor.
Tears blurred my vision as I nodded back.
And then Trevor caught me in his arms for a hug.
“Thank fuck you’re okay,” he said into my ear, his voice rough.
“You too,” I whispered, eyes falling on Eden as she melted into Gray’s embrace.
“You know what I had to do, don’t you?” Trevor pulled away, eyes red. “He was unarmed. But I didn’t have a choice. If I didn’t take the shot, she would have. She froze up when I did; then Wyatt disarmed her before she could finish him off.”
“And you did exactly what you needed to do,” I said, trembling. “You saved her. Saved her from a life of regret and guilt.” I blinked back an ugly-cry and stared up at the ceiling, needing to steady myself. Then I looked him in the eyes. “But, Trevor?”
“Yeah?” His shoulders dropped, the weight of everything he’d carried etched deep into his face.
“You didn’t kill him. And you could’ve.” Easily.
He squeezed his eyes shut, forehead dipping to rest against mine.
“You found a way to protect your sister from a mistake . . . while also protecting your own peace. And I’m so damn proud of you.”