Chapter 13 West
thirteen
West
Iempty my magazine rapidly, hitting two of Whitmore’s guards. No fatalities. One stumbles back with blood pouring out of his inner thigh, and the other briefly grabs his bloody shoulder.
“Yeah, like, shooting range, asshole! I’ve been short on finding people that are willing to let me practice shooting live rounds at them in a high stress situation!” I bite back, fishing a full mag out of my pocket.
Six men are left standing—they had gotten smart enough to get out of Aidan’s line of fire as soon as Hayden and Declan had disappeared behind the fighting gym.
“One more down!” Rory, the built beta with a kick-ass beard and a top-knot of black hair lets out a victory screech after he drops a guard, the celtic knot tattoo flexing on his bicep as he crouches back behind a car and reloads. “Our guys will take care of the rest. Time to make our break for it.”
“Let’s go get our girl,” Sam mutters, nodding at Rory as we all move along the rows of cars, getting to the last bit of cover before we have to sprint across the stretch of open parking lot.
Nolan, a giant alpha with his blond hair pulled back in braids like some kind of viking, lines up behind us with Fuzzy, ready to stagger our exits.
We ready our weapons, prepared to shoot if we need to. But luckily, Declan’s forces do a pretty damn good job of keeping them distracted while we sprint towards the back of the gym and disappear around the corner.
Rounding the corner, we aim for the hole in the fence near the admin building. We make it to the back when Rory falls behind us. “Someone else lead. I have no idea where the fuck I’m going.”
“Comforting.” Sam grimaces, and in the next second, he’s being shoved against the brick wall of the building as Rory gets right in his face. He lets his AK fall to the side, hanging from his torso by the sling.
Sam may have the natural height advantage, being an alpha, but Rory looks like he spends ninety percent of his time at the gym just so he can have the muscular strength it would take to overcome someone like Sam.
“Let me clear up a few things here, Sam, since it seems you’re a little confused.
” The beta bares his teeth at Sam, who is shocked into silence.
“I am not here to hold your hand, or to comfort you. I am here, because you useless fucks lost my baby sister. You failed her. You’re lucky that it would absolutely destroy Jo if I put a bullet between your eyes,” my blood freezes as Rory pulls a handgun out of a holster and presses the barrel directly to Sam's forehead, “because otherwise I’d do it right now. I am not your friend, I am not on your side. I am on Jo’s side. I am on Dec’s side.”
My heart pounds in my ears as I watch the psychotic beta hold my best friend at gun point. Rory turns his head towards me. “Actually, would it? Destroy her? Tell me now, Doc. And don’t forget as a doctor, you’re bound under oath to tell the truth.”
That’s…not how it works.
But, I’m going to use this insane man’s misconceptions about being a doctor to my advantage. “Yes. It would.”
Rory sighs and shakes his head. “Shame.” Then he turns back to Sam. “Do you understand?”
Sam nods, his jaw tight.
Rory holsters his gun and grips Sam tight by the jaw, jostling his head back and forth. “Words, dickface. Tell me you understand what that means.”
“It means…” Sam pushes Rory away and rubs his jaw. “That if you have to choose between covering our asses and keeping Jo or Declan safe, you’ll choose them.”
“That’s right,” Rory’s expression morphs into an unhinged smile and his voice changes into one that someone might talk to their dog with.
“What a smart grunt! And they said all Marines are stupid. You caught on pretty quick though, didn’t you boy?
” He rubs a hand over Sam’s head like Sam is, in fact, a dog.
“As long as you know that, we’ll be just fine.
Yes we will, oh yes we will!” Rory breaks away with a cackle and grips his AK again.
Okay. This guy is…I might know who helped Jo embrace her crazy side.
“As long as you know we’re doing the same thing.” Sam pushes off from the wall and walks towards the broken door that will lead us into the abandoned wing. “If I have to choose between Jo and saving your ass, you’re gonna be left here with the rest of the crazies.”
“Good,” Rory grunts, then motions with his hand for me to follow Sam. I do, immediately, because this guy is kind of scaring me.
The abandoned wing is just as unsettling as ever, and the hair on the back of my neck stands on end as we make our way towards the lab.
The secret door is wide open. Rory shakes his head and eyes the empty bookcase that’s off to the side now, muttering something about “dramatic Scooby-Doo shit”.
Once we’re through the first doorway, there are two more doors. The one on the right is open as well, and thank goodness, because that’s the door that Helaena told us to go through. We walk, our weapons lowered but ready as we move down a set of stairs lit by the buzzing fluorescent lights above.
We come to the end of the staircase, and Sam puts his back against the wall, peering around the corner with his hand raised in a fist. Rory and I halt, and as soon as he waves his hand in a forward motion, we’re following him again. We round the corner and…what?
It’s a small, square room with a couple of chairs and a vending machine.
A vending machine, we quickly realize, that swings open like a secret fucking passage.
“Why can’t they just get trap doors like normal people?
” Rory mutters, shaking his head. “This is giving me flashbacks to a few years ago when everything was made of cake. Nope, not a bookcase, a secret door! Want a Coke? Too bad, the vending machine is just covering a hole in the wall. What’s next?
I’m gonna take a bite out of my fucking burger and have it open a portal to Superman’s fucking Fortress of Solitude? ”
I would laugh if he wasn’t being completely serious.
Sam only rolls his eyes as we clear into the next room, and my stomach drops at the sight.
In front of us is an impossibly long hallway, with at least ten doors on each side.
“Why is it empty?” Rory whispers. “It’s giving me the fucking creeps.”
“I bet this is where Whitmore and all his goons were when Tate alerted him,” Sam mutters, motioning us to halt as he puts his back to the wall next to the first door. He clears the first room—empty.
So is the second room.
They’re all empty, devoid of any life. Well, one room is full of mice in cages that I’m sure are being tested on, but that’s it. Otherwise, it’s just empty offices and a server room.
The server room has a blinking red flash drive sticking out of one of the towers, which tells us that Hayden and Declan were already in here. If all is going to plan, Aidan is currently downloading every single piece of information from their servers. Every experiment, every test, every crime.
There’s a second USB stick, and that one I’m pretty sure is the device Declan brought to jam the radio frequencies throughout this underground facility, since his device outside wouldn’t be able to reach down here.
“To the elevator?” Rory grins, sauntering over to the end of the hall and pushing the button. “I wonder just how far underground this shithole goes?”
“I really hope we don’t need any kind of access key.” I can’t help the cynicism in my voice, but as soon as it dings and opens for us, Rory smirks at me.
“Doesn’t look like it.”
The unhinged beta hums some sort of horrible version of elevator music, and Sam and I exchange a look. The longer we’re in here, the more uneasy I feel. Just how long until the elevator stops?
“Oh, shit. We didn’t hit the floor button,” Rory cackles, and I suppress the strong urge to facepalm.
“L for lab?” I venture hopefully, eyeing the buttons on the panel of the elevator, all labelled very helpfully with letters such as “L”, “D”, “C” and “T”.
Sam hits the button with more force than necessary, and then we’re dropping. “You boys ready?” Rory gives us a feral grin as he readies his AK. I raise my handgun, and Sam does the same.
Let’s find out.
As soon as the doors ding open, we’re met with chaos.