30. Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty
T he shrieking alarms are deafening. I wake with my heart thumping in my chest, adrenaline rushing through me. Lorcan’s already out of bed, putting on his pants.
“What is that?” I ask.
“Alarm system. An intruder.”
“Could Finn have set it off by accident? Someone else?” I don’t want him to go downstairs. It’s 3:10 a.m. They might still be there.
“Have you heard it go off even once since you’ve been here?” Lorcan’s voice is impatient as he strides to the walk-in closet and parts his clothes.
Climbing out of bed, I yank on my shirt and pants to follow him. He’s unlocked a gun safe and is taking out guns, adding ammunition to pockets like we’re going into battle. “I want you to stay here.”
“If you’re going, I’m going.”
His worried gaze meets mine. “I don’t want you caught up in this.”
“If you stay, I’ll stay. If you go, I’m going.” I rub my thumb over the dimple that’s almost concealed by his goatee. “I don’t want you caught up in this either.” Same words, a different meaning.
He kisses my forehead. Then, he presses a gun and ammunition into my chest. “You understand how to use those?”
I glance at what I’m holding. “Yes.” Nothing unusual.
Lorcan goes to a panel on the wall near the door and hits a few buttons. “The alarm was triggered in the basement.” He frowns.
“What? Why does that matter?”
“You can’t trigger it unless you’re inside the house.”
“One of Zhang’s men escaping.” Malik didn’t look good enough earlier to be doing this on his own. Could someone else? Is it the bureau, or is something else going on?
“Possibly. If not, whoever it is, they know what they’re doing.”
Let’s hope that’s true.
Lorcan goes to the door, gun raised, and pops it open. He peeks outside, checking in both directions before signaling for me to follow. The alarm is so loud I’m not sure we’ll hear anyone approaching, anyway. With light feet, we race down the hallway, guns at the ready. When we get to the stairs, he signals for me to go slow and follow him.
“I’m your bodyguard,” I say into his ear above the blaring alarm.
“Now is not the time for jokes.”
We whirl, guns raised at the heavy footfalls approaching behind us. It’s Ian and Sean.
“Ian, take the perimeter. Sean, search the rest of the house. The alarm says basement, but I want to be sure,” Lorcan calls out the instructions in a terse voice above the wailing siren.
Tension radiates off him as he watches the other two men leave. Adrenaline courses through me. We’re both so tightly wound, I worry we’ll make a mistake. Is Finn already there? Has anyone been hurt?
We creep down the stairs, Lorcan in front, me close behind. At the bottom, he peers around the corner.
“Antonio is down.” His voice is pitched low, and I’m not sure I’ve heard him. “No sign of Finn or anyone else.”
“I’ll go to the right,” I call back. “You take the left.”
The hall is wide, and there are cells on either side. When I was here earlier, the doors were closed. Now, they’re thrown open, some of them hanging on their hinges. At the wall, he punches in a code, and the alarm cuts out.
“What the hell happened?” he mutters to himself as we advance.
A couple of the rooms have bodies, left for dead or already dead. It seems like anyone who was conscious and able to leave fled the property. The double doors to the backyard are wide open.
“I’ll keep searching.” He gestures at Antonio who is sprawled at the entrance to a room. “Check him.”
I cross the hall and place the gun on the ground. There’s a lot of blood and a bullet hole in his forehead. Still, I check for a pulse. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s you never know what people are capable of surviving. It’s the only thing giving me a whisper of hope for Malik. “No vitals.”
Lorcan looks in the last room and comes to my side. He presses his fingers into Antonio’s neck and then tries to find a pulse on his wrist. There’s a slight edge of desperation in his movements, as though he doesn’t want to believe it’s true.
“What do you want to do?” My shoulders fall at the realization Antonio didn’t make it out alive. His poor kids.
“There’re dead bodies strewn all over. I need to call in a crew.” Lorcan pinches the bridge of his nose. “Who could have done this?”
“The Zhangs are the obvious choice.”
“We’ve dismantled and disrupted enough of their activity. I know they’re too scattered. This takes organization. Planning.” He scans the area, shaking his head. “Inside information.”
“The alarm was going off for a while.” I head down the hall, peering into doors again. There’s no sign of Malik except for his blood on the floor. I send up another silent prayer to whatever god might exist he makes it through this. “Where is Finn?”
Lorcan presses the heels of his hands into his forehead. “Maybe he’s not here.”
Neither of us is privy to Finn’s comings and goings, but something about him not being here tonight feels wrong. He was enjoying his prisoners far too much to leave them unattended.
Ian pops his head in the double doors that were left wide open in the escape. “There are a couple bodies out here. Want me to check them out?”
“Yeah.” He glances at Ian before focusing on Antonio. “Have you seen Finn? Did he go out?”
“Haven’t seen him. He doesn’t go anywhere without someone with him. Antonio’s here, Sean’s here, I’m here. The people working tonight are accounted for.”
I stare at Lorcan and whisper, “Bodies in the field.”
Both of them race out the double doors to the field, and I’m at the rear. Did the bureau kill him? Take him in? Leave him for dead? We head to different bodies, guns drawn in case the person isn’t dead or seriously injured.
There’s a chorus of “no” across the field as we each realize Finn isn’t among the people left for dead.
“His room?” I call to Lorcan.
He nods and tips his head at Ian. “Go find Sean. See if he’s found anything.” Ian jogs back into the house. “Kim?” Lorcan heads for the side door.
“I’ll follow you in. Just going to check for any identification on these bodies.” They’re dressed like Zhang’s men, but I need to be sure.
He gives me one last look before disappearing into the house, feet pounding on the concrete floor.
After I’ve checked the three bodies, I pause in the middle of the field, staring at the garden shed at the back of the property. Did Ian check it? Something about it calls to me, and uneasiness slithers along my spine.
Drawing my gun again, I head to the shed, keeping alert for any signs of movement. The closer I get, the more my heart thumps in my chest. I’m not seeing anything out of the ordinary, but it’s dark, and that inner voice is whispering something is very wrong.
When I get to the shed, I open the door, gun poised at the ready. It’s empty, not even any lawn maintenance equipment in it. As I’m backing out, a shuffling to my right kicks my heart up a notch. I whirl, gun raised.
“Kimmy,” Finn drawls, his shoulder pressed into the corner of the shed. His hand cradles his stomach. It’s too dark where he is to see him clearly.
I ease my gun lower. “Finn. What are you doing out here? Zhang’s men are gone. Someone broke them out.”
He chuckles but there’s an unusual strain to it. His shoulders rise and a dry, hacking cough follows. “Someone? The FB—fucking—I.”
“What?” I glance behind me, wondering if Lorcan will follow me out here. “The FBI? I don’t understand.”
“You know the only person they dragged into their helicopter back here?”
“Not you, obviously.”
“Murray.” He coughs again. “Or should I say… Malik.”
Even though my insides are squeezing me, pushing me to do something rash before he pulls the trigger, I laugh. “The one you hired to follow Lorcan was an FBI agent? You sure know how to pick them. Are you hurt? You don’t sound good.”
I step forward, but he raises his gun. He’s still leaning on the edge of the shed.
“You know what he said.” Finn coughs. “As he was being dragged into the helicopter?”
Unwilling to answer, I stare at him.
“He said, ‘Don’t leave Kimi behind’.”
“He knows who I am, Finn. We met at the bar, again in the alley. We had a whole conversation in the room yesterday when you two took a break from torturing him. He said my name. Big deal.”
He gives a sharp shake of his head and wipes his mouth with his hand. A smear of blood appears on his face. He’s bleeding. With narrowed eyes, I see where he’s been clutching his stomach is dark, too dark.
“I can help you, Finn. You’re injured. Delirious.”
“It was the way he said your name. Kimi.” Another round of hacking coughs erupts in the darkness. “It’s not how I say it.” His breathing is labored. “It’s kinda how Lorcan would say it if he called you that. Like your name mattered .”
“You’re going to bleed out. You want to talk about how one of Zhang’s men had a crush on me?”
With a grunt, he pushes himself off the edge of the shed and shuffles forward, gun raised, but far from steady. “Not—not Zhang’s man. FBI.” He takes another faltering step. “Him. You. FBI.”
Raising my gun is the smart move, but I can salvage this. I know it. He’s barely conscious and shaky on his feet.
“No, no.” My voice is level. “Maybe him. Not me.”
Finn wobbles. “Coincidence—” The light catches his eyes when they roll back in his head.
As his body crumples to the ground, there’s a moment where I could break his fall.
But then, his head bangs against the flagstones with a thud - thud , and the moment passes.