Chapter 20
Rex
The ceiling was stripped back, and a service gap ran the length of it. I'd found the access panel on the fifteenth floor twenty minutes before Rahat entered the building, and ten minutes before Dexter made his way to the room.
The gap was fucking tight. I had less than an inch either side and the cold metal pressed against my spine as I moved.
I kept my weight distributed and my breaths shallow.
I unscrewed the panel that led into the room and shifted it a crack so I could see.
Until Adam arrived, I spent the whole time worried I was watching the wrong fucking room.
But it was the only room on the floor with any furniture inside.
What I hadn't known, was that Priya had been inside the whole fucking time.
When Dexter moved the blue divider aside and I saw her tied to the fucking chair, I almost blew my cover snarling.
I could have had her out of there before this whole shit show began.
I could have prevented it from fucking happening in the first place.
I bit my knuckle and breathed out through my nose.
Rahat was leading Dexter away from Priya, buying time, stalling.
She was in pain. Even discounting the obvious injuries, I knew her well enough to read it in the stillness she was working to maintain.
The way she kept her head still, not turning it more than necessary, and the way she blinked away from the rising sun.
And she was doing it all while facing the man who'd put the rope around her neck.
"You came back for me," he said.
"No. I came for her."
She was over-rotating her whole body just to keep him in her line of sight. Every time he drifted to her left, she shifted position. He knew it too. That's why he was placing himself there. To keep her on edge. He was playing with her, and I was counting the seconds until I could take him down.
One hundred and forty seconds to go.
"You slammed my head into a fucking door." She was baiting him now. He'd called her out for stalling and she was keeping him distracted.
One hundred.
Rahat was too fucking clever for her own good sometimes. She was riling him up, making him angry, making him focus on her. I wished she fucking wouldn't.
He slammed his hands down on the table top.
Eighty seconds to go.
"Get fucking over it."
Dexter was gonna fucking lose his shit.
Seventy five seconds.
Promises be damned. I was done laying in the dark. I was fucking moving.
I shoved the panel aside, swung my legs through the gap, caught the top of the door frame and dropped. I hit the concrete with a thud. Adam spun around faster than I'd expected, but not fast enough.
I caught his collar mid-turn, drove him sideways and down, putting him face first to the concrete with his arm cranked up his back.
There was a satisfying crack as his face met the concrete.
He'd hit the floor with his full weight behind the impact, and the air left him in a short grunt.
To make sure he couldn't move, I put my knee between his shoulder blades and held the position.
Rahat was already beside Priya, working her hands free.
Within seconds, Priya was up and wrapping her arms around Rahat.
The second she made contact, Rahat almost went down.
Her knees went from under her, and her face greyed.
She fluttered her hand as if trying to grasp at something. Priya was having to hold her up.
I pressed my knee harder into Dexter's back. Rahat was in no fucking shape to be moving around, let alone dealing with this stress. And this fucker was the one responsible.
"You'll never get out of here," he said. "My men have the place surrounded. You'll be dead before you hit the lift."
"About that," Gabriel said as he entered the room through the doors like a normal fucking person. "We got the four on the stairwell. Six below. I think that's all of them, but just in case, my men are giving the place a full sweep."
"She'll come back to me. You understand that?" Dexter's tone was almost conversational. "You can't hold someone like her. She's too much for a man like you. She’s mine. She needs me."
His words weren't worth a response. Besides, it was then I realised that Gabriel hadn't stopped or paused. He was striding across the room like a man with a purpose. He glanced at me and nodded his head before turning his gaze to Dexter on the ground.
I stood up and stepped back.
Adam managed to get his hands under him, to push himself to his knees and raise his head. Enough time to register what was coming.
Gabriel fired his shot. Once, quick, to the top of the head. Adam went down.
Game fucking over.
"I should have done that six years ago," Gabriel said.
I couldn't argue with him. "Yeah," I said before rushing to Rahat and Priya. "We need to get her to a hospital," I said as I scooped Rahat into my arms. She felt too small in my hands, and her skin was clammy and cold.
"Priya," she said, though I could barely make out the name.
"She's here. She's safe," I shifted her weight and turned to give her a better view of her cousin.
"I'm fine," Priya said.
"You done good," I tucked her head against my chest. "I've got you, Rahat. I’ve got you."