Chapter 13
As they neared the abandoned gas station, Jade drove over the curb and sparked the SUV with its nose, touching one of the concrete barriers that blocked the driveway into and out of the station.
Keira checked behind them as Rogue pulled in and swung their SUV around on the opposite end of the barrier, in effect circling the wagons. “Closing in fast,” she said, as she dropped down out of the SUV and pulled out her handgun.
Rogue tossed Jade’s handgun to her along with two magazines. “I’m going for my rifle,” he said and sprinted for the truck they’d parked at the rear of the old station.
Jade herded the girls out of the SUV and had them lie on the ground behind the concrete barriers. “Lily, you’re in charge. Keep them as low to the ground as possible.”
Lily nodded and lay down in the middle of the frightened girls, whispering that everything would be all right.
Keira prayed she was right as she took up a position beneath Jade’s SUV, where she could see the road and the HUMMVs racing toward them.
Jade slid under the SUV beside Keira and aimed for the oncoming vehicles.
“Don’t shoot until you’re sure you’ll make your target,” Keira said and glanced toward the building. Where was Rogue?
A shot rang out.
The lead vehicle swerved, the front tire shredded, and ran off the road, slamming into a telephone pole. Three of the four men inside jumped out and hit the dirt.
Keira shot a glance in the direction the sound had come from. It took her a moment to find the source.
Rogue lay in the prone position on the station’s flat roof, his sniper rifle set up on a tripod. Another shot rang out.
Keira turned in time to see the second HUMMV swerve and bump off the road, steam rising from the engine. As soon as it stopped, four men bailed out and dropped to the ground, aiming their rifles at the station.
The driver of the third vehicle accelerated, barreling toward the station.
Rogue fired, piercing the driver’s side windshield. The man must have been hunkered down. He didn’t slow until he was fifty yards from the concrete barriers. Then he spun the HUMMV sideways in the middle of the road and stopped.
The men inside jumped out the side, away from the station, and took up positions using the vehicle for cover.
The fourth Hummer drove in behind the third and performed the same stunt, all four men inside getting out, unscathed.
Fifteen bogeys. Sixteen, if Keira counted the driver who’d smashed into the telephone pole. The odds were not in their favor. She glanced at her watch. Four minutes. All they had to do was hold them off for four minutes until the drone arrived with enough firepower to eliminate the enemy entirely.
Two of the four men closest to the barriers opened fire, raining bullets on them while the other two men low-crawled across the ground, inching their way closer to Keira and Jade’s position.
“I’ll take the one on the left,” Keira whispered.
Jade aimed for the one on the right.
Before they could fire, Rogue picked off the one on the left and followed quickly with another shot, hitting the one on the right.
“There are a couple of guys from the crashed car making a wide circle,” Jade said. “I think they’re aiming to sneak up behind us.”
Keira lined up her sights on one of them. “Out of my range.”
Rogue picked off the one in the lead. The other man dropped where he was rather than risk being the next one hit.
Another round of cover fire erupted. Keira kept her head down, her eyes open. A movement from one of the vehicles further away caught her attention. A man pulled a fat weapon out of his vehicle and leaned across the hood.
“What the hell is that thing he’s aiming at us?” Jade asked.
Keira recognized the weapon from pictures she’d seen online, and her blood ran cold. “Cover your heads,” she cried out as a loud thump sounded. Moments later, the world behind them exploded, blasting debris in all directions.
“No!” Keira cried, her ears ringing. She turned to see the old station turned into nothing but a pile of rubble. “Rogue!”
“Keira!” Jade yelled. “We have incoming. Take the left.”
Keira swung back, raised her handgun and fired at the man twenty feet from her.” She hit him square in the chest, and he dropped.
Jade clipped the man to the right, hitting his arm holding his rifle. The rifle clattered to the ground.
Her heart squeezing hard in her chest, Keira forced herself to focus on protecting the girls. As the men moved closer, she and Jade aimed carefully and fired until her last magazine was empty. There were too many, and they would be on them soon.
A thumping sound beat the air overhead.
For a moment, Keira thought it might be the drone until she spotted the helicopter, slowly lowering to the ground.
A slim, athletic bald man stepped out of the chopper and stood with his hands on his hips, his chin raised and his eyes narrowed. “Jade and Keira, it’s time to choose a side,” he called out over the roar of the chopper’s engine. “Come with me now. Return to your home with Onyx.”
“So you can tell us more lies?” Keira shouted. “Brainwash us into believing our missions are all for the good of our country?”
“You used us,” Jade yelled. “Made us kill to satisfy your billionaire backers.”
“You’re no better than sex traffickers,” Keira said. “At least they didn’t gaslight us into killing their political opponents.”
“Fuck you, Viktor,” Jade called out. “And fuck Strickland and Marcus Kaufman. You don’t mess with my family.”
Rather than glare and curse, Viktor shook his head.
“I had such high hopes for the two of you. Such a waste of all the training I invested in you. I covered for you when you didn’t complete your missions.
I thought you two were special. I was wrong.
I could only trust myself with the most important targets.
Morales had to die. He would’ve destroyed all we’d worked for.
The same with that federal prosecutor in Houston.
You couldn’t complete the task, so I did.
Now that you’ve made your choices, I have no further use for you.
” He stared out at the tactical combatants surrounding the gas station.
“Kill them all.” Then he turned and climbed onto the helicopter.
Keira’s heart sank to her knees.
Kill them all.
Out of ammo and out of time. She shot a glance behind her at the girls huddled together, sobbing. Was this how it would end? Everything they’d endured all culminating in a mass burial of girls who’d never done anything to deserve an end like this?
The helicopter hovered a couple of feet from the ground, Viktor sitting on the seat near the open door.
As the helicopter lifted slowly into the air, Viktor stared down at them, a sneer pulling his lip up on the corner.
The roar of the engine drowned out every other sound.
Suddenly, Viktor’s eyes widened. He slumped forward, the harness keeping him from falling out.
Keira could swear she saw blood blossoming across his chest. The helicopter continued to rise, then pitched north, disappearing into the sky.
The men in black tactical gear closed in, tightening the semi-circle around Keira, Jade and the girls.
Keira dropped the empty magazine from her gun and checked her bandolier again for a magazine she might have missed. Her hand came up empty.
Jade stared out at the men approaching. “You don’t have to follow his orders,” she shouted. “If you do, that makes you murderers of children. Can you live with yourself after killing children?”
The men didn’t stop, didn’t hesitate, just kept coming.
Keira and Jade slid backward beneath the SUV, retreating to where the girls lay huddled, shaking and silently sobbing.
Keira draped her body over as many as she could in a last-ditch effort to save them from being shot to death.
She covered her head and prayed for help.
Oh, Rogue, I wish we’d had more time together.
As the thump of rotor blades faded into the distance, a buzzing sound took its place.
Keira braced herself, expecting the bullets to rip through her first.
Brrrrrpppppp!
That sound wasn’t what Keira had expected. She raised her head. What looked like a small airplane, too tiny to carry passengers, flew overhead—a drone.
Brrrrppppp!
The sound was that of a mini machine gun mounted on the drone as it swooped over the men who’d been advancing on Keira, Jade and the girls.
Brrrrpppp!
Viktor’s men aimed their weapons upward.
Before they could fire...
Brrrpppp!
The men fell one by one, the machine gun mowing them down.
The ones who had the sense to run raced for the HUMMVs and dove inside.
The drone circled and came back, firing at the vehicles as they spun around and drove away so fast, they spat gravel up behind them. Soon, the attackers still breathing were gone, leaving the dead or wounded in their wake.
As the drone circled once more, Keira rose from behind the concrete barrier, looking for any armed men remaining.
“I’ll cover,” Jade said. “Go. Find Rogue.”
Keira spun and limped as fast as she could toward the destroyed building, her heart in her throat, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Rogue!” She stumbled over a piece of metal roofing, regained her balance and searched through the debris. “Rogue! Damn it! You’d better be alive.”
“Or what?” Rogue’s voice sounded from the middle of a pile of debris. He lay sprawled on his belly across a piece of corrugated tin that had been part of the roof, his legs trapped beneath a beam, his rifle perched out in front of him.
“Rogue,” Keira cried and picked her way through the splintered wood, broken glass and pieces of what had been the gas station. She dropped to her knees beside him, her gaze sweeping over his bruised and battered body. “Are you bleeding? Anything broken? Can I help you up?”
He stared up at her. “You’re not hurt?”
She shook her head.
“The girls?”
“All okay,” she said.
“Jade?”
“Also okay.” She reached out and cupped his cheek. “I thought you were dead,” she whispered.
He chuckled and coughed. “Apparently, it’ll take more than an explosion to kill me. Fortunately, I landed with my rifle intact.” He glanced to where his legs were covered in what looked like part of the wall. “However, my legs are trapped. I might need help getting out.”
The rumble of a vehicle’s engine as it approached made Keira tense. What looked like a plain white utility van roared to a stop in front of the barricades. A broad-shouldered man with dark hair jumped out. “Rogue!” he called out.
Jade straightened and pointed her pistol at him. “Who are you, and what do you want with Rogue?”
“What’s happening? Rogue asked. “I can’t see over the debris.”
“A white van just pulled up, and a man is calling out your name. Jade’s holding him at gunpoint.”
“Has to be Crusher, the man who piloted the drone,” Rogue said. “He’s SOS. Don’t shoot him.”
Keira’s lips twisted. “The gun might look dangerous, but it's out of bullets.” She stood and called out. “Crusher?”
The man glanced in her direction.
“Rogue’s over here. He could use some help.” Keira dropped down beside Rogue again. “All of the men from the compound are either dead or gone.” She frowned. “It’s too bad it didn’t get here in time to take out Viktor. He’ll just find another location to build his army of lost girls.”
Rogue shook his head. “I saw the helicopter take off. Was Viktor the man on the bench near the door?”
“Yes, why?”
Rogue sighed. “I figured as much. I could hear what he was saying to you and Jade. I heard him give the order to kill all of you.” His lips pressed into a tight line.
“Despite being trapped in this debris, I was able to pop off a shot. I could see him clearly through my scope and watched him slump when the bullet hit him square in the chest. If he didn’t die instantly, he won’t make it to a hospital. ”
Keira reached for Rogue’s hand and raised it to her lips.
“Thank you. You’ve saved the lives of countless girls.
” She smiled down at him. “After all that’s happened, I can say with absolute certainty, I’m pretty sure that if I’m not already there, I’m well on my way to falling hopelessly in love with you. ”
He brought her hand to his lips and pressed his lips to her knuckles. “That’s good, because I have no doubt whatsoever that I definitely, maybe, am in love with you.”
Crusher arrived at that moment, a frown denting his brow. “You two should get a room.”
Rogue laughed. “Get this beam off my leg, and we might just do that.”
“Before we get a room,” Keira said. “We need to get back to the compound.”
Rogue frowned. “Go back?”
“I’m afraid for the other Onyx girls. If Viktor is dead, Strickland might give the order to have them all killed.”
Crusher nodded. “Royce has that covered. His contact, Senator Hartley, who happens to be a former Navy SEAL pulled some strings and has a SEAL team out of Mississippi activated. They should be arriving at the compound within the next thirty minutes.”
“What about the compound near Corsicana?” Keira asked.
“Hartley, working with Royce and Hank Patterson pulled some strings to divert a Ranger training event at Fort Cavasos. They’ve been deployed to the Corsicana compound. The two teams are under orders to transport the Onyx women to a secret location.”
“Good,” Rogue laid back. “Those young women deserve a chance at a better life.”
Keira stared down at the amazing man who’d protected her, fought at her side and changed her world. He didn’t just care about her. He cared about the other girls of Onyx like her who’d need help reprogramming from the lies they’d been fed by Viktor and Stickland.
“You’re a special man, Rourke Logan,” she said.
He blinked up at her. “I think that’s the first time you’ve called me by my given name.”
“Your name’s Rourke?” Crusher shook his head. “I didn’t know that.”
Rogue snorted. “Shut up and get this thing off my leg. I have a room waiting for me and my woman once we get out of here.”
She smiled, her heart warming at his words. His woman. She liked the sound of it. She didn’t take offense to it since that would make him her man. And her man had made her realize love was not a liability but a blessing she would never take advantage of.
Rogue was the real deal, and he was definitely, maybe, in love with her.