CHAPTER 54 #2
Another hand signal and another grenade.
BOOM! BOOM!
Grenades? So much for not killing people!
Fine by me! I run behind the soldiers, guns up and eyes alert.
We’re behind the two cleaning vans. A couple men are on the ground, starting to stir, a few further forward are on their feet.
All in black bloc, all heavily armed. One, two…
six men here but they all seem frozen. So we did surprise them!
Yes! But, shit, now they’ve turned, getting up or reaching around and aiming their fire on us instead of Quinn’s Hummer. I can’t see him. I think I saw two men still standing by the dark green vehicle though.
Please be alive, Van. I’m coming!
Two stay down, hit worst by the grenades. But four remain and bullets start to whiz past.
“Shit!” I scream. I take both guns and shoot. I try to slow my breathing, to aim, to think. But I can’t, I just shoot shoot shoot. Anything that moves. Somewhere in my mind I remember not to hit their heads. Chests are fine since everyone wears kevlar.
L2 and L3 are not moving. They’re just shielding me from the worst of it, which pisses me off. They should be advancing! Quinn’s still pinned down on the other side! Where are the three others from our Calvary team?
“L-Team move! Go! Go! Go!” I try. I have kevlar on too. I’m the only one who got an injection of what must be some kind of human rocket fuel. I feel fine! I’ll be fine! “Guys! Fucking move!”
Finally, they listen, and as we go, I hear him, a warrior’s cry that rings out through the deserted concrete alleyway, “LUNAAAA!”
Just hearing his voice changes everything. My trainer, my coach, my leader, my friend, my lover…he’s right there. I just need to get to him. Everything comes into focus. I use the back corner of a van for support on my injured side and choose a target, breathe, shoot.
Hit!
I got him in his right arm. He curses and switches arms to shoot lefty but L2 takes him out with a shot in the leg. L3 has one guy in a fist fight, I shift to shoot but he pulls a gun from his back and smashes it into the Russian’s head. He falls and L3 shoots each hand then moves on.
“Ah!” I yell as a bullet hits the van right next to me.
I shoot back, unfocused cover fire until there’s a pause.
I see L2 shooting the two men at the front of the second delivery van.
One pops up and L3 shoots from his side and hits him in the shoulder.
I can’t help but wish he’d gone for the head shot.
God, look at us not killing, how about you help us out down here!
I pray before cursing as a bullet grazes my good arm.
“Damn it!”
“Cover!” L2 yells. I shoot and shoot and shoot so he can advance closer to the end of the vehicle. Finally, the Russian pops up at the exact moment L2 can take a shot.
“Clear!” L3 calls out.
“Cover me!” I say before I launch up and scream, “QUINN!”
My legs are moving before I even register where he is.
I hear the gunfire, left and right. I just don’t care.
I have to get to him, somewhere ahead of me by that Hummer.
I spot him, passenger side, standing and using the door as a shield.
He takes a few shots at the bank truck. There’s blood in one ear, he’s sweaty and dirty.
Big, dark and angry and so gorgeous it almost hurts to look at him.
His eyes lock with mine, blow wide and he crouches down into a squat just in time for me to fall into him. “Lasa,” he grunts, then louder asks, “What the hell are you doing here?”
I pull back from his embrace, “Saving your ass!”
“You—”
“I know!” I interrupt, “I also planned the mission and got you into this mess but I was the one who spotted the trap. I came as fast as I could.”
“It wasn’t fast enough,” he says, putting his forehead onto mine.
“What do you mean…Mac? Collin?” I ask, my mind starting to spin out.
He shakes his head, “I mean one second apart from you was a second too long, Mancini.”
I put a hand up to his rough, firm jaw and look into his eyes, “You didn’t hear? I got married. To a real asshole. Now my last name is Quinn.” Then I kiss him. Hard. He groans.
“Ex-fucking-cuse me, but, a little help here?” Mac yells at us from the driver’s side of the Hummer.
Quinn smirks at me, bloody, dirty, sweaty. Happy. I smile back up at him. We shift together toward the fight in front of the vehicle. Van starts,“Behind me and remember—”
“I know. Breathe, aim, shoot to injure,” I finish for him.
He nods, and we start shooting. The second half of my team has taken out most of the Russians loaded into the armored van.
All that’s left is the delivery truck to the left.
Mac and another soldier are shooting on the driver’s side, so Van and I move around the rear of the Hummer.
There are only a few Russians left behind the truck, and as L-team moves in, finished with the others at each vehicle, we’ve got them outnumbered. I start to relax.
Then I hear the commotion, one second before my tiny earpiece beeps.
“Remnant! Incoming!”