16. Chapter 16 #3
Mike’s aim ended up being lower than he’d intended, his claws raking across the man’s throat.
The guy tumbled backward off Mike, one hand coming up to grasp his bleeding neck as he clambered to his feet.
Shockingly, the man took off running, even as badly as he was wounded.
Maybe resistance to fatal injury was a perk of his supernatural modifications.
The animal predator in Mike wanted to go after the fleeing man and finish him, but he forced himself to ignore the urge.
Instead, he jumped to his feet, looking for his weapon at the same time his attention bounced back and forth between Xander and the Sentinel jerk still dragging him away, Hale and the three men he was fighting, and Roy, who was twenty feet away on the ground being menaced by Roman and his knife.
Not seeing his weapon, Mike hesitated for a fraction of a second, not knowing who to go after first. All of them were in trouble, but he could only help them one at a time. Then he shook his head, stopped thinking, and charged toward the pack mate closest to him—Hale.
Mike didn’t bother shouting out any kind of warning. He simply ran at one of the Sentinel attackers and slashed his claws across the man’s lower back, right below his tactical vest.
As the guy collapsed, Mike reached out and yanked the man’s handgun from its holster before his knees hit the ground. Clicking the safety off, Mike put a round through the second guy’s thigh before turning to run toward Roman and Roy.
“Help Xander!” he shouted at Hale, knowing his pack mate would be able to handle the situation now that the odds had been shifted in his favor.
Roman was standing over Roy, his knife already glinting with red along the edge.
Lifting the handgun he’d commandeered, Mike lined up a shot at Roman’s leg, looking to get the man on the ground as fast as possible. But just as he squeezed the trigger, Roman darted aside. It was like he’d known the round was coming his way.
Shit!
“My former accountant claims to have no idea where my flash drive is,” Roman said as he spun to face Mike, seemingly unconcerned with the gun pointing at him.
“And he’d have me believe you don’t know either.
That’s very concerning if it’s true. For you at least. Because if I don’t get what’s mine, I will take it out on you and your family. ”
At the threat to his family, rage rose up in Mike’s chest like a wild animal, making his claws extend more than they already were, even as his finger squeezed the handgun trigger again.
One second, Roman was standing there, the next he was ten feet away, with nothing but a blur of movement in between.
“Find that flash drive,” he sneered. “Or else.”
With Roy still lying injured on the ground and everything else going on, there was no thought of even trying to go after the crime boss. Not that Mike thought he had much of a chance of catching him. Roman was simply faster than he was. Something that burned his pride like crazy.
Glancing around, he saw that two of the Sentinel guys were on the ground, unmoving, along with the one supernatural Mike had shot earlier. Everyone else they’d been fighting had disappeared, with no trace as to which way they’d gone.
Trey had shown up and was kneeling at Xander’s side along with Hale, helping him sit upright. It was clear Xander was dealing with the same tranquilizer effects Carter had experienced. Maybe worse, which meant Sentinel had probably upped the dosage.
Finally feeling the pain of all the injuries sustained during the fighting full-force, Mike slowly made his way over to Roy, who was struggling to sit up now as well.
Mike knelt down at his side, checking him over.
Roman had done a number on the older man, both with his fists and that knife.
While the wounds were superficial, they were clearly painful.
“It seems I was right about the crypto theory,” Roy said with a painful grunt as Mike put pressure on one of the knife wounds along his right shoulder.
“Roman accused me of trying to help you access the accounts, even as he ranted about us missing some critical piece that would keep us from ever getting our hands on it for ourselves.”
“What critical piece?” Mike asked, confused as hell by everything that had happened over the past fifteen minutes. “And what does any of this have to do with Sentinel wanting to kidnap Xander?”
As the sound of approaching sirens filled the air, Roy gave up even trying to remain upright, flopping onto his back, leaning on his elbows as he grunted in pain again. “I can’t answer either of those questions. The only thing I can say for sure is that all these people seem to be psychotic.”
“Good assessment of the situation,” Mike murmured, sitting on the ground beside Roy to catalog his own injuries.
Besides the broken jaw, it felt like there was some shrapnel still buried in his skin.
It hurt like hell and would have to come out.
But that would be later once they got back to the mansion.
Sometime later, he was vaguely aware of Wayne showing up, at first wanting to know what the hell had happened. But then he saw the condition Mike and everyone else was in, and became more concerned about that. Mike couldn’t help but smile, appreciating that his old friend cared so much.