CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Liam
I moved through the building with my gun raised, the sound of boots and gunfire echoing around me.
Paddy and the rest of my men followed close behind me, as the assault had already begun before we reached the front entrance.
Every second inside the building felt like a race against the darkness that was swallowing Nora somewhere ahead of us.
“Clear the left corridor,” I ordered.
Paddy signaled to two men, and they disappeared into the hallway without hesitation. A door slammed open somewhere nearby, followed by a short burst of gunfire that ended as quickly as it began.
“Left corridor secure,” one of the men shouted.
I didn’t slow down. We pushed deeper into the building, room by room, corridor by corridor. Diggs kicked open the next door, and Michael swept the room with his weapon before nodding once.
“Clear.”
The word barely registered in my mind. I didn’t care about clearing empty rooms. Nothing mattered except Nora.
I ignored the bodies of Victor Hale’s men, the overturned furniture, and the smoke drifting through the air.
I ignored the pain in my chest, the fear clawing at my throat, and the fury burning beneath my skin.
I focused on the only thing that mattered to me—finding her.
“Check every locked room,” I said. “No one leaves this building without my order.”
The men moved with ruthless efficiency, spreading through the lower floors while I headed toward the staircase.
Heavy footsteps thundered above us, and another gunshot cracked through the building. Victor Hale was still here. I could feel it.
“Diggs, with me,” I said.
He fell into step beside me as we climbed the stairs two at a time. The hallway above was narrow and filled with dust, and the weak lights flickered as the building trembled from the fighting below.
A man appeared at the far end of the corridor, raising his weapon. I fired before he could aim. The shot echoed through the hallway, and the man fell without another sound.
“Keep moving,” I said. We advanced past him, clearing each room with practiced speed. Every empty room tightened the knot in my chest, but I refused to let panic take control.
Nora was here; she had to be. I reached the end of the corridor and stopped in front of a heavy metal door. Unlike the others, it was locked from the outside.
My pulse slammed against my ribs. “Breach it,” I ordered.
Diggs stepped back from the door and signaled to the men behind us. They moved quickly, attaching the charge to the wall beside the metal door while I kept my weapon raised and my eyes fixed on the lock.
“Ready,” one of them said.
“Do it.”
The explosion tore through the hallway with a deafening roar. Concrete shattered outward, dust and debris filling the air as the wall beside the door cracked open. Before the smoke had time to settle, I pushed through the breach, ignoring the burning in my lungs and the shouts echoing behind me.
The room was dim and cold, lit by a single weak lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. For one terrible second, I saw nothing but dust. Then I finally saw her.
Nora was sitting against the far wall, her face pale and drawn, her hair tangled around her shoulders. A crude bandage was wrapped around her arm, stained dark with blood, and the sight of it sent a violent surge of rage through me. But she was alive.
Relief hit me so hard that my knees nearly gave out beneath me. The gunfire, the shouting, and the entire operation disappeared from my mind, leaving only Nora and the terrifying proof that I hadn’t been too late. I crossed the room in seconds and dropped to my knees beside her.
“Nora.”
She looked up at me with wide, frightened eyes, as if she couldn’t believe I was real. I reached for her carefully, afraid that touching her too quickly would hurt her. My hand brushed her shoulder, and she flinched before recognizing me.
“Liam,” she whispered.
“I’m here,” I said, my voice rough with emotion. “You’re safe now.”
Her lips trembled, but she nodded weakly. I looked at her injured arm and forced myself to focus. The bandage was poorly wrapped, but the bleeding had slowed. I checked the wound as gently as I could, making sure she wasn’t losing too much blood.
“Please be careful. It hurts like hell,” she whispered.
I swallowed the fury threatening to choke me. Victor Hale had done this to her. He’d left her here bleeding and terrified. I wanted to hunt him down that second, but Nora came first.
“Can you stand?” I asked.
She hesitated, then nodded.
I slipped one arm around her waist and helped her to her feet. She leaned heavily against me, her body trembling with exhaustion and shock, but she stayed upright. Diggs appeared through the breach, his weapon still raised.
“We need to move, boss,” he said.
I tightened my hold on Nora and looked at her pale face, at the fear still lingering in her eyes despite my words.
“We’re leaving,” I said. “Right now.”
I kept one arm around Nora as we moved through the dust-filled hallway, her weight leaning heavily against me with every step. She was trembling from pain and exhaustion, and I could feel the weakness in her body even though she was trying to stay upright.
“We’re almost out,” I told her.
Nora nodded faintly, but her face was pale and drawn, and the sight of the blood on her bandage still made my stomach twist with rage.
Diggs appeared at the end of the corridor, his expression hard and urgent. Something in his face made me stop before he even spoke.
“Boss,” he said. He glanced at Nora before continuing, as if he hated the words he was about to say. “Victor Hale escaped through the rear exit during the breach. We found signs of movement near the back stairwell, but by the time our men reached it, he was gone.”
For a second, the hallway seemed to narrow around me. Victor Hale had escaped. The man who’d hunted Nora, the man who’d shot her and left her bleeding in this place, had slipped away while we were fighting to reach her.
Fury exploded inside me so viciously that my hands tightened around my weapon.
I wanted to leave Nora right there and hunt him down immediately.
I wanted to tear through every road, every alley, and every hiding place until I found him.
The image of Victor’s face flashed through my mind, cold and satisfied, and the anger nearly consumed me.
But Nora swayed beside me. I looked down at her and saw the pain in her eyes, the fear she was trying to hide, and the way she clung to me like I was the only solid thing left in her world. So I forced the rage down.
“Seal every road within five miles,” I said, my voice low and sharp. “I want checkpoints, cameras, and men on every possible route. He won’t disappear tonight.”
Diggs nodded immediately and spoke into his radio, relaying the orders. Before I could say anything else, Michael’s voice crackled through my earpiece.
“Boss, we found another victim.”
My chest tightened. “Where?”
“Room at the end of the east corridor. It’s an elderly woman. She’s alive, but she’s weak and needs medical attention immediately.”
Nora’s head lifted suddenly. “Mom?” she whispered.
I tightened my arm around her waist. “She’s alive,” I said. “We’re getting her out of here.”
Nora let out a shaky breath that sounded like a sob. I looked at Diggs and Michael, every instinct inside me screaming to chase Victor Hale, but I knew I couldn’t leave Nora now. Not while she was injured and her mother was barely alive.
“Get medical teams in here immediately,” I ordered. “Secure both women and prepare them for evacuation.”
Michael hurried down the corridor, and Diggs continued coordinating the search for Victor through his radio. Nora leaned closer to me, exhausted and shaking, and I held her tighter.
Victor Hale was still out there. He’d escaped, but he wouldn’t go far, not while Nora was alive.
***
The last gunshot faded somewhere below us, and the building finally fell into a tense, exhausted silence. Diggs approached me with his weapon lowered.
“The building is secure,” he said. “Our men have cleared every floor.”
I nodded once, keeping my arm firmly around Nora as she leaned against me.
“Where’s the medical team?” I asked. “I want Nora and her mother treated immediately.”
Within moments, paramedics rushed through the hallway, carrying equipment and stretchers. They moved first toward Nora’s mother. I watched as they carefully lifted her onto a stretcher and checked her condition. Nora’s eyes followed them anxiously.
“She’s going to be okay,” I told her quietly.
Nora looked up at me, fear still lingering in her expression. “You promise?”
I swallowed hard before answering. “I promise I’ll do everything in my power to make sure she is.”
The paramedics reached us next and examined Nora’s injured arm. They replaced the crude bandage with a proper dressing, checked her pulse, and asked her questions she answered in short, exhausted whispers.
“She needs a hospital,” one of them said.
I lifted Nora carefully into my arms. She was light against me, far too light, and the trembling in her body made my chest ache with a pain I couldn’t name.
“You don’t have to carry me,” she murmured weakly.
“Yes, I do,” I said.
Her mother was already being loaded into another vehicle for treatment, surrounded by paramedics and O’Connor men who moved with care.
I placed Nora gently in the backseat of the lead car and climbed in beside her.
“Drive,” I said. The convoy pulled away from the building, leaving the ruined hideout behind us. Nora leaned back against the seat with her eyes half-closed, exhausted and shaken, but alive. I kept one hand over hers, feeling the faint warmth of her skin beneath my fingers.
For several minutes, neither of us spoke. The city lights blurred past the window as my mind worked through everything that had happened. Victor Hale had escaped. He’d slipped through my fingers. I should have killed him tonight.
I should have ended this before he could disappear into the darkness again. But when I looked at Nora, pale and exhausted beside me, I knew I’d made the only choice I could live with. I’d chosen her safety over my revenge.
And the hunt for Victor Hale had just begun.