33. Nora
NORA
The clubhouse barely looks like itself anymore.
Half the downstairs lights flicker weakly overhead while smoke drifts through broken hallways in gray ribbons thick enough to sting my eyes.
Bullet holes tear through walls I helped paint barely two weeks ago.
Splintered wood litters the floors. One of the long dining tables is flipped completely on its side beside a body I don’t recognize immediately, until I realize it’s one of the cartel men.
Another body lies facedown near the stairwell wearing a Wolves prospect cut soaked black with blood.
I force myself not to look too long.
Paxton is shaking against my side hard enough that I can feel it through both our clothes while Lena presses herself into Eva’s hip nearby. The guards shoved all of us into the common area nearly twenty minutes ago, but time stopped making sense after the attack started.
Everything feels stretched thin and unreal now.
Women huddle together across the couches and floor while armed cartel soldiers patrol the room with rifles hanging loose in their hands like this is routine for them. Some of the rescued women are crying quietly. Others have gone completely still, in the way deeply terrified people sometimes do.
The surviving prospects are zip-tied on the floor near the kitchen entrance. Callum’s face is swollen badly enough one eye is completely shut. Aiden’s shirt is soaked red around his ribs.
I kneel down in front of Paxton carefully, forcing my own breathing slower because his eyes keep darting around the room searching everyone’s faces for answers.
You stay close to me no matter what happens, I sign steadily.
His hands shake while he signs back. Where are dads?
My throat tightens instantly. Of all times he had to decide to throw that at me, he chooses now to call them that? I can’t answer that honestly, because I don’t know. I don’t know if they’re alive. I don’t know if they even know this is happening yet.
So instead I cup his face gently and sign, They are coming back.
Please let that be true, I think to myself. Near the kitchen Isa suddenly starts crying loudly.
The kind that jerks through her whole body while she shoves away one of the guards reaching toward her.
“You can’t keep us here!” she screams.
The guard grabs her arm harder. “Sit down.”
Isa throws a glass directly at the wall beside his head, hard enough it explodes everywhere.
“Touch me again and I’ll cut your fucking hands off.”
Even now her voice sounds aristocratic somehow. Controlled beneath the hysteria.
The guard curses sharply in Spanish while another moves toward her quickly. Across the room Tori rises halfway off the couch like she’s about to intervene before Eva catches her wrist subtly.
Don’t.
I see it happen. I also see Cami slipping quietly back toward the common room hallway while everyone watches Isa instead. Eva touches the side of her coffee mug twice before setting it down carefully beside me.
A signal.
I realize suddenly they’ve already started planning something. My pulse jumps hard.
One of the rescued women near the far wall stands shakily asking for water. Another accidentally knocks silverware from the kitchen counter loud enough several guards turn.
Distraction. Everything happening at once.
Eva crouches beside me suddenly. “Nora.”
I look at her immediately.
“Listen carefully,” she says quietly enough the guards can’t hear. “There’s a storage crawlspace behind the pantry wall. We can fit the kids.”
Fear punches straight through me.
“No.”
Her eyes harden instantly. “If this goes bad, they cannot be in the middle of it.”
Paxton watches both our faces carefully, even though he can’t hear the conversation itself. Lena does too from across the room, visibly confused now.
“I’m not separating from him,” I whisper.
“You won’t.” Eva squeezes my arm once. “But if shooting starts again, they need to be somewhere hidden.”
My stomach twists violently because she’s right. God, she’s right. Across the room Isa suddenly starts screaming again. One of the guards shouts back at her. Another grabs her wrists. Then Isa collapses completely into full-blown chaos.
She kicks over a chair. Starts sobbing hysterically. Throws herself sideways hard enough to knock dishes from the table while shrieking in rapid Russian and English so loudly the entire room snaps toward her instinctively.
“GET OFF ME!”
The guards surge toward her immediately. Cami disappears into the hallway entirely. Nobody notices except me. Eva moves instantly.
“Come on.”
She grabs Lena while I grab Paxton and together we slip toward the pantry during the confusion. My pulse pounds so hard it hurts while shouting erupts behind us.
The pantry wall opens from the inside. The crawlspace smells like dust and old wood but it’s big enough for both kids curled together beneath blankets and emergency supplies. I crouch in front of them fast.
Paxton grabs my shirt immediately. Mom.
I swallow hard enough it hurts. You stay with Lena. You stay hidden no matter what happens until one of us comes back.
Lena’s face goes pale. “Are bad men staying?”
Eva answers before I can. “Not for long, sweetheart.”
That confidence sounds terrifying coming from her. I kiss both children quickly before forcing myself back out into the hallway. The hidden panel closes seamlessly behind us just as screaming erupts downstairs.
Then gunfire explodes through the clubhouse again. Everything after that happens too fast.
I sprint back toward the common room with Eva beside me just as one of the guards crashes backward into the wall with a knife buried in his throat.
Cami stands behind him breathing hard while Callum—free now—slams another guard face-first into the floor despite his restraints half hanging from one wrist.
“Callum!” Cami screams.
Aiden tackles somebody near the kitchen hard enough that both of them crash through chairs. The room detonates into violence instantly. Women grab anything they can reach as weapons.
One of the rescued women smashes a ceramic plate across a guard’s face while Tori drives her elbow into another man’s throat viciously enough he drops his weapon.
I don’t think. My body just moves.
A cartel soldier lunges toward Eva with his rifle half raised, and I’m moving before I consciously decide to. I grab the heavy metal serving tray off the overturned table and slam it sideways into his face hard enough that he stumbles.
Not enough. He grabs my arm instantly. Panic flashes sharp and white, then adrenaline takes over.
I twist hard until the man loses balance long enough for Eva to shoot him point-blank with a stolen pistol.
The gunshot deafens me briefly. Smoke fills the room, thicker now, while people scream everywhere.
Somebody crashes into me from behind. Callum.
“Armory!” he shouts,, bloody and frantic. “UNDER THE CLUBHOUSE!”
Another gunshot erupts beside us.
Aiden screams, “Eva knows the code!”
Everything turns toward Eva immediately. She doesn’t hesitate even slightly.
“Kitchen floor,” she barks. “Move.”
The remaining prospects surge toward the back hallway trying to clear a path while the women follow behind them. Gunfire tears through walls around us. One of the rescued women goes down screaming clutching her shoulder while Tori drags her sideways behind cover.
I grab a dropped handgun off the floor with shaking fingers. The weight feels wrong. Too real. Another soldier rounds the corner ahead.
I fire before he fully raises his weapon. The recoil nearly knocks the gun loose from my hands. He drops.
My stomach twists violently. No time. No time for this. No time for guilt.
We hit the kitchen just as more cartel soldiers push through the side entrance. Aiden shoves the industrial prep table sideways creating partial cover while Eva rips open a hidden hatch beneath loose tile flooring.
Weapons are everywhere. The second firearms start getting distributed the energy inside the clubhouse changes completely. We may be outnumbered, but we’re going to make this happen. Hope starts to blossom in me until a voice cuts through the gunfire sharp enough to freeze the entire room instantly.
“Drop them.”
I turn so fast my neck protests painfully. A man stands near the dining room entrance bleeding through one shoulder but still upright, still terrifying, holding Lena directly in front of him with a gun pressed beneath her chin.
My blood turns to ice. Lena is crying silently, hands trembling against his arm.
And beside him?—
No.
No no no?—
A masked woman drags Paxton forward with a handgun pressed against the side of his head.
My son’s eyes are huge. Terrified. His hands shake uncontrollably at his sides. Every weapon lowers immediately. Every single one.
“Interesting,” Joaquín says conversationally.
He looks around the room slowly before his eyes settle on me. Recognition flickers there.
“Ah,” he says softly. “The girl that has the leaders crawling. I’ve enjoyed watching you these weeks.”
Fear crawls cold through my spine.
He gestures lazily toward Paxton without looking away from me. “This one isn’t Stryker’s anyway, which means he’s expendable.”
My body goes completely numb.
“No,” I hear myself say.
Joaquín turns toward the masked woman sharply and snaps something in Spanish too fast for me to fully follow.
The woman doesn’t move. He says it again louder. Still nothing.
Then finally he roars, “I said do it, Valentina.”
The world stops. Everything inside me tears open instantly.
Valentina? The masked woman goes rigid.
My knees nearly give out beneath me while my brain desperately tries to reject what I just heard, because it’s impossible impossible impossible?—
Six fucking years later my foster sister wouldn’t just pop up holding my son hostage. But then Valentina slowly raises the gun toward Paxton. And I break. I don’t even realize I’m screaming until my throat burns raw.
I lunge forward blindly as multiple people grab me at once trying to hold me back, but panic has turned my body feral now. “Don’t touch him!”
Paxton’s face crumples completely. Valentina’s hands shake. Joaquín screams again in Spanish furious now.
Then, she turns and shoots Joaquín directly through the shoulder.
Chaos detonates instantly. Gunfire erupts everywhere at once.
The woman spins, firing into cartel soldiers beside her rapid and brutal while everybody dives for cover simultaneously. Joaquín crashes backward roaring in pain while prospects surge forward grabbing dropped rifles off the floor.
I don’t think. I run straight toward the children.
Lena reaches me first, sobbing openly now. Paxton stumbles sideways, so disoriented that he nearly falls. I grab both of them hard against me while bullets tear through the kitchen behind us. I spot a handgun near me and grab it just as someone screams near me.
“MOVE!” Eva screams “Get them to safety, Nora!:”
Valentina guns down another cartel soldier before turning sharply toward Joaquín again. He fires back. People scream and somebody goes down near the front dor.
I drag both children toward the hallway, desperately trying to shield them with my body while gunfire explodes around us. Paxton clings so tightly to my shirt I can barely move him.
“Stop!” I turn to see Joquain standing behind us. “You’re coming with me.”
Then Joaquín lifts his weapon again directly toward Paxton and something inside me goes cold. I raise the handgun and fire four times. The bullets hits Joaquín in the chest. He stares at me blankly for half a second before collapsing backward into overturned chairs.
The room keeps moving around him. Nobody even stops.
Valetina suddenly reappears and turns toward me instead, gun raised.
Once again, instinct fires before thought does and I shoot her directly through the foot.
She drops hard against the wall with a strangled cry while her weapon skids across the floor.
I grab both children again and sprint.
The hidden safe room sits farther beneath the lower hallway, sealed behind reinforced steel doors thick enough to survive a siege. Eva shouts directions while prospects hold back the remaining attackers behind us.
Lena is crying openly now.
Paxton keeps making terrified broken little noises in his throat while clinging to me hard enough his nails hurt through my shirt. I shove both of them into the safe room first. Hands shaking violently now.
Inside, I sign desperately to Paxton. Stay with Lena. Do not open this door for anyone except me or your dads.
Lena wipes tears furiously from her face. “I’ll keep him safe.”
“I know, baby.” I kiss them both on the forehead.
Paxton grabs Lena’s hand instantly and I slam the reinforced door shut and spin the lock just as more gunfire erupts upstairs.
Then I turn around and freeze.
Valentina stands halfway down the hallway bleeding heavily from her foot. Her mask is gone now. Dark hair matted against her face. Tears streaming openly. Gun pointed directly at my chest with trembling hands.
And for the first time in six years, I’m staring Valentina in the face.