Chapter 54 Dax
Dax
“What the fuck, Lacy?” Mercer yelled. Then he snapped his mouth shut and glared at her.
Burn looked just as surprised. Then she looked at me. “Did you know?” she asked, hurt in her voice.
I shook my head. “Not for sure. I’d started to wonder.”
“You said no more secrets,” Burn said to her.
Lacy dropped her head and sank into herself. “I know. It’s just . . . Everyone thinks he’s this criminal and he’s . . . He’s just our dad. And it hurts listening to people bash him all the time. It’s easier to keep it to myself.”
“You said you were on his crew,” Mercer said.
“Yeah, I was. As a mechanic. Everything I told you was true. The only thing I left out was my dad’s name.” Now she lifted her chin belligerently. “It’s not like any of you introduced yourself and said, ‘And my dad is Mr. Blah Blah.’ Can we just get Layla out of here?”
Mercer, the only one on the crew with family as famous, or maybe infamous, as hers, looked like he wanted to argue.
“Later.” My tone brooked no argument.
“Open the door, Mercer,” I said when no one showed any signs of moving. “You’ll want to step back, Miss Blazer.”
“Dupree,” Layla said. “We both use our mom’s name because of assholes like you.” After dropping that little bomb, she disappeared behind the privacy wall.
Mercer pulled a thin strand of detonator cord from his pack. With careful, precise movements, he broke off a small piece and carefully crafted it into a shaped charge. He affixed it to the door, near the lock, and placed a tiny detonator in the ball of explosive.
Then he pulled out a small tablet from his pocket and linked the detonator to his control.
“That’s not too big, is it?” Lacy asked him as she studied the charge.
“What, your daddy didn’t teach you explosives?” His tone was snide, but there was a hint of something. Understanding?
“Don’t be a dick, Mercer. I don’t want to come this far to lose my sister to your fuckup.”
Mercer lost his glare and his gaze thawed slightly when he looked at Lacy. “Relax, sweetheart. It won’t hurt your sister.”
She stepped close and stood on her tiptoes so she could look him in the eye. “If anything happens to my sister, I will hold you personally responsible. Do you understand me?”
Her voice was cold and the threat was clear. Whatever she’d done to tamp down her Blazer side was gone now.
Mercer understood that. He nodded.
Lacy brushed past me and took shelter behind the stairs. I nodded at Burn, directing her to go stand with Lacy. She nodded back and slid out of the way. She stationed herself at the base of the stairs and kept an eye out for any unexpected visitors.
“You got this?” I asked Mercer.
He nodded. “Yep. It’s under control. You got that?” He jerked his chin toward Lacy and Burn.
I exhaled. “I have no fucking clue.”
He smirked at me, then sobered. “Get clear. Layla?” he called to the woman in the cell.
She popped her head out from behind the wall. “What?”
“You ready? It’ll be a ten-count as soon as I’m clear of the door.”
She swallowed but nodded. “Big explosion?”
“Shouldn’t be. Just enough to pop the lock out, but you never fuck with explosives.”
She took a deep breath. “Got it. Get me out of here, please.” She ducked back behind the wall.
“Stay safe, man.” I slapped Mercer on the shoulder and cleared out, taking up a position next to Lacy. She was shaking with nerves. I wrapped my arm around her.
Mercer backed away from the cell as far as he could and still keep the detonator in range.
He spoke loud and clear. “Ten.
“Nine.”
“Eight.”
“Seven.”
“Six.”
“Five.”
“Four.”
“Three.”
“Two.”
“One.”
Lacy tucked her head against my chest and dug her fingers into my shoulder.
There was a pop and a puff of smoke. Lacy turned her head at the muffled sound. Mercer stepped up to the door and grabbed the handle. When he pulled, the door opened easily.
Lacy pulled out of my arms and raced toward the open cell. “Layla, are you okay?”
Mercer blocked the open doorway with his arm. “The point was to get your sister out of the cell, right?”
Lacy glared at him but stopped trying to enter the glass room. Seconds later her sister stepped out. She walked through the small cloud of smoke and coughed. “I’m here. I’m fine.”
Lacy wrapped her in a hug, then stepped back to study her. “You look awful. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Rude.” Layla elbowed her in the side. “You see how you look when you’ve been locked in a cell for two weeks. I’ll be a lot better when I get out of here, I promise. Can we leave now?”
I nodded. “Burn, we clear on your side?”
She lifted her chin. “Clear.”
“Orion, we clear up top?”
There was a crackle of static.
“Orion?”
This time he responded. “Yeah, boss, we’re clear.”
“Problems?”
“Naw. Just had to duck out of the way. There have been some lights, but no one has come in.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. I liked being trapped down here even less.
“Roger. We’re on our way up.”
Lacy wrapped her arm around her sister’s waist. “I’ve got you.” Layla gave her a tired smile and leaned against her. That smile was so like Lacy’s.
But her rescue meant that Lacy’s time on the Fortuna was limited. I didn’t want her to go, but didn’t see any way she could stay. My team wouldn’t accept a Blazer—a Dupree—as a member of the crew. Would they?
Burn took the stairs first. She paused nearly at the top, her legs the only thing I could see. Then she scrambled up. “We’re clear, Sarge. C’mon up.”
Lacy and Layla moved slowly to the stairs. Without shoes, Layla was cautiously taking each step.
I didn’t blame her, but we didn’t have time for this. Faster would be better. We’d been lucky so far. I didn’t trust that it would last.
I secured my weapon and approached them. “Go,” I told Lacy. “Burn will guard you. I’ll bring Layla up.”
Lacy looked at me uncertainly.
“I promise,” I said.
“Are you okay with this?” Lacy asked her sister.
“Do you trust him?”
Lacy nodded without hesitation.
Layla’s eyes widened. “Okay, then I trust him too. Let’s go.”
Consent given, I wrapped my arm around Layla’s waist and placed the other under her knees. I swept her into my arms easily.
“Go,” I told Lacy again. “We’ll be right behind you.”
After a last searching look, she hurried to the stairs and up them. “Burn, keep an eye on Lacy. You’ve got the rear,” I told Mercer.
He nodded somberly. “Go.”
“I could have made it,” Layla said, after I barely missed knocking her head on the overhead beam.
I smiled. She said that in the same snotty tone that Lacy used sometimes. They were definitely related. “Not fast enough.”
“Yes, I—”
I gave her a look. She stopped talking, but the mulish set of her jaw—something else she shared with her sister—told me that it wouldn’t be for long.
I was right.
“What’s going on between you and my sister?”
“What?” Distracted, I almost lost my footing. When I righted us and was able to look down at her, she was staring at me with a knowing expression. “Nothing.” I was not having this conversation. Not right now and not with her.
“Yeah, right. You just happened to almost break our necks because nothing is going on.”
“I didn’t almost break our necks,” I countered through clenched teeth.
She laughed and clapped her hands like a little kid who’s just learned a secret.
Dammit. It wasn’t a secret. It was . . . complicated.
“I never thought she’d go for the military type,” Layla continued when I didn’t respond.
I didn’t think I reacted, but she must have seen something in my expression, because she continued. “She didn’t tell you about our upbringing.” She studied me again. I wished that I had my face shield because she was scary perceptive. “Oh. She didn’t tell you who our father is.”
I fought to keep from having a reaction—I wanted to have this conversation with Lacy, not with her sister—but I couldn’t help pressing my lips together.
“This is going to be so much fun!”
We broke through the top of the stairs. “What’s going to be fun?” Burn helped steady me as I stepped onto the ground floor.
“The fireworks between my sister and my rescuer.”
Burn smirked.
Well, crap. That wasn’t good.
Mercer stepped out of the stairwell and I moved closer to the door. Orion stood in the doorway, facing out. Lacy hovered next to me, her gaze constantly checking on her sister.
“Our ship is in town, but we have a shuttle here,” I told Layla. “There’s a lot of gravel outside, so one of us will have to carry you.”
“I can do it,” Lacy said.
“No, you can’t.” Layla and I spoke in unison.
Lacy glared at me. “It’s not that I don’t think you can,” I said to her. “You can do anything you put your mind to. But I need you free to get the shuttle started while the rest of us catch up.”
I thought she was going to argue, but she surprised me. “Fine. That makes sense.”
I studied our small group, trying to figure out the best way to break the team up.
“Burn, you’re with Lacy. Orion, watch our six.” I looked at Mercer and Layla. “Mercer, I need you to carry Layla this time. I’ll provide cover.”
Mercer gave me a pitiful look and placed a hand on his lower back. “I’d really like to help, boss, but my back.” His lips twitched and I knew he was full of shit. He’d been carrying a full pack today and never once had he complained about “his back.”
Dammit. I didn’t want to carry her again. The woman saw too much.
I narrowed my eyes and glared at him. “I won’t forget this.”
He just laughed.
I looked at Layla. “Do you get airsick?”
She looked startled. “What?”
“Airsick, motion sick, seasick. Do you get any of those?”
Both she and Lacy stared at me like I’d lost my mind. “Noooo,” she said slowly.
“Great. I apologize in advance, but this is going to be a bit uncomfortable.”
“What are you talking about?” Lacy asked.
“I need to carry her over my shoulder.”
“What? No!”
Surprisingly, it was Orion who stepped forward to reassure her. “It’s the most efficient way to carry a wounded soldier—as long as it won’t cause additional problems,” he told her. “And it will let him keep his gun arm free.”
“I’m not wounded,” Layla exclaimed.
“Without shoes, you’ll be hurt soon enough.”
Her mulish expression amplified her resemblance to Lacy. “Fine. But put me down as soon as possible.”
“Agreed.”
“Do you get sick?” Lacy placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder and looked closely.
“I never have before,” Layla said gamely. “Can you imagine Dad’s reaction if I got motion sick?”
They both laughed.
“Time to go, people.”
Everyone nodded.
Lacy and Burn were the first at the door. Burn peered out.
“It’s clear, Sarge,” Burn said as she completed her scan.
“All right, team, let’s go!”
Orion pulled the door back and Lacy and Burn raced into the dark night.