Chapter 44 Logan
LOGAN
Night falls over the barren land as we park our cars half a mile away from our actual destination.
Minutes feel like hours while we wait for Cady to give us the signal that Randy has arrived at the run-down factory that functions as their current hideout, and as much as I would love to tear him to shreds before he even steps a foot inside, we can’t risk it.
I could never forgive myself if a rash action would activate some kind of dead man’s switch, killing our girls while we are so fucking close to getting them back.
I try to focus on the rhythm of Max’s breathing next to me, wondering if Sanders is up to date by now. We didn’t bother to inform him, and when Rockwell wanted to talk to Cantrell, his call went straight to voicemail. Not that their opinions would have mattered either way.
Letting out a deep breath, Max turns to look at me. “C’mon,” he says, and I nod as he reaches for the handle.
“Think they’ll fire our asses?” I ask when Max and I join Rockwell and the others.
“I don’t give a shit,” Max says, patting Charlie’s shoulder before he leans against the SUV the other three came here in.
Rockwell just shakes his head, busy checking his guns and tucking a knife into the holster around his thigh before he speaks up.
“They won’t. What would we have to do with a conflict between gangs? As far as I am concerned, we were never here.”
“So, no arrests?” Charlie tries hard to hide the uneasiness in his voice, but it doesn’t take a mastermind to figure out he is more than uncomfortable with the whole situation.
I told him to stay with Cady. Five times.
Additionally to the others, who also tried to talk some sense into the boy.
Charlie didn’t want to listen. Part of me is proud, because him coming with us shows how much we all mean to him, that he is willing to risk his life for this little family of ours, but there’s this disgusting feeling, deep inside my stomach, and I just can’t seem to shake it.
“No arrests,” Sam says, handing out black balaclavas to all of us. “We kill on sight.”
“And we are going to do it fucking quietly,” I add. “We need to get as many of them before they even realize we’re in their rat’s nest.”
With shaky hands, Charlie spreads the floor plan of the abandoned factory out in the trunk. Our entry points are already highlighted, along with areas Cady deemed especially crowded and thus dangerous.
Once this is over, we need to get her a thank you basket so big she won’t be able to carry it on her own, because that girl is not only a genius but also unethical enough to get a job done fast and efficiently.
She kept trying to track the gray sedan, created a map I didn’t even try to understand, and after two days without sleeping, she had the options narrowed down to three abandoned buildings in equally deserted areas.
And then, in the early hours of the morning, she woke all of us up with a squeal.
When I asked her how she found them, she only mumbled something about a recon satellite, in the exact same tone I use when I don’t want people to press the issue.
Deep in his own thoughts, Max stares down at the balaclava in his hands until I take it from him.
“Let me do it, sunshine,” I murmur, pulling the fabric over his head. Green eyes meet mine, full of so much fear it feels like a single shared look is enough to have my heart in a chokehold. It’s a fear I know Max would never express.
Max is strong. Stoic, target-oriented, no matter the situation, so when I see tears welling up in the eyes of the person who has always been my fucking rock, I’m more scared than I had even been in my life.
“Everything is going to be okay.” I say the words like a magic spell that’s going to become true if I just repeat it for long enough. “We’ll bring her back. We’ll make them suffer for what they did to her.”
I pull Max closer, his forehead resting against mine. Behind his chest, his heart thumps so hard as if it wants to jump out and fuse with mine. I wish it was possible, just so I could keep it safe.
“What if she’s–”
“No, Max. Don’t even think about it.”
Next to us, Sam clears his throat, and I reluctantly let go of Max, taking his hand in mine.
“We should go through the entry strategy one last time,” Sam says, tapping against the plastic lining of the trunk.
He steps aside, and after Rockwell gives Charlie a reassuring nod, the poor boy gets himself together just enough to sum up our plan.
“Logan and Max, you’ll go in through the emergency exit. Captain Rockwell, Sam, and I will enter through the former loading area before we split up.”
We agreed on this after we figured out that the 203 can’t have too many men here.
There are barely any vehicles parked on the compound, and Cady got her hand on a dataset containing some more phone numbers of known members.
Apart from one higher-ranking guy and now Randy, none of the important assholes had been anywhere near the factory in the last few days.
This must be a private project for Randy, and despite thinking about it for hours, I don’t know if this is for better or for worse.
Max and I check our weapons while Charlie is still going over some things with Sam and Rockwell, and soon, we start our walk toward the old factory. I stop in my tracks when Rockwell holds his hand up, gesturing over to two guys patrolling the area.
Guarding the compound really well, I realize when I run right into the smelly cloud of smoke that follows them. Not even two minutes later, Sam and I dump their corpses behind a pile of junk.
We activate our earpieces before we split up, and as Max and I sneak over to the emergency exit, I put my hand on the back of his neck, squeezing softly. The door must have rusted from its hinges decades ago, a flickering light barely illuminating the long hallway in front of us as we get ready.
“Everyone in position? Rockwell asks.
“Yes, sir,” I answer for both of us after Max nods.
“Going in,” Sam says, and a second later, we hear a quiet thud. “One down.”
We will find our girls. We have fought off bigger threats, soldiers more skilled and equipped than those rats. Hell, I’ve gotten myself out of more precarious situations with nothing but a knife and a whole lot of anger, and despite that, I’ve never been this nervous.
Max steps in front of me, squeezing my hand one last time before he picks up his gun.
“You’ve got my six?”
“Always, sunshine.”
Entering the dark hallway behind him, it seems as if we accidentally picked the quiet wing. While we get frequent updates from the other guys, we don’t encounter a single soul, a deadly silence hanging thick in the air.
And then Sam starts yelling.
Screaming and crashing comes from behind one of the doors deeper down the hallway and Max and I take off in a sprint, just as panic breaks out inside the factory.
The four guys that come running our way don’t make it far.
I step over them, continuing to run toward the area the sounds had come from, but then I hear something that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
It’s Lily, screaming for help, until her voice is cut off. A dull thud resounds from inside the room that’s hidden behind a door with a blacked-out window, and as Max puts his hand on the handle, I yank him back.
“No. Change of plans. You go out the back, check for a window.”
“Fuck, no. I’m going in,” he snarls, trying to free himself.
“Max, you need to trust me. I know you want to get in there, but we’re only risking her life when we do it like this. I need you as my backup. Please.”
“If anything happens to her–”
“Nothing is going to happen,” I say, and Max narrows his eyes at me before taking off down the hall back towards the exit.
Crying comes from inside the room. It stops when I rattle on the doorknob, and that’s when I decide not to wait for Max to tell me he has found the window.
Slamming my fist through the glass pane, I keep my gaze fixed on those amber eyes I was so scared of never seeing again while I kick the door in.
“Nu-uh,” Randy tuts as I take a step toward him and Lily.
His gun is pressed against Lily’s temple, the other hand conveniently playing around with a knife too close to her throat. Hate surges through my body, but despite that, I lower my gun to the ground, raising my arms in defeat when I stand back up.
“We all know how this is going to end. Guess I won’t be able to redeem my ticket out of here,” Randy says, sniffing Lily’s hair before he lets out a disgusting groan.
I think I’m going to start with his tongue. Work my way down, maybe flay some parts.
“It’s a shame I didn’t get to spend more time with you, princess. I bet you’d have been a great fuck.”
He presses his body against Lily, who shivers in his grip, but her eyes never leave mine.
“Now?” Max asks over the earpiece.
“Now,” I snarl, and the window at the back of the room breaks.
Randy turns around in a panic, but I’m so focused on the blood slowly soaking Lily’s shirt that I barely notice Max entering the room. Lily lifts her hands, turning white as she wipes over her chest, looking down at the blood coating her fingers.
I run over toward her, the fear of losing her so overbearing I can’t breathe, and it only subsides as I see it’s a shallow cut, and that it’s probably just the adrenaline and her high heart rate that makes it look worse than it is.
“Thank God you’re alive,” I whisper, but with every inch of her face and body I take in, my anger returns with a vengeance.
It grows as I see the red slap mark on her cheek.
Even more so as my gaze lands on the scratches around her wrists.
I let my gaze trail down to the bloody handprints; so fucking high up on her thighs I struggle to stay calm.