We needed to make this fast. Clear this floor so we could get to the roof and who I hoped like hell was Lentwood. The spike of my heartbeat had me moving with the barest of signals to Lucas. Hard and fast.
Ducking low as I edged around the corner, I saw two humans with their backs to us, chatting while staring through the window. Their mundane chatter reached my ears, Lentwood and psycho wolf two words that filtered through. The distinctive sound of rotor blades overhead gave us the extra muffler needed to head in closer. Lucas counted down with the slightest shift of his fingers. At one, we both fired, the darts hitting their marks and the two men hitting the floor.
Hurrying over, we ensured they were secure with cable ties, then hauled their prone forms to the side out of sight.
“Roof?” I aimed a pointed look at Lucas, almost challenging him to try to head to the ground floor first.
After he took a hard look at me, he nodded and checked in with Thatch. “Copy, Thatch. We’re heading to the roof.”
“Copy that,” Thatch responded immediately. “Kent, do you have a visual on Lentwood?” Anticipation weaved through his question.
“No one’s exited the helicopter yet. I’ll let you know as soon as I have a visual.” Kent cut off, and I sighed in annoyance.
“Thatch, what’s your status?” While working with Lucas made absolute sense since we knew each other so well and had spotted each other on countless missions, being apart from Thatch was as much a blessing as a curse.
“We’ve just got eyes on Brent. He’s heading towards the room where Blackheath is.”
Divide and conquer. It appeared the only way to go.
“There’s an SUV coming in fast. Still about five minutes out. Not sure who it is other than it jumped on our radar and seems to be on a mission to break every traffic rule going,” Kent said, adding a new level of urgency to the moment.
“Got it.” I nodded at Lucas, and we headed towards the staircase that would take us to the roof.
The sound of Lucas changing the setting on his firearm had me reacting in kind. All set with live ammo, we paused at the door. Lucas tapped on his thigh, drawing my attention. “We need whoever’s in that helicopter to get out. If it’s Lentwood, we can’t give him the opportunity to escape.”
He was right. Short of shooting at the rotor mast and stopping the helicopter from taking off, no bright ideas came to mind. “I suppose winging it is out of the question?”
His response was a snort.
Not knowing of any other way, side by side, we headed outside, keeping down and immediately dropping behind the large venting system. With the helicopter in sight, I angled as much as possible to check out the occupants, with zero success. At least the blades were still. There was no update from Kent nor Thatch, nor did sounds of fighting reach us, but that didn’t mean anything considering the distracting noises in the warehouse. It meant we had no choice but to move out.
I nodded at Lucas. “You ready?” He bobbed his head in response. With a firm grip on my firearm, I made to the right, staying firmly behind the helicopter, Lucas behind me, and hoping like hell we were in the blind spot. Staying low and angling right as Lucas went left, we tore towards the doors. Loud pounding in my head guided my way, the handful of steps feeling like an eternity.
Gun aimed and steady, I stepped out of cover. My eyes widened, my gut dropping. Nausea battled for dominance, but screw that. Instead, my jaw clicked tight as I dropped the barest of gazes to my niece before settling on Lentwood.
There was no victory in his gaze. Simple curiosity greeted me.
I debated whether my shot would hit its mark before he could move, and with zero risk to Lucinda, who remained silent before him, her wide-eyed, frightened stare burning a hole in my chest, hitting my heart and making it stutter.
“You will not make the shot.” His thick, accented voice startled me, but not enough to alter my aim.
I eventually found my voice—there was no way I could remain unaffected. Steel filled every syllable. “What are you expecting to happen here?” I wondered briefly about Koen, desperately hoping he wasn’t dead. Then there was Lucas’s safe house. He’d be pissed. With all the recent activity though, it wasn’t that surprising infiltration was possible. Brent had the resources of the agency and there was no doubt he’d abuse them for his own gain.
“You’re going to get in and give us safe passage to the ship.”
His blatant disregard for the reality of this situation ripped a snort from me. An unpleasant grin lifted my lips and I shook my head, my hands remaining steady. “It’s like you don’t know me at all.”
He quirked a brow at that. “You presume to think I give a shit about you and cared enough to find out who you are beyond that of an annoying bug?” Inflection filled his voice. Perhaps disbelief. Perhaps mere arrogance. The arsehole clearly didn’t know me or understand just how fucking annoying I could be.
“Yet you cared enough to find my niece.” I held my sneer at bay, and revelled in the flare of his eyes. Apparently, I rattled him more than he wanted to admit. I had no doubt my niece was targeted due to the possibility of her blood being just as special as my sister’s. But there wasn’t a chance he’d get the opportunity to test that out.
My smile turned sardonic as I weighed my options. The only thing I was certain about was that Lucinda would be getting off the helicopter alive on this rooftop while Lentwood would die. In my peripheral vision, another gun registered, this one aimed at Lucas. There was no doubt in