His cursing in her ear seemed to fade in and out as Fionn rolled her onto her back. Pain lanced through her, harder than before, pulling a startled cry from her throat.
“Fionn, what’s wrong?”
Siobhan’s voice was strained, worried. She might’ve birthed a warrior, but the woman was too full of emotion to cut it off; she wouldn’t be cold. She’d be warm, and Lyse needed warmth a whole damn lot right now. She refused to ask for it, though, refused to put her friend in danger. Instead she bit down on her tongue until it bled. No more crying out, no calling for help. She might not be able to fight like Fionn, but she wouldn’t get anyone hurt either.
“We’ve got two, Mack,” Fionn said above her.
Two what? “Fionn?”
Green eyes met hers, and they weren’t cold anymore. “You’ll be all right.”
“What’s wrong with me?”
“Just a nick,” he said, but the grim lines bracketing his mouth didn’t agree. “We’ll be fine till help gets here.”
She nodded even though she didn’t feel fine. But whatever the problem was, it couldn’t compare to Sean’s. He was the one who needed help. They had to get out of here. “I’ll be fine.” She rolled back onto her side to face her friend, stifling a cry at the pain. “You and Mack do what you have to do to get us out of here. Keep Siobhan safe.”
“That’s my girl.”
The words sent a flutter of warmth through her despite knowing Fionn didn’t mean them. He thought she was a traitor. A liar. He didn’t want her.
She closed her eyes, forcing them back open when she realized her grip on Sean was slacking.
Fionn reached over her and laid something next to her hand on the ground. His knife. “Use this if you need to,” he said. His warmth disappeared. “Let’s be going, Mack.”
The gunfire had been intermittent, only when their attackers could gain a target, she guessed. Now it came again, this time closer. Mack was firing, she realized. Giving Fionn cover. She heard Fionn’s boots hitting the gravel as he ran in the opposite direction from the front gate, away from Mack. Separating the targets. She’d watched enough ops to recognize a few tactics. What she didn’t have the brain power to figure out was why Fionn was running to the blind end of an enclosed parking area with no way out.
Before the pain and worry cleared enough for her to think, a massive boom came from the gate. Mack scrambled back toward Lyse and Sean, herding Siobhan as he came, his muttered curses telling Lyse that whatever was coming, it was bad.
“Is that a car?” she heard Siobhan ask.
A car? They were ramming the eight-foot, solid wood gate with a car? Holy shit. The gate didn’t stand a chance, and once their attackers were inside, neither did they. “Mack?” She bit down on a scream as she forced herself to roll onto her knees. Agony notwithstanding, she couldn’t just lay here and let them kill her or anyone else. Holding the pad over Sean’s heart firmly in place, she settled her knee on it and grasped Fionn’s knife in slippery hands. “Mack?”
“Easy,” Mack said, the sound almost a croon except for the deadly intent underlying it. “Just a minute more.”
In a minute they could be dead. The boom came again, this time with a loud crack. Lyse glanced around. Where was Fionn?
The revving of a car engine registered in her ears, then the squeal of brakes—the car reversing. A sudden surge in noise warned her right before a black SUV busted through the gates and into the courtyard.
“Mack!”
Siobhan yelled it with her. Lyse had never felt so helpless, crouched over Sean’s bloody body with the deadliest knife she’d ever held, facing a group of men as they jumped from the vehicle with what looked like small machine guns in their grips. She couldn’t stop them, couldn’t protect her friends. Or Fionn.
Just like last time.
She tightened her fingers around the textured grip of Fionn’s knife. Please, God, not like last time.
One man, his face covered in a black balaclava, rounded the end of Mack’s car. “Hand over the woman!”
Before he’d finished the words, Mack’s gun discharged. The man screamed, grabbing his leg. The attacker fell, another taking his place just as a shout came from the direction of the gate.
“Hey!”
Relief caved Lyse’s chest in. Fionn. He must’ve climbed the wall to flank them.
“You’ll be wanting to put those weapons down, gentlemen.”
The words should sound polite, but the ice dripping from them made Lyse shiver. The man staring them down from behind his mask froze, gun raised.
Another sound near the gate, an angry shout. A gunshot quickly followed.
“Two down, two to go,” Fionn called. “I’m not feeling so generous now.”
A clatter came from the other side of Mack’s car. A gun being dropped? Gravel crunched, and she knew the other gunman was getting on his knees.
The man in front of them didn’t seem to move or even breathe. He stared Mack down. Deciding which was the lesser of two evils, being shot or being arrested? What would his boss do if he was taken? Was it one of those “better off dead” scenarios?
His chest rose—a breath. Mack’s gun fired. At the same moment another shot went off. Both caught the gunman in either thigh. Time seemed to slow as the man’s legs buckled, his finger tightening on the trigger. Several shots bit into the air before he hit the ground.
Chapter Twelve
“So you found her in the same village as your mother, in Ireland?”
Fionn wished he could laugh at Deacon’s surprise. Unfortunately none of this was funny. His mam had almost been mowed down by a group of Ferrina’s thugs. Sean and Lyse had gone down. It had been a helluva morning, as his friend would say, and they were no closer to finding a way to protect Siobhan from Ferrina. “I did.”
“So
