Total pages in book: 36
Estimated words: 33658 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33658 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 168(@200wpm)___ 135(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
“I can use some help here, anytime now, Maddox,” I murmur into the invisible mic I have tucked inside my ear, already pushing to my feet and taking Layla with me. Cursing when my second-in-charge remains radio silent.
“What’s happening?” She sucks in air and wheezes, her balled fist between her breasts, panic flaring in her eyes. “Oh, God. I can’t…breathe. We have to get out of here.” Her gaze flickers to the patio door a moment before she bolts.
I catch her wrist and drag her back to me. “Easy, sweetheart, you’re running straight to the enemy.”
“Let go,” she hisses, shoving against me, even as she tries to suck in more air and chokes on the smoke. “You don’t understand. My…I—”
“Can’t breathe,” I say, positioning her back to my chest and wrapping my arms around her before she can make a run for it. “I know, and so do the people who threw those bombs in the house.” I murmur low against her ear. “The same people who will kill you before they’ll let you help us with an antidote.”
“Kill me?” she gasps, trying to look over her shoulder at me. “They’re trying to kill me?”
“Yes. Kill you, kill us,” I say, making sure she understands the reason she has to wait on me. I rotate her to face me, my hands on her arms. “I’ll get you out of here safely. I promise you. But you need to do exactly what I say, when I say it.”
She nods in earnest. “Yes. Okay. I’m normally not so…I shouldn’t have panicked and run. Tell me what to do.”
I yank a towel off the counter and run water over it before offering it to her. “Keep your face covered.” I don’t wait for her confirmation, capturing her hand and then setting us in motion, but not toward the front door where she’ll be expected. We’ll go out a window in a bedroom, and I hope like fuck, we do it with Renegade support. I round the corner, and holy mother of Jesus, I can’t see squat for the suffocating smoke that consumes every flipping inch of the house, transforming the hallway into one big cloud of white and gray.
Layla coughs and then wheezes, telling our enemies exactly where we are, but more so, me and them, how badly she needs air right now. I pull her down into a crouch beside the wall in an effort to get beneath the smoke, only to discover there was no “below the smoke.” There’s only more smoke. “Are you okay?”
“Alive,” she whispers. “That’s what counts.”
Indeed, but with her medical condition, maybe not for long, and that’s enough to set me into action again, leading her toward the stairwell, still waiting for Maddox, or any one of the Renegades, in my ear. I head up the stairs, but Layla stumbles and almost falls. I wrap my arm around her, only to feel her go limp in my arms.
Fuck. She’s going to die on me if I don’t get her out of here. I drag her closer and thank God when I find a trickle of air at her lips.
Maddox’s voice sounds in my earbud, welcome as hell. “What’s your position?”
“Stairwell, and about damn time. I need a fast exit. Layla’s passed out and in trouble. I need oxygen, and I need it now.”
“Top floor. Bedroom to your left. Meet me at the window.”
Before Maddox even finishes that directive, I scoop Layla up and start running up the steps. Smoke pumps through my lungs like motor oil, but I don’t slow down. I’ll survive; I’ll heal. She won’t.
Visibility remains at near zero, but I don’t consider what might be hiding in the shadows for us. They’re outside, flushing us out, and Maddox’s reappearance tells me the Renegades are handling the Zodius. But they don’t have them under control, or I’d be headed out the front door. I cut to the left and kick open the bedroom door to find a thankfully smokeless room and Maddox leaning inside at the window.
“Zodius retreated or regrouped,” he says, motioning me forward and offering his arms for Layla.
Or waiting for Layla to come out of this house before attacking again, I think, hesitating to hand Layla over to him. My senses are going nuts with warning, and Maddox must feel it as well as he turns away to inspect what’s behind him, only to be attacked. The sound of battle follows—grunts, punches, and thundering jolts against the wall. Then a yell that grows distant before the silence that follows. Maddox and his attacker have gone over the edge of the roof.
I glance down at Layla’s pale face and nearly lifeless body, and I know even before testing for air that she’s not breathing. Shoving aside emotions, I force myself to act as the trained soldier I am. I take her down to the floor, the bed blocking us from the view of the door and the sight of the window. I set my two Glocks on top of the bed, within reach, and ready for action.