Chapter 21
Diesel
“No lights.”
“Roger that.”
“Four turn left. Give me a count off.”
“Yep.”
“Yeah.”
“Uh huh.”
“Right.”
“Good. Stick to the left, climb the right side. Stay with the shadows. It’s dark in here. No lights. Dead end at the end of the hallway that takes a left.”
I heard the Black Hornets chattering in my ear as me and my men stayed by the truck. They continued to rattle off information that was crucial in allowing my mind to map out the place. I stood beside the truck and looked at the giant structure. Two stories. A rooftop that most certainly had a stairwell entrance. Windows wrapping around the entire second floor but barely any windows on the first. Just slivers of glass that would let the most minimal of light in.
“Diesel.”
Knox’s voice ripped me from my trance as I looked over at him.
“Another dead end, taking another left. Very few lights, and none of the doors lead into the main warehouse floor. Just a bunch of small rooms that look like pathetic offices,” Dean said.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Do you see what I see?”
He pointed over to one of the windows and I squinted. At first, I shook my head. I didn’t know what he was talking about or what the hell I was supposed to be looking at. Then, I saw it. The smallest motion that looked as if someone was moving around. I squinted my eyes in the darkness as the guys started rattling off in my ear again, but I wasn’t paying attention.
The movement from the window.
It looked like someone was waving.
“Knox, beam your flashlight,” I said.
“That might give away our--”
“Do it now,” I said.
I heard him sigh before the light flashed on, and the second it caught the window I knew who I was looking at.
Brynn.
Holy hell, Brynn was in the building.
“Dean,” I said.
“On my count,” he said.
“Dean, stop. I know where Brynn is.”
But before I could get the entire statement out, we heard gunfire. I watched Brynn’s eyes widen before she ducked out of the window and my guys went racing for the door. The gunfire was our cue, but I wasn’t headed anywhere near the firefight. I rushed in behind Knox and diverted off to my right, going in search of Brynn. I turned on my flashlight and waved it around, casing the darkened hallway.
“Brynn!” I called out. “Where are you!?”
Then, I felt something come down onto the nape of my neck.
I groaned as I stumbled forward, keeping a strong grip on my gun. I turned around and hit someone with the barrel of it, listening as they stumbled back into the wall. I swept the gun behind my back and reached for the man, wrapping my hands right around his neck. I wanted him to struggle. I wanted him to feel death take him under. No easy death was good enough for these assholes, and I’d make sure each and every one of them suffered.
“Diesel!”
I heard Rock come around the corner as the man in my grasp fell limp. His flashlight shined on me before I looked down at the body on the floor. A Black Saddle shithead with a pistol in his hand.
Idiot.
“Come on. We need all the help we can get,” Rock said.
“Brynn’s around here somewhere. I saw her through the window,” I said.
“And we’ll find her. But right now, we have to eliminate the threat. You know this. Don’t go stupid because a woman is involved.”
“She isn’t any woman.”
“Trust me, I know that. I know that more than any one of you. But that doesn’t change the order in which we do things. We get rid of the threat, then we go looking for the survivor.”
I took one last look down the hallway and my heart screamed to run down it. That was where I had seen Brynn. I knew that was where she was, in one of the rooms that shot off the damn hallway. But Rock was also right. If we could eliminate the threat to her, then no matter where she was, we’d find her alive. So, I whipped my gun around, grasped it between my hands, and nodded.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s go.”
I followed Rock down the hallway as gunshots bounced off the walls. I ducked into a room to take cover, then peeked out only to take aim and shoot. There were several Black Saddles that seemed to come out of nowhere, and the more we shot the more they seemed to multiply. I went from room to room, clearing it before rounding corners and doing it all over again. But my mind wasn’t in the shooting, or with my men.
It was with Brynn.
If she knew I had been out in the hallway, why hadn’t she come out to me? Was she scared? Did she think maybe I’d shoot her thinking she was one of the men we were chasing? I didn’t know, and part of me didn’t want to know. Brynn was a strong woman, but everyone had their breaking point. Maybe she was scared and cowering. Begging through her tears for me to go find her.
The urge to run after her was strong, but I knew I was where I needed to be in order to keep her safe. Not at the forefront of the fighting, but in the middle of the action to make sure they couldn’t get to her.
“Another one down.”
“How many bodies?”
“I count four.”
“Yep, got four as well.”
“Anyone seen Brynn!?”
A round of gunfire popped off before heavy breathing could be heard over my earpiece.
“I saw her looking through a window down the hallway. I turned right through the doorway instead of left. There was a Black Saddle already down there that I choked to death. There are actually five bodies,” I said.
“Make that six,” Grave said.
“How many of those fuckers are here?” Dean asked.
The gunfire ceased and silence fell over all of us.
“No way of telling,” Rock said. “All we can do is keep pressing forward.”
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” I said.
“You said you saw Brynn? Alive?” Dean asked.
The sorrow and anxiousness in his voice punched me in my gut.
“Yes,” I said. “Alive. So, let’s end these fuckers, get your daughter, and get the fuck out of here.”
We weaved our way down the corridor, striking men as they popped out. A few of them shot off some rounds at us, but between the camouflage and the tactical gear the Black Hornets had on them, no one stood a fucking chance at taking us out. It was the hardest I’d ever had to concentrate. I had to physically tell myself to keep focused. I had to mutter it to myself until I was listening to the sound of my own voice and nothing else.
“You good, Diesel?” Knox asked.
I looked over at him as I changed out the magazine in my gun.
“I’ll be better once we have Brynn,” I said.
“You and I both,” Dean said as he stepped up beside me.
Then, I heard it.
I heard Brynn’s voice.
“D!”
My head whipped around in the same direction as Dean’s.
“Did you hear that?” he asked.
“Daddy!”
“That’s Brynn,” I said.
“Help!”
Every single hair on my body stood on end as I charged back down the hallway. I followed the echoing of her voice and ignored the cries from my men behind me. This ended now. Within the next few minutes, I wanted Brynn in my arms and nowhere else. I barreled down a small side hallway I had to turn sideways in order to get down, my feet taking me as fast as they could go. I charged down the narrow hallway before spilling out into another one. I heard a gun cock and whipped my gun around to take aim at the person down the hallway. Two shots, a groan, and a body that hit the floor.
Good.
None of these men would survive tonight. Not if I had anything to do with it.
“Rex! Stop it!”
“You, stupid bitch. Did you really think you could kill one of my men and get away with it!?”
A resounding crack made my vision boil and my blood race through my veins. I ran down the hallway, following the sound of Brynn’s crying. Tears. Sobs. A heaving chest. I’d seen Brynn cry maybe three times in the years I’d known her. She never cried. It wasn’t something she was capable of. Strong wasn’t even a word to define her. More like rock solid. A foundation. Rebar encased in cement and solidified with a foundation of molten rock.
And she was crying.
“Brynn!” I exclaimed as I hit a dead end.
“D! I’m in here!”
“Can you find us?” Rex asked.
Their voices bounced off the walls as I looked around.
“Can you find your way through the maze?” Rex asked.
“Stop it. Just stop. Stop it, Rex! No!”
My eyes fell onto the wall in front of me before I raised my gun. I shot off bullets, piercing the rusted sheet metal and watching it break apart in front of me. I was done with this maze. Done with this warehouse. Done with this club and this part of the world and this part of my fucking life. Rex died today, and if I had anything to do with it, Brynn would be mine by the end of the fucking week.
I riddled the wall with bullets until the rusted sheet metal crumbled away, revealing the highly-coveted warehouse floor.
And in front of me was Rex, peeling himself off the floor with his arm wrapped around Brynn’s neck.
“How nice of you to join us,” he said as he cocked a gun.
He stuck it right against Brynn’s temple as she gasped.
“D. You’re alive,” she said. “I thought they’d--”
“It’s going to take a lot more than a sedative to kill me,” I said as I stepped through the wall. “Now I want you to close your eyes.”
“What?” Brynn asked.
My gaze fell to hers, clocking the tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I want you to close your eyes,” I said.