Rifles at the ready, Val swept to the right while Sten took the left, shooting a couple guards they’d taken by surprise. They faced a long hallway that ended in a foyer, which branched off into half a dozen other hallways with connecting rooms, according to the plans Mr. Rodgers showed them. She had no idea where her children could be in the house; they’d have to sweep each floor as quickly as possible so Northwalk wouldn’t have time to escape. Taking prisoners wasn’t an option. These people forfeited any mercy she might have shown them when they killed Max and stole her babies.
Val taking point, she and Sten ran down the hallway. A siren like a fire alarm blared through the house, tiny emergency lights along the walls providing only enough illumination to see ghosts of the mansion’s innards. Guards swarmed into the foyer and opened fire on the two as they approached, their guns flashing in the darkness with each pop. Val and Sten slammed their backs against the wall and took cover behind the hallway’s corners, waiting for a lull in the gunfire before sending a volley of bullets back at the guards. A few Northwalk grunts crumpled to the ground while the rest dove behind expensive furniture for some semblance of cover, as if a three-thousand-dollar Italian leather sofa could stop rifle rounds.Val stepped out from behind the corner and shot through the couch and a couple end tables. Chunks of stuffing and wood splinters erupted into the air and coated the guards’ bodies like volcano ash. Three more grunts jumped up from their hiding spot and fired at her, but their shots bounced off her body armor and only nicked her arms. She riddled them with bullets before they could do her any serious harm.
“Clear!” Sten called out with his back against hers, his rifle sweeping the area of destruction he’d created on the opposite side of the foyer.
“This way!”
They pushed farther into Northwalk’s stronghold. The guards kept coming in waves as the two of them kicked doors open and swept each room they passed, not stopping for anything. They pushed relentlessly forward, clearing the first floor, then the second, mowing down anything in their path, letting bullets ricochet off their armor.
Sprinting up the stairs to the third floor, Val took down the guards waiting around the right corner of the connecting hallway while Sten went left. When the last goon dropped, she heard Sten cry out behind her. Wheeling around, she saw him drop to his knee, clutching his calf, blood oozing through his fingers. Val grabbed him by the arm and helped support him as they ducked into the nearest cover, somebody’s bedroom. She propped him against the wall, and he slid to the ground into a sitting position.
“One of those bastards got me,” he grunted, lifting his fingers to reveal a bullet hole clean through his calf.
She slung her rifle across her back, threw open a dresser drawer, and dumped out the clothes inside. Grabbing a long-sleeved shirt, she began tying it around his wound. “Did it go through the bone?”
“Negative.”
“Then you’re fine.”
He choked out a strained chuckle. “Sure, I’ll just walk it off—”
Something slammed into Val’s side, sending her rolling across the floor. As she tumbled, she caught sight of tall, blond man whacking Sten across the face with the base of a lamp. Sten slumped over, unmoving, as the man lunged toward Val. She jerked out of the way a half second before the lamp base smashed into the floor where her head had been and splintered into pieces. With her rifle pinned beneath her back, she reached for the Glock at her hip. As she pulled it out of the holster, the man jumped on top of her, knocking it underneath the bed and pinning her arms down.
An evil smile spread across his face. “Valentine Shepherd, the Omega. I always wondered what you tasted like.”
“Keep wondering, motherfucker!”
She kicked a knee up and he fell to the side, but he managed to keep hold of one of her arms. With her other arm, she pummeled him in the face and torso, anywhere she could reach, as they rolled around on the ground. A glint of steel caught her eye, and she grabbed the man’s wrist as he swung a knife toward her. Goddamn Northwalk and their fucking knives.
He kneed her in the chest with enough force to knock the air out of her lungs. As she gasped for air, he yanked his wrist out of her grasp and stabbed her in the hand. Val shrieked as he smiled at his small victory. In her fury, she finally landed a solid blow to his nose with her free hand, pushing him back enough so she could kick him off. Gritting her teeth, she yanked the blade free and scrambled to her feet at the same time he sprang up. Before she could swing her rifle around or pull the .45 wedged in her back, he threw himself into her and pinned her against the wall.
He laughed as if they were just playing a rough game. “Now you’re mine—”
The crack of a gunshot cut off his words. His head jerked to the side and he fell over, a bullet hole in his temple. Chest heaving, her eyes cut from the man to the shooter—and there stood Kitty, Max’s old personal assistant and Stacey’s girlfriend.
“Good riddance,” Kitty sneered, her gun still pointed at the man. “I always hated my brother—”
Another shot rang out. Awake and sitting upright with a nasty gash across his cheek, Sten followed Kitty with his pistol as she stumbled backward, a circle of crimson blooming from her gut. When she hit the opposite wall, the gun dropped from her hand and she slid to the floor, clutching her wound.
Val dropped the man’s knife and marched to Kitty. She grabbed the woman’s shirt and yanked her close.
“Where are my children?” Val snarled into Kitty’s face.
“They’re in the boardroom…on the fourth floor…” Kitty forced the words out as her life slipped away. “Tell Stacey…I really did love her…”
“Your regrets are not my problem,” Val said, letting go of Kitty so the Northwalk agent could slump to the floor and die.
She retrieved her handgun from underneath the bed, then helped Sten stand. “You okay?”
“No,” he said, tightening the shirt around his calf. He dropped the magazine from his rifle and slapped in a fresh one. “Let’s go.”
Sweeping back into the hallway, Sten limping but able to move forward, they rushed back to the stairs and climbed to the fourth floor. At the top, the short hallway took a sharp right. Val knew from the floor plan it ended at a makeshift boardroom, the last obstacle between her and her children. She looked at Sten. His face pale and pinched with pain, blood running down his cheek, he met her gaze with steely eyes and nodded. Together they stepped around the wall, rifles up. A hail of gunfire erupted as what was left of the guards put up their last stand in front of the boardroom’s closed doors.
A piece of wall exploded next to Val’s head, and the world went dark. When her senses returned, she heard Sten screaming at her.
“Get up!” he yelled in her face as sirens blared all around them. “Goddammit, Shepherd, GET UP!”
She struggled to stand, but her legs wouldn’t hold her weight. Blood trickled down her forehead and into her eyes.
Sten pulled on her arm in frantic jerks, unable to drag her far on his injured leg.
This is where he dies.
“Get up—”
Forcing herself to move her heavy limbs, she grabbed Sten and yanked him on top of her. Bullets bounced off his armor as she blinked away blood, pulled out her handgun, and returned fire, killing the last of Northwalk’s guards.
Sten rolled off her, and they lay on the ground for a moment, gasping for air. She’d saved his life. Maybe now they were even? Hell, it didn’t matter anymore. They were partners, bound forever, no matter what happened.
He pushed himself to his feet on unsteady legs, then pulled Val up. Leaning on each other until they regained their balance, they stepped over the guards’ bodies and walked to the boardroom. She tried the door; Northwalk had locked it. She almost laughed at the prospect a flimsy lock would keep them out after the gauntlet they’d endured to get there. Val kicked the door until the lock broke and it swung open.
“Stop,” an older woman with blond hair said when Val entered. The woman stood in the center of the room, flanked by long, ornate oak tables occupied by five other people in designer suits. They regarded her and Sten with expressionless faces, fingers laced together with white knuckles the only hint of their unease. Cassandra stood to the woman’s right, the first time Val had seen the Alpha in the flesh. As in Val’s visions, the Seer was an ethereal presence, looking at everyone and everything as if she knew exactly what was about to happen and her singular interest was watching the future unfold. To the woman’s left, Danielle stood with a deep frown on her face and fear in her eyes.
Tossing her rifle to the side, Val aimed her handgun at the woman. “Where are my children?” she asked, her voice deceptively calm.
“I am Honora du Lothgard, leader of the Northwalk,” she said. “It appears we have a misunderstanding.”
“Where are my children?”
“Your children are safe. They are very special, and we are not the only people who know of their existence. A rival group based out of Asia, the Yongjai, are also very interested in acquiring them. We can keep your children safe. We can teach them how to control their abilities. Isn’t that something you want?”
Val stepped closer, the barrel of her gun pointed straight between Honora’s eyes. “Where are my fucking children?”
Honora flinched away from Val’s pistol, the first time she’d shown any sign of fear. Then she lifted her chin in defiance. “You can’t kill me. It’s been foretold. Cassandra sees all futures, and you don’t kill me in any of them—”
Val pulled the trigger. Honora landed on her back at the foot of the oak tables, a single hole in her head. Half a second later, Sten opened fire on the rest of Northwalk. They screamed and launched from their seats, attempting to flee, but in less than five seconds their bodies were strewn around the boardroom. He took a moment to glare down the barrel of his rifle at Cassandra. Unfazed by the carnage around her, she stared back at him with piercing eyes as if looking into his soul.
Stop, Val would have said to Sten if she had any compassion left in her. From what she could tell, Cassandra was merely a tool of Northwalk’s, another one of their slaves. But Val was all out of mercy. She wanted to take anything Northwalk-related and rip it to shreds.
Sten’s lips peeled back from his teeth in a silent growl, and he shot Cassandra in the chest.
As the only member of Northwalk left alive, Val’s mother cowered in the center of the boardroom. With her hands up, she backed away from her daughter.
“The twins are in the side room over there,” Dani said, pointing with shaking hands to a door on the opposite wall.
“Open it,” Val ordered, her gun trained on Dani’s chest.
Dani nodded and backed up until she reached the door, then pulled it open. Lydia emerged first, followed by Simon.
“Mommy!” they yelled, and Val nearly collapsed with relief. They ran to her, and she fell to her knees and embraced them in a tight hug.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her words trembling.
“Yes,” Lydia said. She looked at the scene around her. “Mommy, what happened—”
“Don’t look,” Val said. She pointed to the far corner behind her. “Wait over there and don’t look.”
They walked to the corner and held hands, their eyes wide and fearful.
Val turned back to her mother, and a flood of searing rage wiped away the happiness she’d felt at the sight of her children alive and well.
With her gun trained on her mother, she said, “I spent all this time trying to save you. I invited you into my home, let you get close to my husband and my children, because I wanted to stop your murder.”
Dani backed away as Val stepped closer. “They made me do it,” Dani said. “I didn’t want to, I really didn’t!”
“I thought no matter what a shitty mother you’d been, your life was worth saving because you were my mother. But I was wrong.”
Dani backed into the boardroom table, unable to retreat any farther as Val closed the distance between them. “I—I love you guys. In fact, I didn’t know what love was until I met you and Max and the kids. Northwalk forced me to betray you. Pumpkin, please don’t.”
“Now I know,” Val said, “I’m the one who kills you.”
“Don’t do this, please,” she begged. Her lips trembled. “I have something to live for now. You don’t understand—”
“Val, stop.”
Was that…Max? She whipped her head around, and there he was, standing in the boardroom’s doorway.
“Max?” she breathed, staring in disbelief at his perfectly healthy body. Stacey stood behind him, her face pale as she looked around the room with a hand clamped over her mouth.
“Daddy!” the kids yelled. They ran to him and wrapped their little arms around his legs.
“Come on,” he said, waving Val toward him. “Let’s get out of here.”
He didn’t want her to kill her mother. To hell with that.
“No,” she said, keeping her gun trained on Dani. Despite her sublime shock at seeing her conscious, healthy husband, she hated her mother more. “She tried to steal our children. She deserves to die.”
Max pushed Simon and Lydia behind him, trying to shield them from the imminent execution of their grandmother. “You don’t need to do this—”
“Yes I do! She’ll come after us again. I won’t give her the chance.”
“You’ll never forgive yourself if you do this.”
She gritted her teeth and glared at her mother, her anger and pain so raw it stung her eyes. “I don’t care,” she said as tears welled. “I hate her. I hate her.”
“But I love you, Val. I can’t live without you. Come home with me.”
Come home with me. She’d said those same words to him when he’d been committed to the psych ward after trying to kill himself. He’d wanted to stay and rot there, but she had convinced him to come home with her, because she was his home—and he was hers.
Her hand shook. She wanted to punish Danielle so badly. The woman had sicced a psycho on them, tried to tear her and Max apart, kidnapped and threatened her children—all while playing off Val’s desperate need to reconnect with her mother. Every instinct in her body screamed at her to pull the trigger.
Amid a sea of blood will stand the ebony fox and the crimson wolf, Cassandra had told her. Now Val realized what her choice really was: kill her mother—the crimson wolf—and sacrifice her capacity for love in the process. Choose the ebony fox—Max—and sacrifice the anger that fueled her vengeance. She couldn’t have both.
Her gaze cut to Sten. Dirty and bloodied like her, he lowered his rifle and looked at her. The anger she knew well still roiled beneath his eyes, along with a touch of sadness. She looked at Max again.
His voice trembled, a note of desperation in his words as if he realized how close she was to leaving him forever. “Come home with me, Val. Please.”
All her injuries began to throb. Exhaustion pulled on her arms and legs. She looked at the carnage around her, what her orgy of anger had wrought. All she had to do was put three bullets in her mother’s chest, and her fury would be sated…But would it really? Yongjai was still out there, and Delilah Barrister, and other seers with malicious intent, and everyone else who might hurt her or her family.
If she pulled the trigger, she committed to that version of the future. She could never go home again.
Looking into her mother’s eyes—the same as her own—she held her breath and squeezed the trigger—then relaxed her finger and let her arm fall before a bullet could leave the chamber. She turned away from Dani and walked to Max. As a sob burst from her chest, he encircled her in his arms, pulling her into his warmth and love while she broke down at the unfairness of the world, the cruelty of people to one another, her inability to punish everyone who deserved it—and the fact she had to accept it, and embrace love as the only real way to survive the storm of life.
The gun slipped from her grip onto the floor. She leaned her head on his shoulder, took Simon’s hand while Max took Lydia’s, and together they left.