CHAPTER 26

THEY’D COME IN THROUGH THE stupid tunnel his grandfather had insisted on digging. The tunnel he’d fought with the local council about because it came out on council-owned land beside the road. The tunnel that was recorded in council documents and was easy enough to find. The tunnel Callum should have filled the minute he’d moved in.

Callum aimed his gun steadily at the arsehole threatening his family, his finger on the trigger. The only thing stopping him from pulling it was the fact that his gun was inches from Jack’s head. And the other guy in the room was pointing his weapon at Isobel.

“Well, if it isn’t the famous Callum McKay,” the arsehole near Jack sneered. “There’s a lot of talk about you in Kintyre. They say you eat children for breakfast.”

“No, I only eat wannabe mercenaries who threaten my family.”

Callum saw Jack’s eyes go wide. He’d deal with the boy later. Explain that he meant every word. They were his family. Jack was his son. Sophie was his daughter. And Isobel was definitely his woman. He wouldn’t accept anything else.

“This wannabe mercenary is going to put a bullet in your kneecap for pissing him off.”

Callum almost laughed. His knees were made of carbon and titanium. For the first time since an IED took his legs, Callum was grateful for the replacement.

“You’ll be dead before you try,” he said.

A flicker of movement drew his eye, and he caught sight of Jack’s fingers slowly curling around the stun gun on the floor beside him. A million thoughts ran through Callum’s head, but only one mattered. He had a chance to save his family. To get them all out of there alive.

“You think I should have Arno shoot the woman first?” the arsehole said. “Or the kid? At least it would shut her the fuck up.”

Callum heard Isobel trying to calm Sophie. It was a wasted effort; both mother and child were far too traumatised for it to work.

Jack shifted the stun gun, gently touching it to the gunman’s leg. Nobody except Callum was looking at the boy. Nobody saw what he did. Callum caught Jack’s eye and nodded. The boy nodded back.

Callum felt resolve settle within him, the calm before the battle.

“Go ahead, take your best shot,” he told the guy with the gun. “See if you can hit me before I hit you.”

“Callum!” Isobel screamed.

“Fucking SAS think they’re the kings of the world.” The guy swung his gun towards Callum and pulled the trigger.

It all happened at once. The gunman shot at his leg. He felt the impact of the bullet hitting the metal, but all it did was shake his balance. Callum aimed at the guy pointing his gun at Isobel. He had one shot. One chance to take him out. And he took it. He hit Arno in the centre of his forehead and watched him fall. There was the unmistakable sound of electricity sizzling as Jack dealt with the other guy. The gunman spasmed and hit the floor hard. Callum turned his gun on the electrocuted man and pulled the trigger. Targets down.

“Callum!” Isobel’s scream went right through him. “Jack, honey, look at me. Callum, help him!”

Callum came to his knees beside Jack, lifting his shirt to look at the damage. The knife wound was deep and bleeding profusely.

Ryan ran into the room and stopped dead. “What do you need?”

“Medical kit, kitchen.”

Ryan ran, while Callum applied pressure to the wound. “What blood type is he?”

Isobel’s eyes were glazed, showing signs of shock. Sophie was busy weeping into her mother, but she wasn’t screaming anymore.

“Isobel, blood type?”

“O—he’s O positive.”

“Good, that’s good.”

Ryan rushed back into the room, kicked the dead guy out of the way and knelt beside Callum. “What we got?”

“Knife wound to the abdomen. He’s lost a lot of blood. We need to transfuse. Who’s O positive?”

Ryan, Megan and Elle all said, “I am,” at the same time.

“Elle, you’re up,” Callum said. “The rest of you have better combat skills. Megan, come over here and put pressure on this wound.”

She hurried to his side and took over applying pressure. Callum raked through the medical kit, grateful that his military training meant he kept more on hand than most people.

“Ryan, can you put a line in Elle, while I insert an IV in Jake?”

“No problem.” Ryan grabbed what he needed and turned to Elle.

Callum ripped open the pack of sterile needles and started searching Jack’s arm for an suitable vein.

“Did you mean it?” Jack’s voice was a weakened rasp.

Callum didn’t even need to ask what he meant. “Every. Single. Word.”

“Never had a dad,” Jack whispered.

Callum found the vein and inserted the needle. He looked at Jack, making sure he met his eyes. “You have one now, if you want me.”

With a smile on his face, Jack lost consciousness. Isobel sobbed, bringing Callum’s attention to her. There were tear tracks on her face, her hair was tangled and there was blood all over her. She held Sophie against her with one arm. The other hand held Jack’s. Sophie had stopped crying, but was still whimpering. There was nothing Callum could do about that right now.

“He’s going to be okay,” Callum said to Isobel. “I promise you. We’ll keep him alive until we can get to a hospital. I’ve dealt with a lot worse than this during combat.”

She sniffed and nodded, but her eyes stayed on Jack.

“The door to the kitchen is barricaded,” Dimitri said. “I’m going to do the tunnel now.”

“Take these bodies and dump them in the tunnel first.” Callum didn’t want them lying there for Sophie and Isobel to look at. Plus, it would make whoever came down the tunnel after these guys think twice.

Dimitri picked up the nearest body, slung it over his shoulder and headed for the tunnel entrance.

They heard a massive crash and the sound of cracking wood.

“That will be the door to the kitchen,” Ryan said as he finished with Elle. “Sit on the bed.”

They were going the old-fashioned route and using gravity to get the blood from Elle into Jack. It wasn’t perfect, but it might keep him alive. No. It will keep him alive. There were no other options.

There was a loud bang that made Isobel jump and hold Sophie closer.

“They’re trying to get through the downstairs door, but they won’t.” Callum kept his tone matter-of-fact, hoping to ease her worry. “It’s steel-plated. I put it in myself.” He’d been having what passed as fun for him at the time, keeping his hands and brain busy while fortifying his grandfather’s bunker. Now he wished he’d finished the job instead of messing with his grandfather’s woodturning equipment.

Dimitri came back and carted away another body. There was another thud at the door.

Callum took a pressure dressing out of the med kit and moved Megan aside to fix it to Jack. There was internal damage and he needed a surgeon. The best Callum could do was stem the blood flow until they got to one.

“I don’t think the knife hit anything important,” he told Isobel. “The biggest problem is the loss of blood. Megan, get Elle orange juice from the fridge. She needs to stay hydrated.”

Megan rushed away. She came back a few seconds later with clean hands and a bottle of juice. Ryan hauled the last body out of the room, and Callum heard Dimitri telling Ryan to barricade the door to the tunnel.

Another thud shook the steel-plated door, but it didn’t give. It wouldn’t give.

“Megan, keep pressure on here while I talk to Ryan and Dimitri.” For once, his trainee didn’t object to being left out of the loop. She knelt beside Jack and took over applying pressure to his gut.

Callum crouched in front of Isobel, reluctant to touch her because his hands were covered in Jack’s blood.

“Isobel, sweetheart?”

She looked up at him, but she was struggling to fight the effects of shock. Callum stood, pulled the blanket from the bed and wrapped it around her and Sophie.

“We’re going to get out of this,” Callum said as he crouched in front of them again.

Isobel’s lip trembled as one huge tear rolled down her cheek. “Will Jack live?” she whispered.

“Aye.” There was no way that boy would be allowed to do anything else. Not on Callum’s watch. “I need to go deal with this situation. I want you to keep Sophie warm. I’ll send in more orange juice for both of you, and you have to drink it. You need the sugar to help you cope with the adrenalin. Do you hear me, Isobel?”

She nodded, her attention straying back to Jack.

“Watch her,” Callum ordered Megan and Elle before he strode from the room.

As he left, he heard Elle murmur encouragement to Isobel, and he was almost overwhelmed with appreciation. Walking wasn’t as smooth as it had been before someone shot at him. His knee joint had suffered some damage. He could still move, but there was a stiffness that hadn’t been there before.

“I’m getting really pissed off with people shooting my prosthetic legs,” he told Dimitri as he came into the kitchen.

“You still able to function?” Dimitri said.

“Aye, I think it’s just dented.” Callum washed his hands in the kitchen sink, watching Jack’s blood drain away and hating every second of it. “What are we dealing with?”

The two men had stacked every piece of furniture they could find against both doors. The team attacking them were still trying to get through the steel-plated door. The thuds and shouting were almost continuous. It was only a matter of time before they tried the tunnel entrance.

“There are at least seven men outside. All armed to the teeth,” Ryan said. “As we came downstairs, two SUVs turned up. So there’s more guys than the seven—sorry, ten, including the three you dealt with—that we know about.”

“Weapons?” Callum dried off his hands, keeping an eye on the door to the room where Isobel and the kids were.

Dimitri held up his handgun. “I didn’t fire, so I still have a full clip.”

“I fired, but I still have most of my clip left.” Ryan gave him a smile. “I took out the gas canister beside the building you use for woodturning. I got two guys coming out of their SUV.”

“That was the blast,” Callum said. “I’ve got half a clip, a spare gun Elle’s holding and a box of bullets. But that’s it. I wasn’t exactly planning on waging a war out here.”

“How long until the cavalry arrives?” Dimitri said.

Callum looked at his watch. “Forty minutes, maybe more.”

There was nothing to say. They knew that forty minutes when under siege by a group like the ACAB Militia was a very long time to try to stay alive. Another thud against the door emphasised the point.

“How secure are we down here?” Ryan asked.

Callum cocked a thumb at the door leading up to the kitchen. “That’s reinforced steel. The tunnel is narrow, so the chances of them using it to rush us are slim, but at some point they’re going to figure out that the best way to get to us is to go through the floor of the house.”

“Are there any parts that are concrete?”

“The section above the bathroom. That’s the securest room down here. It’s also the smallest. The walls aren’t reinforced though, so if the militia get in here, they could break through the walls to get into the bathroom. Or just fire at them until the bullets make their way through.”

“What if we put the women and kids in the bathroom, pad the walls and barricade the door, then we go hunting,” Ryan said. “We can go out through the tunnel.”

“They used the tunnel to come in. They’re probably watching the entrance. Plus, it’s too narrow in there to defend ourselves coming out.”

“We’re stuck down here, aren’t we?” Ryan said.

“Aye.” Callum looked around. “But we aren’t helpless. They’re going to get in. It’s a matter of time. We need to move the women and kids to the bathroom and then position ourselves so we can take out as many as possible once they get in here.”

A large blast rocked the building. Sophie screamed and Isobel cooed at her. Callum could hear the fear in her voice.

“Let’s move them,” Callum said.

The men jogged towards the rest of their team. Megan looked up at them as they entered the room. “How long have we got?” she said.

“Ten minutes, maybe more,” Callum said. If they were lucky. “We’re moving everyone into the bathroom.”

“No.” Isobel held her son’s hand tightly. “We can’t move him. What if it makes him worse?”

Callum crouched in front of her and stroked her hair. “We have to. We have to keep you safe. There’s a good chance these guys are going to get in here, and we need you in the securest room we have.”

“Clam.” Sophie’s red face turned to him. “I’m scared.”

He reached out and lifted her from her mother. “I know, baby, but we’re going to get through this, okay? I need you to be a brave girl and help your mum and Jack. You can do that, can’t you?”

She didn’t look sure, but she nodded before wrapping her arms around his neck. Callum stood, turning to see Dimitri take the door off the closet. They would use it as a stretcher to get Jack into the bathroom.

“Come on, Isobel.” Callum held out his hand. “Let the guys take Jack into the other room. We’ll grab some bedding and make it comfortable for him.”

Isobel didn’t look certain, but she put her hand in his and let him tug her to her feet. Callum wrapped his free arm around her waist and pulled her into his body. Her bloodstained hands curled in his shirt.

“I’m scared too,” she whispered.

“I know, sweetheart, but we’re going to get through this.” He kissed her hair, hating that the arsehole had used it to hurt her. “Trust me.”

“I do.”

He pressed his forehead to hers. “You’re it for me, Izzy.” Her hands tightened and she pressed closer to him. Callum leaned back. “Let’s go.”

They hurried to the bathroom, where the closet door was placed on top of the bath with Jack on it. He was still unconscious.

“Wash your hands,” Callum said gently to Isobel as the rest of the team went to gather materials to barricade the room. Callum put the toilet lid down and sat Sophie on it, wrapping the blanket Megan handed him around her.

Once he’d settled Sophie, Callum unhooked Elle from Jack and attached a bag of saline solution to the line in her place. It wasn’t as good as blood, but it would help.

“Why do you have that in the house?” Elle said as she put a Band-Aid on her arm. “It isn’t exactly standard first aid stuff.”

Callum almost smiled. “Hangover cure. From my days when hitting a bottle seemed preferable to dealing with life.”

“Nutter.” She shook her head.

Using cupboard doors and mattresses, Ryan and Callum padded the walls between the bathroom and the rest of the basement. Isobel sat on the toilet lid with Sophie in her arms, watching everything with wide eyes. Dimitri nodded at Callum, and Callum crouched in front of the woman who’d come to mean everything to him in such a short time.

“No matter what you hear,” he said, “stay in this room. Do you understand?”

She nodded and tears started falling again. “Come back to me.”

“You know I will.” He cupped her cheek and pressed a kiss to her soft, soft lips. “Look after your mum, Sophie.” He pressed a kiss to her head before turning to look down at Jack. He was grey, but still breathing. And Callum planned to keep it that way. He looked at the two women he was trusting to act as the last line of defence for Isobel and the kids. “Put the mattress and boards in front of the door once we’re out. Stay in the corners, low to the ground. If anything starts coming through the walls, get as many of you as possible inside the bath. Jack will cope with the move if you have to do it.” He looked at the gun in Megan’s hand. “Shoot anything that comes through the door. If it’s us, we’ll let you know. We have about a half-hour to get through before backup arrives. Do whatever you have to do to stay alive.” He glanced at Isobel, Sophie and Jack. He was coming back to them. It was his promise to himself.

Elle put her hand on his arm. “We’ll protect them.”

Callum nodded and walked out of the room.

“Kill as many as you can,” Megan called cheerily after him.