Authors: Maya James
Justin patiently
holds his team.
Two
loud thumps follow as the guards upstairs succumb to the gas, but there's also
the sound of breaking glass.
Our
team takes the stairs, leaving one man behind to keep the first floor secure,
firing into the cloud as they climb. Someone was smart enough to break a window
and stick his head out for air is and still returning fire blindly into the
smoke. It’s a dumbass move; he has nowhere to go.
White
hot metal screams by Justin's camera and my body goes numb. Their fire
concentrates on the back of the room where the shooter is trying to hide in the
smoke. We can see where the chemicals are escaping out a large hole in one of
the open rooms and the men simply aim for that.
Debris
is flying everywhere and shouts of panic waft down from the third story.
There's muzzle flare all over with mini explosions of splintering wood. Someone
howls in pain, and I check all cameras, praying it's not one of ours—that it's
not Justin.
It's so
fucking hard to see with the dust and smoke everywhere.
They
keep shooting, the screams come again and then stop with an eerie quickness.
They're no longer taking fire, at least not for the moment. Justin charges
through the fog to confirm they've killed the shooter.
My
heart stops until I can make out the body slumped against the wall under the
broken window.
Damn
him—and thank Christ!
Malcolm
and Garrett each find one of the gassed, unconscious shooters in separate
rooms.
Pop! Pop!
Not
just unconscious anymore!
They
find another door that's closed and locked from the inside despite it being
perforated with bullet holes. Garrett kicks it in, but it won't swing all the
way open. A pair of legs are blocking it. It's a small, filthy looking bathroom
with two women laying on a blood-soaked floor, their blank eyes staring up at
the camera.
For a
foolish moment I feel bad for them. Then I notice the semi-automatics in their
hands and I realize how close they came to ambushing Justin and his men.
"The
second floor is ours," Justin whispers.
Upstairs,
they're shouting and cursing at each other, voices mixed with fear and anger.
They begin breaking every window in every room so they can't be gassed out.
"Come
on up you gringo fuck," one of them shouts down in a very heavy accent.
Don't
do it!
I just
want them out of there now. Enough danger. Enough risk. This is too intense.
Justin
uses hand signals at this point, directing his men to stand in a line straight
up the hallway, each facing to the opposite side of the house. He puts himself
at the bottom of the next flight of stairs along with Garrett, and he starts
counting down from three.
No,
no, no, no! Don't!
One!
They
begin shooting up through the ceiling as dust rains down on them. At the same
time, Justin and Garrett run the stairs.
On the
third floor it's a hail of bullets dividing the house into two and Justin
charges through the middle of it like a mad man. His team has distracted
everyone and pushed them out of the hallway into the rooms.
Their
precision is incredible. None of them can see Justin or Garrett, relying
completely on the trust that Justin will go only where he should as their
bullets form an aisle.
Justin
fires left and Garrett right, barely a step behind him.
People
are running in circles and diving into corners, anything to get away from the
blizzard of metal that is shredding everything in its path. Wood from the floor
is bursting straight up into the air like tiny, volcanic eruptions.
Most of
them are so enthralled with the exploding floor that they never see Justin and
Garrett run by. They don't realize that hot burning ripping through their
bodies came straight at them through the open doors in front of them.
Several
people do see them, raising their guns up and firing wildly.
It
brings my entire world into a churning tunnel, losing sight of everything
around me but Justin's camera. When they shoot at him it's as if they're
shooting at me.
Before
they reach the end of the hall, Justin shouts, "NOW!"
His men
move up from the second floor without question, charging the stairs and picking
up their fire again as soon as they hit the top.
Justin
and Garrett are tucked into the bottom corners at the end of the hall. They
only take a shot when someone tries to run from their room, careful that they
don't hit their own men moving toward them.
Holes
are blowing through the walls as the people inside the rooms take un-aimed
shots, not caring who they hit.
It's
fucking chaos.
As
Justin's men move toward him, there is quiet in their wake. By the time they
reach him, there is no more gunfire, just burnt gunpowder, dirt, and the moans
of the wounded.
There's
no break. The calls have gone in and the police can't be held off much longer. "Find
him!" Justin demands. "If he's not dead yet, save him for us. Kill
anything else still moving."
They need
to be careful; some are only wounded and perfectly capable of squeezing off
another round.
With no
fear and no hesitation, Justin moves from person to person. If they're not
dead, he fixes that. If he's not sure, he makes sure. There are so many more
people up there than I expected. They had flooded the third floor like roaches
running from the light.
Garrett
is just like him, ruthless. He grabs a body lying face down on the floor to
roll it over and see if it's dead and it moans in pain as soon as he touches
it. He yanks it over and Jesse Simpson is staring up at him. There's a hole in
the floor under him and a matching one in his stomach. His shirt is soaked
through and sticking to him.
"Got
him," Garrett says.
When
Jesse hears him speak, he opens his eyes and tries to focus on his face.
"Mark?" His eyes are already fading.
"No,"
Garrett growls in disgust, kicking him in his gut right near the bullet wound
as Justin joins his side.
"Christ—you
look just like him!" Jesse tells them, wincing in pain as he tries to
laugh like a smart ass.
Beside
me, Lena gets a text. "Justin, dispatch in sixty seconds," she says.
I'd nearly forgotten she was here with me. It's longer than we could have hoped
for. A fucking war had broken out; the neighbors have to be freaking out.
No
making him beg or repent.
No
snarky one liners.
No
jarring his memory about their mother.
Justin
and Garrett both simply aim at his head and simultaneously pull their triggers,
sending Jesse Simpson into oblivion.
"
Y
ou're not kidding? Tell me you're not
fucking teasing us. Don't even tease me about something like this,
Charity," Jennifer squeals. "My heart couldn't take it."
Her
exaggerated drama kills me.
Clarice
and Kathy lean back in their chairs with bright smiles on their faces, ready to
watch the slut-fest begin like a show with Lynda and Jennifer as the stars.
Their escapades are legendary.
Lynda
has yet to attempt to lift her jaw off the table. Her shock has run too deep.
"He has a brother?" she asks, bewildered.
"That's
what she just said," Jennifer agrees loudly.
Trisha
is smiling, but there's a heavy concern in her expression. She knows us better
than the others do and it touches her heart enough to stifle her laugh.
"How is Justin?" she asks. "He must have been stunned."
"He
was," I admit softly, sharing her sense of compassion. "Something
none of you would have ever known about is JP's relationship with his mother.
He never talked about it with anyone." They all stare at me, waiting for
details that I can't give them. "There
was
no relationship with
her, not since he was small. She had left him and his father. But as women,
sometimes we have our reasons—and our secrets. We can bury our tragedies and
make them our burdens much better than any man ever could."
I'm
sure each of them understands what I mean in her own way, but I can really see
the understanding in Trisha's eyes. She's come so far, but there's still such a
long way to go.
"JP
knows her secrets now, no more burdens, no more hiding. And with it came a half-brother
who didn't know any more than JP did," I tell them.
"The
brother didn't know about him either?" Trisha asks, sounding devastated.
I shake
my head. "No. Neither one of them ever knew until now."
"Jesus
Christ!" Clarice breathes. "That's an awful lot on them all at
once."
Everyone
nods to agree with her.
"So,
I wanted you girls to know all this for a reason, obviously," I begin
again. "Garrett will be here this afternoon, at the office, and he'll
probably be coming a lot since they are trying to get to know each other. He's
staying here in the city with us for now."
"Staying
with you?" Lynda asks. I see the twinkle in her eyes, trying to lighten
the mood. "If you swing a threesome with hot brothers... Girl I'm telling
you there had better be video or I will scratch your eyes out."
"And
his name is Garrett—GAWD!" Jennifer gushes.
They're
too freaking funny. "If the rumors start, I just wanted you ladies to know
the truth." It's not everything, but that's the only half of the truth
that they need to know.
"If
the rumors say that I'm sleeping with the boss’s brother," Jennifer says
with a wink. "They might be true."
"You
haven't even seen him yet," Kathy complains.
"Is
he hot?" Jennifer asks me quickly.
"He's
very good looking," I answer. "He has a little bit of Justin in his
looks, they have the same eyes."
"Fucking
sold!" she exclaims.
I let
them have their fun over lunch. They managed to keep a heavy issue light. They may
have crossed the line at a few points, but nothing really unexpected from them.
We're
back at the office when Garrett arrives and reception calls for me to come get
him and see him in. He looks very handsome in black dress pants and a dark grey
shirt.
"The
Panther is a nice touch," he tells me through a soft smile as I lead him
toward Justin's office.
"Wait
until you see the one in his office. We call him Sylvester."
The
girls are peering out of their offices trying to get a glimpse of him. I can
just imagine the string of instant messages that are flying through the system
right now. I know he can see it; he has the same observation skills as Justin.
"Don't worry they've been declawed and fed and they can't get out of their
cages."
Garrett
laughs deeply and confidently throws them a smile and a wink. I think Lynda has
an O.
Trisha
never even looked out from her office, a clear sign of the changes I've noticed
in her. She can make all the jokes she wants, the truth is she hasn’t
recovered. With Sam, she really thought she was done with the single girl
lifestyle, and the hurt is running so deep.
I wish
I could fix it for her.
We head
straight into Justin's office. He knew we were coming, the same way he always
knows exactly what is going on. Garrett's eyes consume the space as I shut the
door behind us.
As
always, I swoon as soon as my eyes settle on Justin, his gorgeous face already
watching us. He looks at me the same way, making me feel adored.
Justin
smiles at us and swings from around his desk. It's the second time today that I
am struck by his good looks and the way his navy colored Brioni suit fits him.
I had watched him dressing this morning; the clothes sliding over his muscles
and my desires were sparked. "John and Lena will be in here in a
minute." He gives me a quick kiss that somehow makes it all the way to my
toes.
We sit
on the couch surrounding Sylvester. Justin users the remote to bring down his
big screen as the black cat snarls at us.
"There's
a lot to get you caught up on," Justin starts. "Are you familiar with
Senator Scott Lewis at all?"
Garrett
shrugs his shoulders. "Not really into politics. I know who he is from
seeing him on TV. He replaced that one with the addiction problem.”
It
feels odd when you know a truth that no one else is even aware of.
Justin
grins. "That was Senator Wilkins. He was ours but he was such a mess. We
moved him out and put Senator Lewis in his place."
"You
put a Senator in office?" Garrett asks, astonished. Obviously he had no
idea how large this is and how far up his brother goes.