Walker (Bad Boys of X-Ops #1) (21 page)

Blood immediately welled, creating a massacre-like necklace.

My breaths came faster. My fingers cut into my own skin.

“Blood. Such a messy substance.” He leisurely swiped the blade clean on Jade’s shirt, treating her like garbage.

My face remained immobile, not even a blip showed.

The wound isn’t deep. The wound isn’t deep.

Jade had barely hissed.

Fuck. They had her doped to her eyeballs.

I kept my respiration normal through sheer force of will. Inside I was an absolute ball of fury.

“I wouldn’t want Jade if she was the last female on earth.” The words worked through my tight lips as I watched the crimson drops of blood mar her already mottled skin.

My throat worked hard.

“Then why were you working together?”

I looked at the curtains behind Jade instead of her face. The gauzy drapes wafted in and out, like deep breaths pulled in and out of a chest.

“Just part of the job.”

Hassan swung on Jade, the knife brandished again. “And you?”

“You know what they say. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” She spoke sluggishly through split and swollen lips. “It was about the job. Only ever about the job.”

What if she was telling the truth now?

What if we meant nothing?

I couldn’t dwell on it. Too much at stake and much too fucking late to go head-tripping.

“We can always give you sodium pentothal to make you talk.”

Another hulking, stupid-faced doofus hung a bag on the IV stand.

Ever the fucking martyr, Jade reached out and rattled the pole.

“Do it. You’ve already shot me so full of shite my entire nervous system’s about to shut down.” She wiped away some of the seeping blood on her neck, jerking her chin up.

A heavy blow landed across her face from the merc asshole. “Fucking British bitch.”

“That’s fucking
British-Japanese
bitch to you.” Jade glared, her lips curled back.

“Enough!” Hassan called a halt when Hammerhead pulled back to knock the last of Jade’s bravado clean off her face. “It is not a question of when but who to kill first. Majedah or Jade?”

Fuck me.

My timing was off. This was
not
going according to plan.

Hassan nodded to the Dolph-wannabe who pulled a syringe from inside his jacket. “Start the final injection on Miss Huntington.”

I snarled, ranging forward.

I made it two steps before I was slammed to the floor and flattened with a heavy boot clamping down on my neck.

“JADE!” I crawled forward, but every inch I gained I was shuttled back two feet while the goon above me laughed like an automaton.

Madge was laid out beside me. Her eyes showed no fear or terror, but sureness.

Stretching my neck, I watched Jade fight, kick, swear. Sweat dripped down her brow. Her arms were rigid lines, her throat tight. She fought to the last instant. She fought and screamed and scratched and railed until the needle jabbed into her skin.

Fight

“TAKE THIS,” MADGE HISSED. “Take this, Walker!” She shoved something into my hand.

Cool metal met my palm, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Jade. Her head dropped to her chest. Her breathing became even more labored and wheezy. All the lifeforce seemed to drain out of her.

Everyone watched Jade, waiting for her to die.

“I can’t reach the . . .” I choked on my breaths, smothering inside.

“The knife. In your hands. Walker. Do it. Get free. Save her.” Madge wriggled closer, her hands on my wrist. “Goddamn do it! I know you have a failsafe detonator, and I am going to be so
peezed
off if you don’t—”

“You talk too much.” I gritted my teeth and grabbed the stiletto blade Madge had hidden in her hair jewelry.

I sliced through my bonds as quietly as I could.

Madge was next. We had limited time—possibly
no time
—if I had any chance of saving Jade’s life.

As soon as Madge was free, I flipped my switch.

No. I mean I seriously flipped my switch.

That little failsafe in my watch—all it took was a nudge.

I’d packed the nearest wing of the hotel with so much motherfucking C-4 the sky suddenly burst into bright billowing light and the structure beneath us bent and waved.

Chaos ensued as the thunderous rumble rocked the hotel.

Through the ringing in my ears, I heard Storm speaking over the earpiece: “See? That right there is exactly why we can’t have nice things.”

“Make sure Walker and
my wife
don’t get away!” Hassan shouted.

I grunted when one of Hassan’s security team charged toward me through the incoming, suffocating smoke. Rolling to my back, I planted my boot in the middle of his chest. He went sailing backward, and I flipped up to my feet. Dashing forward, I swiped his semi-auto, spun down just as he back-planted against a wall, and shot him in the t-zone.

He thumped sideways to the floor with a thud.

For every hired thug or Hezbollah radical who came at me I unloaded the hurt and the heat.

Through the killing storm I unleashed I heard Hassan’s nasally voice, whining and terrified, no longer the pompous dictator.

A sneer on my face, I stalked through the blinding, curling smoke and located him in time to see his back disappear through the hidden door through which he’d entered earlier.

Fuck that slimy shit. We had him nailed to the wall. I had a bigger priority now.

The walls all around me were splattered with crimson drops like red bloody rain. Madge kneeled beside Jade, her fingers working at the bindings that lashed her to the chair.

My heart climbed into my throat when I saw Jade lapsing into unconsciousness all the while weakly urging Madge to leave her.

No fucking way.

Slinging the gun to my back, I quickly sliced through the rest of Jade’s restraints.

She was still hooked to the IVs. I shut them off and slipped the needles from her arms. Handing the fluid-filled bags to Madge who smartly stowed them in her jacket, I lifted Jade into my arms.

Another well-timed blast went off—rattling the floor beneath our feet.

The last time I’d held Jade like this . . . fighting, fucking . . .

She’d taken me down. Patched me up.

I had nothing to patch her up with.

Not this time.

“Walker?” she slurred.

“Got you, Jade. Got you forever.” I gripped her tighter. “You hold onto me. That’s all you need to do.”

“I’m so tired, Walker.”

A wild gunshot blasted into the plaster beside my head.

“You are never tired.” I crouched down to avoid another headshot. “You like to talk all night long. And fuck all night long.”

Her head lolled against my shoulder and I got no response.

I drew up my semi-auto and aimed. Was the fucker hiding behind door number one, two, or three?

Three.

I pumped a loud volley at the chosen door. Seconds later, a blood flood seeped through the crevice at the bottom of the door, staining the plush white carpet with dark crimson.

Jade barely reacted to the shots fired.

“So you are gonna stay fucking awake and alive, hear me?” I jostled her lightly in my arms.

Madge squatted across from me.

“Grab a gun, Madge.” I nodded at the pile of weapons they’d taken off me earlier.

As soon as she was armed, I grabbed my lost dynamite pack, slipping the charges into my pocket. I took point, leading the way into the hotel corridor.

My heart was bursting through the wall of my chest with fear for Jade, but I held it all in check.

“We’re going street level now,” I spoke into my coms.

“Copy,” Storm answered.

“Roger that,” Bane called in.

“Evac on the way.” Justice confirmed.

Taking the emergency stairs as far as we could, we ducked and dodged pot shots taken from above as boots clanged down the steps after us. I opened the door to the second floor and motioned Madge inside. After shutting the door with a silent whoosh, I quickly packed it with plastics connected to a handheld device.

Loping across the construction zone, in and out of the thick sheets of opaque plastic, I kept talking to Jade. I tried to make sure she stayed conscious.

Every so often she lifted her head or mumbled a couple words.

Bobbing behind a stack of steel girders, I gently lowered her to the floor.

The door at the far end began to open.

“Blow those fuckers apart.” I tossed the detonator to Madge, hoping to give her some sense of resolution.

Staring at her friend, her protector, the woman who’d given her life for her, Madge hit the button.

In the aftermath of the explosion, I popped my head up to watch. A blast of flames created a mini inferno that lit the surrounding area. Immolating bodies stumbled through the door—screams cut off as flames consumed their windpipes. The flames grew, stretching fiery fingers to canvas, fabric, paint cans . . .

“Not much longer, Jade.” I lifted her in my arms again.

We had to get off this floor before the hazardous fumes and billowing smoke choked us to death.

Pointing to the elevators opposite us, I hurried Madge along.

We stopped just before falling into the wide-open maw of the empty shaft.

“Fuck!” I spun around, searching for another exit through the escalating searing blaze.

Jade suddenly slumped against me. Lifeless.

“She’s crashing.” I looked wildly for an escape route. “I think she’s crashing!”

Another round of bullets sprayed at us, adding to the pandemonium. Hassan’s detail was after us while the fire spread inward, crawling along the walls toward the ceiling.

Panic started setting in.

Fuck that.

I was not losing another person.

“We’re taking heat!” I bellowed into the coms link. “Where the fuck are you dickless wonders?”

“Got your six.” Bane’s gruff voice came over the wireless.

“On your nine.” Storm squawked back. “Coming in from the stairwell.”

I heard him cracking shots and fighting through the fire, heading toward us.

“Cover me, Bane,” Storm ordered.

“Got it,” he crackled back.

The two worked together for once.

Great.

We still needed a fucking exit strategy and a goddamn miracle to keep Jade alive.

“Get ready to jump, Madge.” Reaching into the elevator shaft, I grabbed two cables and pulled them toward me. “Wrap it around yourself and rappel like your life depends on it.”

She hurried to do as told, steadying Jade as I did the same.

I squinted down the metal chute.

Fuck me and my fear of heights. “Jesus Christ. This shit better hold.”

I took the plunge, Madge right beside me.

We shuttled down into the depths. The strangling agony I felt wasn’t caused by the cables constricting my chest. It was because of Jade who bounced listlessly against me.

She’s alive.

She has to be alive.

Let her live, goddammit!

We landed with heavy thuds, quickly unlooping the cables. I pried the fucking stubborn elevator doors open using the blade Madge had given me and the rest of my strength.

Jade hadn’t moved, and my nerves of steel fizzled as if touched by a livewire.

Madge joined her hands with mine as a crack of light appeared. Wedging my free shoulder into the opening, I made the fucking stubborn doors groan wider.

“Run, Madge!” I shouted, the opening a big enough slice for her to shimmy through.

She squeezed out and grabbed from the other side.

The panels suddenly greased all the way open, and we raced to the entrance. The entire block was a ball of fire, filling my senses—bright red and flaming oranges and billowing smoke against the black backdrop of the night. But I’d kept the blast zone contained. Just the hotel. No innocent casualties.

Just Jade.

We shoved through the doors as Justice burnt rubber on pavement, skidding to a stop in an armored M1152 Humvee. Madge clambered into the front seat. I hopped in after her, clutching Jade against my body.

Jade’s arms flopped. Her neck listed at an odd angle. I pressed my ear to her chest.

“She’s not fucking breathing, Justice!”

Two loud stomps shook the back of the truck, and I peered out the tinted rear window.

Bane and Storm, reloading cartridges and firing away.

Justice threw us into gear as I braced myself over Jade.

I laid my hand on her chest. Fuck. It felt like her core temperature was cooling at a rapid rate. I had no idea what kind of narcotics they’d fed into veins.

“What should I do?” I asked Justice.

He was the computer dude, but he also helped Bane with medical emergencies.

He slanted his gaze at me. “CPR 101.”

My hands shook and my throat dried up. “Fuck. I don’t remember. How can I not remember?”

How many times is a female I love going to die because of me?

Jade was already turning cyanotic around the mouth.

“Jesus. Tell me what to do, Jus.”

“Hot RPG on our tail,” Bane crackled across the wires.

“You need to thump her—” Justice broke off, jerking the Hummer into evasive maneuvers.

Thump her chest.

Laying Jade half across Madge’s lap, I ripped open her shredded shirt and yanked the bra out of the way.

Tears fought my vision, falling onto her.

“Goddamn you, Jade! You are not fucking dying on me!” I hammered my fist onto her chest.

Pound
.

Once.

Pound.

Twice.

Pound.

Three times.

Nothing
.