Page 218 of Deadfall

“Knight, come in,” I said over comms.

“Go for it, boss,” Knight said.

“Emersyn is in pursuit of Mahoney—” I cut off as Nyx put additional pressure on the wound. I ground my teeth together and turned my glare on him.

Nyx didn’t even look up. “Suck it up, buttercup.”

“North?” Knight said.

“Mahoney is inbound to you,” Graham crouched next to me as he took over comms again. “Emersyn is in pursuit. North was hit. We’re going to evac him now—”

“Like hell you are,” I snapped.

Graham and Nyx completely ignored my growled protest and shared a concerned look. That wouldn’t do. I shoved Nyx’s hand away.

“Boss—” He warned, but cut off at the deadly look on my face.

“Help me, or shut the fuck up,” I ordered.

“Yes, sir,” Nyx sighed.

It took both him and Graham to get me to my feet, but once I was there, I gritted my teeth and looked around. Tex and Sakari had gone into the hallway to hold the room, and Knox watched the window. Nyx tightened the bandage around my stomach. I wasn’t going to die immediately, but it was bad enough that I knew I needed to hurry.

“Atlas, is the inflatable still on the beach?”

“Affirmative,” Atlas answered over comms.

I nodded. “Alright, here’s what I want to happen,” I said firmly. “Tex, Sakari, Knox—hold the estate. Nyx, Graham—you’re with me. We’re going to take the long way around—”

“I don’t think—”

“Do it, Nyx,” I commanded.

My tone left no room to argue and he knew it. He stepped away to relay the orders and coordinate with Knight. I went to the bar cart by Mahoney’s desk and poured a generous amount of whiskey into a glass. I threw it back and poured another.

After the second shot, the pain had dulled to a throb—not because of the alcohol, but because the anger pushed it out. I turned and threw the glass violently against the wall, then winced as it aggravated my wound. Graham leaned against Mahoney’s desk with his arms crossed over his chest, and the look on his face wasn’t approval.

I glared at him and ran a hand over my jaw. “I’m not leaving this island without her.”

Graham shrugged. “Getting yourself killed isn’t going to help anything.”

“That’s why you two are involved,” I said. “Let’s go. Nyx!”

Nyx shook his head subtly at Graham. “It’s better if you just go along with it.” he whispered loudly.

I strode for the door, ignoring the pain that jabbed like a knife in my side. Short of dying, there was nothing that was going to stop me from going after my daughter. I’d failed her once, and it sure as fuck wasn’t going to happen again while I still had breath in my lungs.

106

SEVEN

Fuck, things were going off the rails. We’d followed Lev all the way to the landing pad, which was a hatch hidden deep on the north side of the island, on a cliff overlooking the harsh black sea. The clouds drifted across a nearly full moon which illuminated everything nicely.

I couldn’t see it, but I also knew there was a small strip of rocky beach that lay two hundred yards downhill through the trees. We only knew this because Knight had updated us on his and Cal’s location as they came up from the water. They were currently directly opposite us somewhere in the foliage. We were on the other side of the clearing, but my eyes weren’t on Lev or the helo—he wasn’t doing anything exciting anyway, besides fighting a losing battle as he tried to get the helo to start.

Instead, I was more interested in the far side of the clearing where Emersyn would most likely emerge. Knight had let us know North had been shot, not fatally thank god, and that Emersyn was enroute.

We’d debated meeting up with her, but the forest was not a place to go traipsing around without knowing a safe path, and we didn’t have gas masks. I was beginning to grow antsy when a great commotion came from the woods, and Mahoney practically sprinted out of the trees.