Page 77 of No Going Back

“You know the way? All the way to the ice house?” Guy prayed that she did—it would give him the perfect reason to insist she went with the others.

“Yes, but—”

“Good. I want you to go with Alex. Get to safety, and get help.”

“I can help more here.”

“Don’t argue—not about this. They need you to show them the way.”

“What about you?”

Guy gazed at the face looking at him with such a crazy amount of love and worry. Christ, he loved that face so much. He shot a questioning look at Cam and Ryan. Each man nodded.

“Maddie, listen to me. I need to know you’re out of harm’s way. If it is the Bratva, and they are after you, you can’t be here. Go with Alex.”

“But I can help you. I haven’t forgotten—”

With absolutely no sense of shame or logic, Guy went Dom on her and played on her weakness for the Lombards’ baby. “If you stay, who’s going to make sure Charlotte and her parents are safe? Go. Get out of here and get help.”

For a moment he thought she’d carry on arguing, but then, with mixed feelings, he watched her lead the women away, with Alex bringing up the rear.

“Okay, so what’s the plan?”

His expression grim, Guy turned to the remaining two men. He couldn’t give Cam a specific answer, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have an objective. “We buy them the time they need to get away, and stop whoever’s behind this hurting anyone else. Let’s go.”

Keeping low and moving fast, Guy led the way to the devastated lobby but stopped short, before they were seen. The sight that greeted them could hardly be worse. Upwards of thirty hostages, a mix of staff and guests, some of them attendees at the wedding, were being held at gunpoint.

Black-clad hitmen, armed to the teeth with a fearsome array of semi-automatic weapons, knives and explosives, prowled among them. The lack of respect for the broken bodies, lying where they’d fallen, fuelled Guy’s rage even further. People like him, like Cam and Ryan, they knew what the risks were when they signed up to face threats like this, but these people had no idea and weren’t equipped to deal with this situation.

The leader shouted out some orders in Russian, leaving Guy in no doubt about who they were, and why they’d attacked the hotel.

They were the Bratva. They’d come for Maddie, and were prepared to kill to take her.

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She’d been trained by the best. In spite of the intervening years, every trick she’d ever known came back as fresh as if she’d learned it yesterday.

Using the behind-the-scenes staff areas, Maddie led the way to the kitchen. On the way, they picked up another half-dozen terrified guests and members of staff. As the group progressed through the hotel, the sounds of gunfire and conflict—thankfully without any further bomb blasts—waxed and waned, but the screaming never seemed to vary.

This was all her fault. Now, though, was not the time to wallow in guilt or worry about how they’d found her. Guy had given her a job to do, and once it was done, then she could go back to him.

No one else was going to die because of her.

She looked back at the three women she knew in the party. She was most concerned for Beth, who was trying to keep her daughter as quiet as possible. Thank God Alex was with them.

“It’s not much further. There’s a large storeroom at the back of the kitchen, by the walk-in freezer. Go into the storeroom, and straight ahead, you’ll see another door. It’s kept locked, but the key is on a hook to the right of it.”

“Why are you telling us this?”

Maddie swallowed hard. Alex was a Dom, not to mention a former officer in the SAS, and he’d take a very dim view of what she was about to do. “You have to know in case something happens to me.”

“Nothing’s happening to you. Keep going.”

They made it to the kitchen without encountering any of the enemy, and once inside the store room, Maddie unlocked the door to the passageway.

She turned to Alex. “Be careful. There are no lights, but if you use the torch on your phone, you’ll be able to see enough. It’ll take you about five minutes to get to the other end. The door there’s bolted on this side, but not otherwise locked. When you go through, the ice house is on the right. If you’re out of range of the jammer, you should be able to get a signal, but if not, keep going past the ice house. Take the first path on the left, and when you hit the road, turn right, and keep checking for a signal.”

“You’re coming with us, right?” Fiona said.