Page 73 of Cole

Another of the ringleader’s cronies immediately reached for his gun, his hand going to the weapon at his side. But Gage was faster.

The guy fell to the ground.

It felt like the whole world exploded.

Gunfire cracked below me like thunder, echoing off the shipping containers and the brick walls of the abandoned warehouse. Flashes of light filled the lot in bursts of orange and white. The smell of gunpowder accosted my nostrils, the odor suffocating. Grunts of pain and yells of anger filled the short seconds of silence between gunshots.

I cradled my head in my arms and pushed them tightly against my ears, desperately trying to block out the noise. But it didn’t help. The sound drilled through my small bit of safety, rattling in my bones. I stayed that way for a few minutes until I couldn’t bear not knowing what was happening.

Slowly I lifted my head, just enough to see what was going on below. Cole moved like a killing machine. Every movement was precise and brutal. His shots rang out in measured succession. His stance was visibly unshaken, despite the bullets that chewed up the dirt around his feet. I had to pull my eyes away from him to see what had become of the others.

Gage and Maddox worked as Cole’s backup. Gage roared, completely wild as his weapon spat fire. Maddox was more controlled but no less deadly. He worked with a cold efficiency, firing, reloading, and firing again and again.

Finn.

My stomach sank at the reminder that Finn was here. Just a kid. Way too young to be involved in a shoot-out. A shoot-out similar to the one that took his dad.

He was the weak link. He was still standing, but I could see the blatant panic on his face. He’d picked up a gun from an injured Hound at his feet, and was shooting widely, not aiming at anything, his body flinching each time he pulled the trigger.

I pressed myself closer to the container, desperate to remain unseen and unharmed. My eyes watered, possibly from the acrid gun smoke but more likely from the scene I was witnessing. I was too late; I’d waited too long. Now, there was only one thing I could think to do.

My fingers were shaking as I called 911, hoping that my battery would last long enough for the call to go through. I whispered our location over the tense silence that had fallen now that the remaining men were at an impasse, and could barely make out whether the dispatcher heard me before my phone died.

I pulled myself to the edge and looked down, terrified to see if Cole had been hit. Everyone had taken up cover. Cole, Maddox, and Gage were concealed behind an overturned container. Cole kept glancing over to Finn, trapped on the opposite side from them. Finn’s cover was flimsy; he was only seconds away from being noticed. He was closest to me, the container he was hiding behind only a few yards from where I was.

Cole started to move behind the container that was shielding him, Gage, and Maddox. He was looking at Finn. He was going to get himself killed worrying about him. He looked about to brave the run across no-man’s-land to reach him.

Without a second thought, I pushed my body backward, my stomach scraping against the chipping paint and the rough metal surface. I dangled my legs over the edge, feeling a small sense of relief when my foot found the top rung of the makeshift ladder on the side. As soon as my feet hit the ground I would run. I couldn’t do much, but maybe I could get Finn away. He was at the periphery anyway. We could sneak into the shadows along the side of the container.

Tears stung the corners of my eyes and my heart hammered in my chest as I took each step down.

A scream escaped my lips as I felt a large hand grasp the back of my jacket, yanking me from the side of the container.

“Got you, bitch. Did Cole really think we wouldn’t find his little spy?”

The voice belonging to the man was guttural and rough. My fingers fumbled with the zipper of my jacket. Maybe I could slip out of it and outrun him.

“Oh no, you don’t,” the man said, grasping the hair at the nape of my neck with calloused fingers. I felt him press a gun to my back, the barrel pushing hard against my spine. My boots slipped on the gravel as he pushed me toward the center of the stand-off.

He hauled me out into the open.

“Look what I found!” he shouted. Suit guy joined them, grabbing me close.

The silence became even more tense. The man in the suit wrapped his arm around me and shoved the gun against my temple, shoving the guy who’d found me away. My breath caught in my lungs, and tears silently streamed down my face.

“Axel!” Cole’s voice rang out. He stood cautiously, with his gun trained on the man holding me. “Let’s think this through.”

“I thought that might get your attention,” Axel said, holding the gun steady with a nasty bark of laughter.

My legs gave out under me, but he held me up like a rag doll. My pulse was a roar in my ears. He pressed the gun harder into me when I moved, the cold metal of the barrel scraping against my skin.

Cole’s eyes held mine. There was a look in them I’d never seen before. Was that a hint of fear? It was the very first crack I’d seen in the armor he donned around his men.

“I found your rat, Cole. Were you planning to fuck this up from the start?” Axel sneered.

His hot breath puffed against my neck as he spoke, and I shivered in revulsion.

This was it. This was the end.