Efficient, organized, and deadly. Exactly how it was supposed to be.
“You’re here.” Addy blinked at me like she was reorienting. “Hi. You’re … yeah. Okay.Okay, that’s good.”
Something in my chest snapped clean in half.
“I’m here,” I choked out.
I covered the distance between us in seconds. Without so much as a glance, I stepped over the man I’d just dropped, his blood slowly seeping into the concrete. Bringing my hand up to her face, I turned it slightly and checked for any signs of damage or marks, any proof of someone daring to hurt her.
“I’m really glad you are.” Brown eyes stared up at me in a daze. “Because I feel like I’ve hit my limit on near-death experiences for today.”
I swallowed hard. “Are you hurt?”
“No?” she answered, like it might require clarification.
My jaw tightened at that, something sharp and vicious coiling low in my chest at the casual uncertainty in her voice, like she hadn’t even had the time to process what had just almost happened.
I grabbed her wrists and snapped the zip tie binding them together. Addy shook out her hands, and I inspected the marks left on her skin. Fury set my chest ablaze once more. My hand slid to the back of her neck and I pulled her into me hard enough to feel the impact, her body fitting against mine in a way that grounded something violently unstable inside me.
She was real and alive. I exhaled sharply against her hair, the breath catching halfway out, my lungs finally remembering how to work after what felt like an eternity of suffocation.
“I’m okay,” she murmured.
I wasn’t sure if she was. Not fully, not before she had a chance to process what happened today. But she was alive, and right now it was the only thing stopping me from painting the walls with what was left of every man in this building.
Outside, somewhere beyond the thick warehouse walls, the low rumble of an engine cut through the lingering echo of gunfire. It was deep and steady as it rolled closer.
Every head in the warehouse turned instinctively toward the massive metal door.
Without conscious thought, I slightly tightened my grip on Addy and angled my body a fraction in front of hers, placing myself between her and the entrance. Even as I did so, my gaze locked onto the widening shadow beyond it.
One of the men still left standing, their hands raised high in the air, went rigid and his friend looked like he might collapse.
“That’s him,” he said quietly. The words carried a sense of resignation not usually associated with men who thought they were going to survive.
The door shuddered as something heavy hit it from outside, and then it began to slide open with a grinding sound.
I kept one hand wrapped around Addy’s, her fingers still slightly unsteady against mine, and my other hand held the rifle loosely at my side, though there was nothing relaxed about the way my finger rested near the trigger.
My gaze stayed fixed on the widening gap as figures began to emerge from the harsh line of light spilling into the warehouse. A man stepped out first, moving unhurriedly but not theatrically. His calmness came not from authority, but from his familiarity with situations like this.
I recognized him immediately. Except this time, unlike when he showed up unbiddenly in my territory, it wasclear he was the man sent to clean up when things went wrong.
Rafael paused just outside the vehicle, one hand still resting on the open door. His gaze swept the warehouse in a single, efficient pass, and something in his expression tightened. It wasn’t so much a surprise as the quiet irritation of someone who had expected a problem and had just discovered it was significantly worse than anticipated.
He glanced back into the car.
“You’re staying here,” he said firmly.
The answer was immediate. Flat, with not even a second of consideration.
“No.”
His jaw tightened. “Elena—”
“I’m not sitting in the car waiting for you to get fucking shot,” she volleyed back, already moving and pushing the door open wider before he could even attempt to stop her. “That’s not how this works.”
“That’sexactlyhow this works,” he muttered, stepping slightly into her path as if it might be enough to stop her. “You stay out of it, I go in, I fix it, and we leave.”