Blood Lines: Edge of Darkness Book 3

by Vanessa Skye

  Niah clawed at his eyes, and he slapped her across the face, sending her flying across the floor.

  “Leave her alone!” Jay snarled, blood seeping from a wound she couldn’t see.

  “I said drop it!” Berg pointed her weapon at Alexander.

  “I don’t think so.” Alexander moved the barrel of his gun toward Jay. “I propose you drop your gun before I put a bullet in Boy Wonder here.”

  Berg glanced at Jay. “What happened?”

  “He grabbed her the second we tried to leave. He knew what we were doing.”

  “Yes, I did,” Alexander said with a smirk. “From the moment you arrived, darling, I knew he’d try to make a break for it. Then one of my guards reported a very peculiar thing. Seems a gas man is knocking on doors in the neighborhood, in the middle of the night no less. Entire families are leaving in their cars. Curious, wouldn’t you say?”

  Fucking FBI. What a bunch of imbeciles.

  Alexander’s face twisted, hardened, and he took a small step toward Jay, pointing the gun directly at his head. “Drop your gun or he’s dead.”

  Berg never took her eyes off him. “I do that and we’re all dead.”

  “Shoot him,” Jay urged. “I’m as good as dead anyway.”

  Alexander cocked his eyebrow. “He’s right. He knows the punishment for letting you go. He’s not walking out of here. But I suppose technically you are blood, so I’ll let you go. Just put your weapon down and let me, my daughter, and my unborn grandson leave. You can live, I give you my word.”

  Berg snorted, keeping her gun trained on him. “Your word means less than shit to me. You let Jay and Niah go free, and you can have me. I’ll be your clean getaway. You’ll never get out of here otherwise.”

  “Berg! No—” Jay said.

  “Shut the fuck up, all of you!” Alexander roared. “This is what’s going to happen. Jay is going to die—”

  “Unacceptable,” Berg said. “And undoable. You’re on your own. Your goons are nowhere to be found. If I see your finger so much as twitch, I will kill you without a second thought. Don’t assume that because you’re my father I won’t end you without blinking.”

  “My men are securing the perimeter and our inevitable escape,” Alexander said. “We have countermeasures in place. Plus, two guards in each vehicle and major artillery at the ready. Your cop friends won’t know what hit them. Jay dying is not negotiable. I do not accept insubordination. By letting you go, he signed his own death—”

  “I let her go, Father,” Niah said, pulling her heavily pregnant frame off the floor with the help of Jay.

  “You?” Alexander said, raising an eyebrow.

  “Yes.” She tilted her chin upward in a surprising show of defiance. “She’s my sister. I wasn’t going to let that . . . that animal have her.”

  He sighed. “Oliver’s already had her, as has most of Chicago. He’s boasted about it in great detail.”

  Jay winced.

  “Oliver won’t be having me, or anyone else, ever again,” Berg said. “I slit his throat.”

  Alexander sighed again. “You’re a fucking pain in the ass, you know that? You were a pain in the ass the second your moron mother tried to trap me into marrying her with a surprise pregnancy, and you’re still a thorn in my side now.” He looked at Niah. “And you’re no better! You’d think at least one of the stupid bitches I impregnated would’ve given me a son, but no. I’ll have a grandson soon, though—an heir—so your presence is not a total loss. Now go and get in one of the cars, Niah.” Alexander never wavered as he pointed the gun at Jay.

  He was clearly adept with firearms, and Berg was unwilling to risk Jay’s life by pulling the trigger first. She was far enough from him that her shot might miss.

  His wouldn’t.

  “No,” Niah snapped, moving away from him. “I’m done being the daughter you only want when you need me to seduce someone. I want the normal life you promised me if I brought you Jay. I want nothing more to do with your lifestyle, your money, or you!”

  “You think you can take my grandson away from me? I’ll cut him out of you before I let that happen. Now, I said get in the fucking car!” Alexander snarled.

  “No! I’m staying with Jay. We’re going to raise our child together, as far away from you as possible. I will have a normal life!”

  “Is that so?” A cruel smile played at the corners of his mouth. “If you think you are keeping my grandson from me, you’re wrong. I’ll see you both dead before that happens.”

  “You heard her, Alexander,” Berg said, the gun still steady in her hands. “Walk away. Back out of the room, slowly, and I’ll let you go. You can survive this. A tac team will be arriving any second. Go while you can.”

  Alexander withdrew toward the back door, his gun still on Jay.

  Berg took a step forward for every one of his, keeping the same amount of distance between them.

  Niah moved toward Jay.

  “Stay away, Niah!” Jay ordered. “Stay out of the line of fire!”

  Alexander continued backing toward the door, Berg still shadowing him.

  “Keep moving. Don’t even twitch that trigger fing—” Berg heard a thoomp and glass breaking followed by the sound of a metallic bouncing on the marble near the front doors.

  Automatic gunfire sputtered as SWAT tried to breach multiple entrances at the same time, and Alexander’s men returned fire, trying to secure an escape route.

  “You’re running out of time, Alexander,” Berg said over the gunfire. “Jay? Get Niah somewhere safe. There’s about to be tear gas and trigger-happy SWAT swarming all over this place.”

  Alexander kept backing up, his gun still trained on Jay as Jay moved slowly toward Niah.

  “I’m letting you walk out of here, Alexander. You’re so close. Don’t do anything stupid,” Berg said softly.

  “See, I don’t believe that you are going to let me walk out of here at all, darling,” Alexander sneered. “If there’s one thing you’re big on, it’s an eye for an eye, yes?”

  Berg didn’t answer as sweat dripped down her face from stress and holding the gun out. Gunfire continued out back, and she heard the tear gas fill the front rooms. “Walk away.”

  “Oh, I will,” Alexander said. “But first, something to keep you occupied and punish Jay since I apparently have no practical use for either of my daughters.” Alexander adjusted his sight slightly and let off a shot.

  Berg’s shot followed his within a split second, but he was already moving out the door. Blood sprayed the doorjamb from what Berg thought was an arm wound, but the man didn’t even slow down.

  She heard Jay scream.

  “No!”

  She turned to see Jay cradling Niah in his arms, blood flowing from a bullet wound in her forehead. Jay rocked her, grief so deep on his features that it made Berg gasp.

  “Not another child,” he moaned. “Not another one. Not another one . . .”

  Berg crouched down next to them, feeling for a pulse. There was nothing. She had been killed instantly. “Jay, put her on the ground, start chest compressions, and give me your cell.”

  Jay, still rocking Niah, appeared not to hear her.

  “Jay!” she yelled. “Start CPR and give me your cell!”

  “CPR?” he asked, confused. “It’s a headshot—it’s pointless.”

  “Not for Niah. For your son! Keep her blood moving and get oxygen to the baby!”

  Jay seemed to understand and handed his cell to Berg before starting chest compressions.

  “A breath every ten compressions, Jay. Can you do that?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Jay! Can you do that?” she yelled.

  He nodded as he worked, his tears splashing down onto Niah’s bloody face as he worked on her.

  Tear gas was starting to fill the room, but she called 911. “Medical emergency, officer down,” she lied. “We’ve got a pregnant woman here, GSW to the head. The baby is viable, CPR has commenced. We need to get to the
nearest medical facility for an emergency C-section and NICU. Please hurry.” She hung up. “Ambulance is only minutes away, and there’s a hospital near here with a NICU. Can you keep going?”

  Jay nodded as he pumped Niah’s chest in a steady rhythm. “There’s an airfield about ten minutes north of here in Waukegan.” He blew air into her lungs. “He doesn’t think I know about it, but he’s got a private jet in a hangar there. It’s where he’ll be headed. Most of his stuff has been moved to locations even I don’t know about, but in terms of a quick exit, it’s the most likely scenario.”

  “Hands up!” a black-clad SWAT team member cried, his gun on the group.

  Berg raised her hands. “We are unarmed. This woman needs medical assistance,” she said, hearing the ambulance wailing in the street.

  “Stop what you’re doing and hands behind your heads!” he said again.

  Jay continued with the CPR, seeming not to notice the gun aimed at his head.

  “Back off!” Berg shouted. “We need medical assistance here. Alexander left three minutes ago, you moron!”

  “I won’t ask you again,” the guy said, moving closer, his gun ready.

  “Stand down,” Cheney said as he walked into the room, holstering his gun as he scanned the room. “These guys are with us.”

  Berg raced out the front and directed the paramedics to the kitchen. “Female, nine months’ pregnant. Head shot three minutes ago. CPR has been continuous for the fetus.”

  They took over from Jay, hooking Niah up to a breathing bag and resuming chest compressions. They loaded her onto a gurney.

  “I have to take you in, man,” Cheney said to Jay, holding up a cable tie. “There are questions to be answered. A lot of them.”

  Berg shoved him away from Jay. “That’s his child we’re trying to keep alive!” She pointed at the paramedics wheeling Niah out of the house. “Any questions you have can wait. He’s going to the hospital, and you can talk to him there.”

  “I can’t—”

  “You want to take him now, Cheney, you’ll have to go through me,” she said, standing in front of Jay with her arms folded.

  They all nearly lost their footing as a massive explosion shook everything right to the foundations of the house.

  “Fuck! Tell them Alexander’s not in here,” she yelled at Cheney.

  The paramedics recovered and dragged Niah toward the waiting bus.

  “That’s not us—we don’t have that kind of firepower!” Cheney said over his shoulder as he ran out the front.

  Berg followed.

  “Where’s Alexander going?” Cheney asked as they watched a huge fireball in the distance light the night sky.

  Berg shrugged as Jay followed the paramedics to the ambulance. “No idea.”

  Cheney ran toward the other cops to get a briefing.

  Berg watched as Niah was loaded on the ambulance, her swollen stomach jiggling as the paramedic maintained the constant compressions. He passed off the oxygen bag to Jay, who stared at Niah’s belly, tears running down his face.

  Jay gave Niah artificial breaths every few seconds.

  Berg could see he was already mourning his child, and she hoped the oxygen they were pumping into Niah’s lungs was finding its way to the baby. It wasn’t unprecedented. She had heard of babies being successfully delivered up to thirty minutes after the mother had died. CPR was the key.

  “Berg?” Jay looked up at her, his blue eyes shining with tears as he pumped the bag.

  “Yeah?”

  “Kill him.”

  Berg nodded once as the ambulance doors slammed shut, and the vehicle took off, its siren wailing like a desperate cry as it sped down the road.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “What the fuck was that?” Berg asked, running over as Cheney stared at the column of black smoke and fire rising several blocks over.

  “A rocket launcher, apparently,” he said, shaking his head in disbelief. “The guy had a fucking rocket launcher in his car. His team screamed out of here in two SUVs with the FBI in pursuit, and he just blew the cars following him off the face of the planet. Killed four cops.”

  His cell rang.

  “We need a fucking chopper in the air now!” he snarled into the cell. “We cannot pursue by road, and we have no idea where he is now anyway. The guy’s in a bulletproof, rocket-launching tank!”

  “I’ve got to go,” Berg said, jogging toward her car.

  “What? Wait.” Cheney hung up and followed her, grabbing her arm. “You’re not going anywhere! We need to debrief you. And where the fuck is O’Loughlin?”

  “He’s at the hospital.” Berg jerked her arm out of his grasp. “You can debrief me later, when I’m there.”

  “Later? We’ve got at least two dead bodies in there, and one of them is a federal court judge lying in a pool of his own blood! Do you know anything about that?”

  Berg shrugged. “Oliver was working with Alexander. Last I saw, they were having a disagreement over who was the bigger asshole.” She got behind the wheel of her car.

  “How do you know that? What happened here? Where the fuck are you going?” Cheney yelled as he held fast to her door.

  Berg looked pointedly at Cheney’s hand and then his face before yanking the door closed. “The hospital. You can interview Jay and me there.” She pulled out, watching Cheney grow smaller in her rearview mirror as he clenched his fists and screamed at the sky.

  She avoided the road with smoke still billowing out of it, heading north instead toward the airfield Jay had told her about.

  She checked her cell, ensuring it was turned off. The last thing she needed was to be tracked courtesy of the cell towers along her route. Cheney would find out she wasn’t at the hospital with Jay soon enough. All that mattered was that by the time they caught up with her, Alexander was dead.

  As she drove, a few tears rolled down her cheeks for Jay and the baby she fervently wished she could meet.

  He should have been born by now.

  Jay deserved to be a father. He had already lost so much already—his child with his first wife, Renee, not to mention the miscarriage they had gone through last year. He didn’t deserve to lose any more, and she was prepared to do whatever it took to ensure he and his boy lived a happy, safe life together. Right now, that meant removing the threat of Alexander from their lives.

  From all their lives.

  She knew Alexander would seek revenge as soon as he could. So long as he was alive, they were all vulnerable, particularly the baby. Berg had no doubt Alexander would attempt to take the baby until he succeeded.

  His “heir.”

  She felt a calm, icy rage descend. It steadied her hands and helped her plan what came next.

  ***

  The small airfield was set well off the highway and enclosed by a tall chain link fence topped with gleaming razor wire. It was obvious the strip was only used by private planes and helicopters and was currently deserted—except for the sleek, white twin-engine jet with blue stripes along its metal body sitting on the tarmac and two back SUVs Berg spotted heading into a large nearby hangar.

  She doubted the airfield had private security, but it didn’t matter since Alexander still had at least four guards and multiple weapons at his disposal. And while his car might have been bulletproof, her small, red hatchback definitely wasn’t.

  She pulled onto a single-lane service road at the back of the airstrip and drove along the fence line, looking for another way in other than the highly exposed front drive. Soon enough she found it—a small opening between the fence and the ground at the back of the field, most likely dug out by either animals or kids. She stopped the car and cursed the lack of cover, but it couldn’t be helped. She was out of the line of sight of both the jet and the SUVs, so it would have to do.

  She threw open the trunk and tossed on a black jacket and leather gloves, filling the pockets of the jacket as well as her cargo pants with as many weapons, ammunition, and explosives as she could carry. She p
ulled out the SIG Arena had supplied and screwed on the silencer. She tied her hair back and put on a black cap, pulling it low to cover her face. She kicked the hard, dry ground a little more with the heel of her boot, scooping the dirt behind her, before she squeezed under the fence, but it only slowed her down by a few minutes.

  Short of playing with shadows and angles, she had very little camouflaging her once she was inside. A flat expanse of short grass and an immaculate asphalt runway seemed to expand as she looked across the open area, but the grounds weren’t floodlit, so she ran flat out to the back of the hangar, hoping Alexander was so preoccupied with escaping he wouldn’t send his goons to patrol the grounds.

  Cocky prick probably thinks he’s in the clear.

  The hangar was a huge metallic structure with bare aluminum sheeting on its sides and its curved aluminum roof painted white. There were no windows and only one door at the rear of the structure that she could see, which had been secured with a large chain and virtually indestructible padlock. She ran quickly along the back edge of the hangar, her gun extended in front of her in a two-handed grip in case she came across anyone.

  She took a deep breath at the corner of the building and risked a peek around the edge. She saw the rear tail of the jet but no people milling about. A few of the jet’s darkly tinted windows were visible from her position as it sat on the tarmac, however, and if anyone was inside, they might see her, even in the low light. She ducked back behind her metal hiding spot and contemplated her next move.

  She didn’t have time to get to the other side of the huge building, scout the area, and chance her cover being even worse. By then, the jet could be moving. And she certainly couldn’t get through the secure, thick aluminum door of the hangar to approach the jet from that direction. The industrial padlock would take too long to pick, even if she were eventually successful. She prepared to make a run for the rear of the aircraft and risk being seen.

  “Need these?”

  She spun, gun raised, and nearly shot Arena at point blank range. “What the fuck are you doing here?” she whispered furiously. “Are you insane?”

  “No more than you,” he said, poking out his bottom lip in a full-blown pout before raising a pair of bolt cutters. “And I thought these could help. They’ll cut through that padlock like a hot knife through butta’.” His pout disappeared only to be replaced with a grin and wink.