by JL Madore
Jaxx moves to stand beside me and squeezes my shoulder. “May I ask somethin’?”
I gesture for him to take the stage.
“Does us figurin’ out Hunter’s identity and outin’ him put you or your father in any immediate danger?”
The answer is in her gaze.
I turn and curse. “Spitfire, call Lukas, and have him send a security team to secure Victor Trenton. I want him moved to my penthouse and a twenty-four-hour guard and nurse there at all times.”
She nods and steps into the hall. “Got it.”
Jaxx looks at the images of Jayne’s father and frowns. “Have you seen or spoken to Hawk’s father or have you only dealt with Hunter?”
Jayne smiles but doesn’t say anything.
I curse. “Okay, this spell is pissing me off.”
“Really? Pissing you off.”
Jaxx frowns. “We need Lukas to—”
My phone vibrates in my pocket and I pull it free.
“What’s the matter?” Jaxx asks, leaning over to read the screen. “Who is it?”
“It’s an internal FCO line.” I accept the call and answer. “Barron.”
“Mr. Barron, sir?” someone says in barely a whisper.
I cover my ear to hear better. “Hello?”
“A dozen men with guns coming your way.”
“Mallory?” I snap my fingers and point at the door. Jaxx gets the point and rushes to pull Calli in from the hall. “Thank you, Mallory. Get out of the building.”
I end the call and my survival instincts kick in. “Jaxx pull the alarm. We’ve got company coming and they’re heavily armed. Calli text Brant and Kotah. They need to haul ass up here. Now.”
I point to Jayne. “Take the dumbwaiter and get out. Go to my penthouse and wait for your father. Go.”
Jayne kicks off her shoes and slips on her trainers she keeps for the workout room. With her purse strap slung over her shoulder, she rushes toward the door. “You need to live to kick their asses, Barron. Seriously. Come with me.”
“Right behind you. I won’t leave without my mates.” I wave for her to get going. “Be safe.”
Kotah
My cell goes off at the same moment the emergency siren starts chiming. I pull the phone from my pocket and frown. Company coming. Get to us. Top floor. I read the text at the same time Brant reads his.
“Penny,” I say, grabbing the files we’ve put together. “Black Knight men are coming. We need to get to Hawk and the others on the top floor.”
She sees I’m struggling to find somewhere to put the files and dumps out her computer bag. “Take this. No offense, Majesty, but I’m safer not being with you. I’ll be fine. I’ll evacuate with everyone else and be fine.”
I shove the files into her bag and sling it over my shoulder. “Thank you for your help and good luck.”
“You too.” Penny opens the door to the stairwell and starts her way down in the flood of traffic.
Brant and I start our way up.
“To the right, people,” Brant shouts. “Get to the fucking right.” When a bear bellows in a stairwell, you better believe people listen.
“The good news is,” I say, pushing past a cluster of scared employees, “the alarm should lock down the elevators, so anyone coming after us will have the same problem.”
Gunfire lights off above us and the stairwell erupts in a frantic echo of screaming.
Brant curses. “Unless they also drop a fucking helicopter onto the roof.”
His bear lets off a roar and he plays the part of an offensive lineman as the two of us round the landing on the twenty-third floor. “What floor is the top?”
“No idea,” I say tucking in behind him as we run. “The one where the stairs stop.”
Brant grumbles, the sound part chuckle and part growl. “No one likes a smart ass, Wolf.”
“You do.”
The next grumble is definitely laughter. “Okay, you got me there.”
By the time we get to the twenty-fifth floor, everyone seems to have evacuated and we’ve got clear sailing straight to the top. The roar of Jaxx’s jaguar has my wolf rushing forward. My mates are in trouble. I need to get there.
Brant feels the same way because he’s become a wildling juggernaut and is barreling forward like a tank. Or like an infuriated grizzly is likely closer to the truth.
The low-pitched tat-a-tat-a-tat is the sound of automatic weapons. The crack, crack, crack sound is Hawk’s twin Sigs unloading. Thank the Powers he’s always so prepared.
When we round the landing on the thirtieth floor, Brant grabs the handle and rips the door right off the hinges. Holding it in front of us like a shield he turns left and bolts down the hall.
For a moment, I wonder how he knows where to go.
Right. He spent the night here with Hawk.
My wolf howls, but I don’t have time to think about how much that hurt me, right now.
Brant is bowling men down with the steel door and I grab a few of their guns as we run past. I’d prefer to fight in wolf form, but we need these files and I imagine Calli’s going to be too hot to handle them.
If I can get them to Hawk, I can shift. He prefers to fight as a man. We get to the end of the hall and break into the melee already in progress.
Jaxx is snarling and clawing at a downed man. The jaguar’s shoulder is bleeding but it’s not bad enough that he’s nursing it. Calli is a woman aflame and is human-torching her way forward. The hostiles seem to have learned that bullets melt before they damage her and they’re pretty much screwed.
Sucks to be you, assholes.
Brant gets us into the room proper and swings the metal door like a frisbee. The torn steel catches one of the attackers in the neck and his head severs and spins across the office whipping blood like a pinwheel. The body of the guy falls to the carpet not far from where Hawk is crouched behind the cover of his bar. He hears the thud and pops up, guns aimed.
“Shit. I almost shot you.”
I look around. “Is that it? Are we squared away?”
Hawk shakes his head. “No. That’s just the roof crowd. There’s a ground crew coming too.”
“I vote we leave before they get here,” Brant says.
“You’ve got my vote,” Jaxx says, prodding the wound on his shoulder.
“I’m good to stay and fry people,” Calli says.
Hawk rolls his eyes. “So that’s four for getting out while the getting’s good and one for the last stand at the Alamo.”
Calli’s flame is holding strong and she’s so, incredibly beautiful when she’s fired up. “Or maybe it’s Die Hard and this is our Nakatomi Plaza.”
Jaxx snorts. “You can Die Hard another day, John McClane. Tonight we take the win. What’s our out?”
Hawk points back the way we came. Down the hall, there’s a bookshelf that sits waist-high. Hawk releases something along the side and it swings away from the wall. “The dumbwaiter. It’s a series of tube slides that start on the top floor and ends in P1.”
“Neato, adult shoots and ladders,” Jaxx says, flashing a saucy smile. “Is Brant fittin’ in these tubes?”
Hawk frowns but nods. “Almost definitely.”
Brant snorts. “Almost definitely, that’s awesome. So I guess I’m going last in case I clog the shoot?”
“Jaxx, you first,” Hawk says, handing him one of his guns. “Secure the bottom. We’re right behind you.”
Jaxx grips the hand bar along the top of the opening and kicks his feet into the tube. “Yeehaw.”
When he’s gone, Hawk points to me. “Kotah, you’re next.” I give Calli and Brant a quick kiss, grip the handle, and kick my feet into the slide. “P1, here we come.”
Calli
The pain in Hawk’s eyes as Kotah drops into the dumbwaiter without acknowledging him is heartwrenching. It cleaves me soul-deep to see them hurting one another when it’s so obvious they love each other.
“You’re up, Spitfire.” Hawk shakes off the snub and g
ets back to the current crisis. “Be safe.”
I reach to grip the handle and the world explodes.
Another wave of Black Knight fighters puke onto the top floor with us and start firing. Brant grabs me and throws me down the hall like I weigh no more than a duffle bag. I’m out of the way as the explosion takes out the wall where I was standing a moment ago.
The good thing about Brant’s size is that when he puts his mind to it, he’s big enough to screen the people he cares about from the oncoming danger. The bad part of that is that when he puts his mind to it, he acts as a screen between the people he cares about and the oncoming danger.
Bullets fly as Hawk grabs my arm and pulls me to my feet to drag me into his office. Brant’s footing is sloppy as he staggers in behind us.
“Get off me and help Brant.” I pull free of Hawk’s grasp and flame up to a woman on fire. Standing on my own, I find my footing and stand tall, challenging the fuckers who dare attack my men.
With the heat and violence of hell’s fury burning inside me, I throw out my hand and a stream of flame shoots from my palm. That’s new. Cool.
The first line of attackers bursts into a screaming bonfire and I laugh. “Serves you right, ash-holes.”
Hawk pushes his door closed and locks us in. Slapping his hand on a security scanner behind the door, he waits for it to activate and then taps something in.
Metal locks into place with a clank and then Hawk’s all about us again. “That won’t hold them for long.”
“Tell me you have another safety straw of escape in here,” I say, searching for a way out.
“Sorry.”
“What about the roof? Can we get to the helipad? Maybe they left us their chopper.”
He shakes that off too. “Not from here. Roof access is at the other end of the hall.”
The rhythmic boom, boom, boom against the door indicates that our well-armed friends have no intention of giving up. “How much firepower do we have left?”
Brant coughs a laugh. “We’ve got endless leather whips and crops in the secret sex room.”
Hawk frowns. “We’re outgunned.”
I file away Brant’s comment about secret sex rooms for later and search for an answer. I’m getting better at calling my phoenix but if history has taught me anything, it’s that I’m inconsistent and lose power at the most inopportune moments. I would hate to be our last defense and flame out in the clutch.
A loud crash brings me spinning around to see Brant going down. On an uncoordinated stagger and stumble, he takes out Hawk’s coffee table and lands hard on the fancy area rug.
He has likely dented the concrete floor beneath.
“Double shit.” I rush to him. “How bad is it?”
Hawk pulls away Brant’s shirt and it’s hard to tell where all the bleeding is coming from. “Fuck, Bear. Could you be a bigger target?”
He coughs. “Well, Papa Bear always said, if you’re gonna do something. Do it big.”
The rhythmic thumping against the door is gaining strength.
“I need to cry for you.” Adrenaline is pumping in my veins and I don’t know if I can calm down enough under pressure to call on my more tender emotions, but I have to try.
He shakes his head. “You’re too keyed up. There’s no time. You two need to get out of here.”
“Like fuck,” Hawk snaps.
I point my thumb at our eloquent Alpha. “Yeah, what he said. We’re not leaving you. And besides, we already went over that. There’s no way down.”
“For me,” Brant says. “You two are both birds. Bust the window and fly out of here, beautiful. You have to.”
He coughs again and my mind stalls out. “No way. There’s no way I’m leaving you here. Besides. I don’t fly. I crash and burn.”
“One time,” he says, chuckling. “You’re stronger now.”
“Once was bad enough. That was over vacant farmland. I can’t take out half of New York City. I don’t want to go down in history with Mrs. O’Leary’s cow taking out Chicago.”
Hawk frowns. “Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ve got much of a choice, Spitfire. You need to live. If we die here it’s more than three deaths… there are two realms of fae depending on us. You’ve got this.”
Laughter bubbles up my throat. “I don’t ‘got this’. You haven’t taught me to land yet.”
“Manhattan is an island, Calli. Aim for the Hudson and splash land.” As if the discussion is over, he grabs his fancy, brushed metal lamp and swings it like a very long bat. The weighted base smashes through the glass wall and gives us our exit.
The crash is deafening and shattered shards rain onto the ebony hardwood. Wind rushes in and whips my hair into my face, whistling through the room at a wild velocity.
Hawk tosses the lamp and grimaces at me. “We’re flying out of here, Spitfire. You have to do it. It’s the only way we all survive.”
“All? How?”
Brant shakes his head. “Forget it, I’m too fucking heavy for her, and I can’t swim. I’d rather die here with a gun in my hand holding them off for you guys to get away.”
“Fuck that. I’ll fly right beside you two. If you sink, I’ll get you to shore.”
My brain’s slow to catch up but... “You think I can carry Brant?”
“Of course you can.” Hawk hooks under Brant’s arms and drags him toward the rush of wind invading the office. “You’re a fucking mythical beast firebird. You trump all of us, hands down. You just haven’t realized it.”
The door creaks under the strain of bombardment and I jump. “I can’t. I’m not.”
He kicks away glass and lays Brant in front of the opening. Then, he grabs me by the arms and shakes. My teeth rattle as he pushes up in my grille. “You are the fucking fae phoenix. Those men will come in here and kill us in one minute. They poisoned Kotah. They shot Brant full of holes. We all die if you let them win. Where the fuck is John McClane? You were right. This is Die Hard, not the Alamo.”
Brant coughs and I take in his current state of swiss cheese. I let all the fear and rage I feel inside me escape.
The terror of seeing Kotah on the ground.
Of Brant dying here because I fail him.
Of letting Hawk’s father destroy everything he spent his adult life building.
I even feel bad for Jayne’s father being made a pawn in their game.
Pushing my arms out to the side, I flame up and then go further. I call my phoenix forward and let the beast inside me loose. I practiced this at Brant’s ranch and have a better feel of things now. Brant’s right. I am stronger now.
My body explodes in size and ferocity.
I duck my head when it hits the ceiling.
“They are here to kill us, Spitfire,” Hawk says, pulling out his phone and texting. “Protect your mates. Grab Brant and fly him out of here. I’m right here with you. You can do this.”
The door gives way and I turn. The world feels strange from this viewpoint but I look down at the tiny men and shriek. Breathing a fiery wall of flames at them, I push them back into the hall.
Carefully, I clasp one of my talons around Brant’s body and push off the edge of the building. One thing I learned over the past two days with Kotah is that it’s okay for the wildling animal to ascend and take control.
My animal side is more confident and possesses stronger natural instincts. I let her take charge and give her wings.
Just please, don’t let me kill Brant.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Kotah
Jaxx and I descend to the ground as planned and wait at the bottom of the dumbwaiter chute for our mates. They don’t come. Nerves turn into worry and worry twists into the realization that something went wrong. The others aren’t right behind us as they should’ve been. “We need to go back.”
“With the elevators locked, it’ll take too long to get up to the thirtieth floor again.”
“What do we do?”
Jaxx curses. “I don’t know. I don’t ho
w to help them.”
The buzz of a text has us both outing our phones. It’s a status update from Hawk. Trapped and going airborne. Brant’s hit. Head to the Hudson.
“Oh, shit,” Jaxx says, his thumbs flying over his screen. “Okay, Lukas is grabbin’ the truck and comin’ for us.”
The scream of rubber on concrete brings a black SUV barreling through the parking garage at us. The two of us pile in and Lukas hits the gas. “Where am I going?”
Jaxx grabs his seatbelt and buckles in. “Hawk says head to the Hudson.”
Lukas frowns. “That’s really fucking helpful.”
“Sorry. That’s all we got.”
The street looks like a warzone: the FCO staff has pooled out onto the concrete frontage, the police cars pulling up with their lights flashing, the cars slowing and honking, trying to figure out what’s going on.
“Do y’all see anythin’?” Jaxx leans against the dash and is searching the skies as we drive.
I open the moon roof and stand on the middle bench. “Not yet. A mythical phoenix flaming her way across the Manhattan skyline will cause one major exposure incident.”
“We’ll burn that bridge when we come to it.”
“There.” I point but, of course, they can’t see that. “Two o’clock. She’s heading back towards New Jersey.”
Thankfully, Lukas knows how to drive these streets because Jaxx and I would be tied up in traffic and no use to them as backup. “Keep an eye on them, Wolf.”
Like I could look anywhere else.
Jaxx joins me in the open roof and I point to the orange streak in the sky. “Damn, she’s a sight.”
“She is.”
“Do you see Barron?” Lukas shouts inside the truck.
“No, but it’s hard to see anything around her. She’s giving off a lot of light.”
“I see Brant, though,” Jaxx says, pointing. “She’s got him in her talon.”
My jaw drops. “He’s got to weigh a ton.”
“She’s spectacular, Lukas. Not only is she flyin’, but she’s also airliftin’ our bear to safety.” Jaxx and I are still smiling up in awe when he looks at me and frowns. “Wait. Why are we headin’ for the Hudson?”
I grab my hair and pull it back out of my face. “What do you mean? Why the worried face?”
