Isaac stared at her. “I need my gun back.”
The door chirped, and the locks disengaged. It was now a brute force pushing match,, and the odds were not on her side. She braced her foot harder while reaching for the other weapon.
Did she trust Isaac? Could she?
She didn’t know.
But one way or another, she probably wasn’t coming out of this alive. What did it matter which of her enemies shot her?
Someone shoved at the door, but with the two of them bracing it, the thing barely budged.
“How many of them are there?” Isaac asked.
“I don’t know.” She thrust the gun at Isaac.
“There aren’t any bullets,” he snapped back.
She yanked a loaded magazine out of her pocket. Thank goodness she’d brought more bullets.
Isaac snatched it and quickly reloaded his gun.
“How many?” he asked again.
“I told you I don’t fucking know.”
Isaac glanced back at the screen. “Hold on.”
“Isaac!” If she could have snatched him back she would have.
He raced across to the monitors, his fingers flying.
“We’re almost there,” Elias said.
“Don’t. Don’t come,” she begged.
“It’s just three. There’s only three of them.” Isaac whirled toward her, gun in hand, eyes wide and bright.
Three guys?
The fake-out might work.
She locked eyes with Isaac. “You ready?”
The brightness dimmed. “What?”
“Shoot. Just—shoot.”
Okay, so it wasn’t the fake-out plan, but they still might pull this off.
She held her left hand against the door and drew her gun with her right. They weren’t doing more than pounding on the door with fists or other weapons, likely to scare them. She got her feet under her, and took a step away, to the right of the door, and lifted her gun.
Jo counted to five.
The door burst open, no chirp this time.
Isaac screamed and fired.
Jo exhaled and squeezed the trigger, aiming for the fleshy bits she saw between collar and helmet. The bodies ceased being human in her head. It was target practice. That was all it was.
The first two went down fast, caught completely unaware. They were too focused on Isaac and his yelling.
The third ducked out of view in the hall.
They had this.
She pressed her back to the wall. There would be others. Back-up coming this way. And Elias. She would never forgive herself for dragging him into this.
“Did we get them?” Isaac’s voice wavered.
Had the man ever shot at people before?
A distant part of her mind warned her that she was probably lucky he hadn’t shot her on accident. Or on purpose. The first thing she was doing if they made it out of here was taking that gun away from him.
She edged toward the door, listening and looking for the third man.
Where was he?
Jo gathered herself and pivoted, gun up. At the same moment a hand wrapped around her wrist, yanking her forward and into the hall.
The third target.
She stepped into the momentum, adding another turn so she was now on the man’s other side, his back toward the door. He reacted just as fast, driving his fist into her side. She struck out with her left hand, but only hit the body armor.
Isaac was nowhere to be seen. He wasn’t coming to her rescue.
The damn spineless coward.
She roared and threw her weight into the man, doing her best to surprise him. But he was built like a mountain.
This was bad.
Very bad.
A hand dug into her hair, twisting it so painfully. He pressed his gun to her side, right where he’d struck her, and leaned down to stare into her eyes.
He was enjoying this.
Fear raced through her. Real terror. He didn’t just want to kill her, he wanted to hurt her. To make these last moments a nightmare.
“Jo!” a familiar voice bellowed, followed by a gunshot.
The man’s eyes went wide, then the life went out of them. His grip tightened, and he almost dragged her to the ground if his grip hadn’t faltered.
She stood there, gasping for breath, her head and side alight with pain.
“Jo? Jo, are you okay?” Elias rushed toward her and cupped her face in his hand. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. Isaac?” She couldn’t put any other words together. Her brain was too addled.
“Did you kill them? Are they gone?” Isaac’s head emerged from the doorway, followed by the rest of him.
“Oh my—oh my God...” A dark haired man that had to be Torres held the door to the stairs open.
“We need to move.” Elias kept a tight grip on her arm, which she needed.
Together their little group retreated to the stairs where bangs resounded in the tight space. Someone was trying to force their way in from above.
“There can’t be more than a dozen of them, three on each floor,” Elias said as they moved.
“Now there’s nine.”
“Exactly.”
“This stair? There’s an emergency exit. We won’t even have to go back inside.” Poor Torres was at the end of his rope.
Above them a door banged open with violence. A moment later the door crashed down from above, falling to the ground floor.
Words he couldn’t understand filled the space behind them.
“Go. Run,” Elias shouted.
She took the stairs two and three at a time, leaping down.
More words pelted them, and then the shooting started. Bullets ricochet off the metal railing. She plastered herself to the wall as best she could, giving them no direct shot. Isaac and Torres screamed while Elias’s grip on her only tightened to a painful level.
This had to be hell on him. She had to get him out of here.
Isaac hit the door first followed by Torres.
It didn’t budge.
“Use the key. The fucking key,” Isaac screamed.
Torres reached out, but dropped a plastic key card.
Jo went to her knees, scooping it up and holding it to the keypad.
The light glinted green.
Elias scooped her up with one arm. Torres yanked the door open, and they dove out, squeezing through the door almost as one into the bright sunshine of a Seattle afternoon, the crisp air almost burning her lungs.
“Freeze!”
“Hands up!”
She blinked at the three police cars and armed officers aiming weapons at her.
Elias practically tackled her and Torres to the ground. She found his arm and squeezed him, not caring one bit about road rash, bruises or any of it.
They’d made it out, thanks to him. The guy who always had her back no matter what she asked of him.
God, she loved this man.
THURSDAY. FBI OFFICES, Seattle, Washington.
Elias paced the small room. The FBI had quickly brought all of them to this building and kept them separated the entire time. Obviously the FBI didn’t want them corroborating their stories.
So far he had spoken to Rusty, an FBI agent who’d worked with Aegis Group a number of times. From the way Rusty talked, this was his operation they’d stumbled into it. The questions he asked Elias sounded more like he’d just been confirming things he already knew.
Now what?
He checked the clock.
It was late.
Had a doctor seen Jo? Had they gotten her to eat?