Another knock came at the door. This one louder, longer.
Mute held out a hand, pinky extended and thumb already hooked to shake mine. He’d seen me do it with Zeus and he wanted me to swear on the same sacred ground I made all my promises on with the love of my life.
My heart burned as I reached out to lock my pinky with his and shake his thumb.
As soon as I let go, he was striding to the door.
“We didn’t order pizza,” Mute yelled through it.
It was a strange time to be funny but it was so utterly Mute to act against the norm that it nearly my made me laugh and then it nearly made me cry.
The person on the other side of the door laughed. “Listen, kid. We just want the girls, yeah? Nothin’ bad needs to happen to anyone.”
“No girls,” Mute said.
“Know they’re here, brother. A little birdy told me Garro’s sweet teen lover and daughter would be here and looky look, the lover’s bodyguard is here so she must not be far behind. Now, open up before I kick this fuckin’ door down.”
I didn’t recognize the voice but Harleigh Rose seemed to as she came back into the room because she froze in the hallway entryway.
“Who?” I mouthed at her.
“Blackjack’s dad, Ace,” she whispered as she came toward me and peered carefully out the curtains.
There was one man in the front yard, a Mexican man by the look of him, wearing a Nightstalkers cut with the laughing demon face on the back. He sat on the hood of a black van picking under his nails with a huge, curved blade.
“Lysander’s here,” I whispered.
“Why do you want ’em?” Mute demanded.
Ace laughed. “Zeus Garro killed my best fuckin’ friend, think he deserves to know some pain ‘fore we take back an operation he never shoulda been Prez of in the first fuckin’ place.”
“I’ll bring ’em out,” Mute said after a long pause. “Back away from the door and I’ll get them sorted for ya.”
“No fuckin’ funny business. You got nowhere to go and you know it,” Ace said, ending on a manical laugh.
I heard his boots stomp across the small wooden porch and down the stairs.
“Stuff in front of the doors,” Mute snapped immediately, turning around himself to drag the kitchen table over.
I went over to help him, sweat breaking out across my skin at the effort to walk and then push the heavy oak table over the wood floors.
“You’re going to pass out, sit the fuck down,” H.R. hissed.
“I do, we die,” I said because it may have been dramatic but I had this awful, gut-wrenching feeling that it was true.
Mute didn’t say anything. Once the table was in front of the door, he went to the huge armchair and hefted it into the air before slamming it down over the table, barricading the door entirely.
“Close all the curtains. I’ve got the back door,” Harleigh Rose whispered as she dashed down the hall.
Mute held out my phone to me again. “Call him.”
My fingers slipped with sweat against the screen as I pressed in the number. Zeus answered immediately, “Update me.”
“It’s me,” I told him as lazy male laughter floated into the house from outside.
The bastards weren’t even nervous about what Mute could do to them. They thought we were easy pickings, most of The Fallen’s senior officers out on a run and the President’s women alone in a remote cabin.
Fuck, we were dumb.
“Lou, baby, got guys comin’. You just have to hold out for as long as you can, yeah?” Zeus’s voice was strong and sure as always.
“I’m so fucking scared,” I admitted as I watched Mute grab another knife from the kitchen and add it to his arsenal.
“Nah, not my little warrior. It’s gonna be fine, Lou. I’m on my way home right fuckin’ now and by this time tomorrow, this’ll all be a nightmare and you’ll be safe in my arms in our bed.”
“You don’t have nightmares,” I told him inanely because I was so terrified I could barely remember my own name.
At least Bea was safe on the roof.
But Mute was at the front line and my lover’s daughter, a daughter who strangely enough had become one of my best friends as well, was right there with me.
“Even the devil’s got nightmares, Lou, and mine is losin’ ya so you take care, you hear? No fuckin’ rebel schemes or heroics. You get outta there safe.”
“Comin’ back,” Mute muttered from beside the window.
“Come out, come fuckin’ out,” Ace yelled at the house. He sounded high and he probably was. “No? Eh, we figured as much. Fuckin’ pussies. Don’t worry, we got a cure for that.”
“Fuck,” Mute swore and dove at me.
We slammed to the ground away from the window a second before the glass smashed and something heavy landed amid the glass.
A Molotov Cocktail, a nearly empty bottle of booze with a gas-soaked rag stuck in it, burnin’ bright like a white flag in flames.
Two more crashes followed as more of them were launched through the windows of the house.
“We wanted ’em alive to reason with the fuckin’ Prez but if you wanna do this the hard way, we figure killin’ ’em will work to shake things up just as well,” Ace shouted into the house.
Mute hauled me to my feet and quickly checked me over for bruises and scrapes I didn’t feel. I couldn’t feel anything except for sheer terror. He grabbed my hand and ran down the hall to the back door only to find it hanging open on its hinges.
Harleigh Rose.
Mute shoved me against the wall beside the door and carefully rounded it with his gun up and out.
“Fuck,” he swore a second later as he backed up into the house slowly.
Lysander Garrison appeared in the doorway, Harleigh Rose dwarfed in his big arms, the huge barrel of a sawed-off shotgun to her temple.
“Put the gun down, Mute,” Lysander ordered softly. “I’m not gonna hurt anyone, okay? I’m just doing this because you’ve got to listen to me. The police are on their way but they won’t be here quick enough to save the girls. You have to trust me here, brother. I can help you guys.”
Mute snarled. “Not your brother. Lou, get here.”
I immediately obeyed, racing to him and sliding behind his back. He braced in a slight squat so I could—painfully—climb up onto his back. I wrapped myself tight around him so he wouldn’t have to waste a hand supporting me.
Smoke started to billow hot and black at our feet as the flames in the front room grew stronger.
“Fine but we don’t have time to argue. I’m workin’ with Lionel Danner on this. You gotta trust me here, if not ’cause you want to, then ’cause you know I’m the best chance for you here,” Lysander tried again.
The two men stared at each other for a long moment.
Sweat beaded on my back. It wasn’t a big house and it was only a matter of time before the fire spread, eating up all the wood like a starving, feral creature.
Lysander sighed then slowly lowered his gun from H.R.’s temple before taking a step back and lifting his arms in the air. Immediately, she ran to us and stood at our side, her hand finding my back and pressing in for comfort.
“No harm,” Lysander said, putting his gun slowly over his shoulder so it lay across his back by a thick bit of rope. “Now, if you’re willin’ to take a chance, I’m leaving now. They think I’m back here to catch you if you think of runnin’ but I’m helpin’, okay? There’s a car waiting just through the trees to the left of the estate, thirty meters tops. You run fast and hard, you can make it before they figure out what’s happening.”