Sawyer told Jake the same thing he’d told the rest of them—that MI6 didn’t know—then shrugged. “They’re bound to find out at some point, and something tells me that when they do, I can kiss my job there goodbye.”
Jake glanced at Harley before looking at Sawyer again, his face thoughtful. “You know, if that ever happens, you’re always welcome at STAT.”
Out of the corner of her eye, Harley saw her teammates smiling as discreetly as they could. She tried to hide how giddy she was at the idea, but the moment Sawyer’s gaze met hers, she couldn’t help grinning. The prospect of working with Sawyer was too perfect for words.
Sawyer opened his mouth to say something, but Jake’s cell rang. A split second later, Sawyer’s rang as well. Harley heard Tessa shouting something about Yegor’s crew attacking the abandoned hospital to Jake even as Rory did the same to Sawyer before gunfire drowned out both of them and the phone connections went dead.
Muttering a curse, Jake relayed what Tessa said for their non-werewolf teammates who didn’t have ears keen enough to hear what she said, then they were all heading for the door. Unfortunately, whatever Sawyer had been going to say would have to wait until later. Harley only prayed they got to the hospital before the assholes who worked for Yegor killed everyone in it.
Chapter 16
It took them eight bloody minutes to get to the abandoned hospital. Sawyer knew for a certainty because he’d kept one eye on the digital clock in the dashboard as he drove. He’d sped like a madman the entire way, and it had still taken too long.
He was shocked there wasn’t any local law enforcement in the parking lot of the converted hospital when he slid to a stop against the curb, Jake right behind him in the other SUV. Sawyer had no idea how Tessa had managed to keep the Athens police away from there in a situation like this, but he was glad she had. Regular humans getting involved in a situation they couldn’t possibly understand would only end up in grave danger or dead.
Putting the SUV in park, Sawyer jumped out of the vehicle. From the passenger side, Harley and Caleb did the same. He pulled out his gun, forcing himself to approach the building slowly. They had no idea what was happening inside and running headlong into whatever was going on could get them—and everyone in there—killed. Harley had tried calling both Rory and Tessa the whole way over, but neither of them answered. That scared him. Almost as much as the fact that he couldn’t hear anything coming from inside the building. Not even gunfire. Did that mean the fight was over?
The concrete in front of the entrance was covered with thousands of pieces of glittering, reflective glass, along with a sizable pool of blood smack in the middle of it all. It took a second to realize the glass had come from one of the big windows on the fourth floor. Someone had either jumped out or been pushed. A curious part of his mind wondered where the body was.
“Watch yourselves,” Jake murmured as they all approached the double doors. “Identify your targets before you shoot. There are a lot of innocent people in there.”
That was true enough. Luckily, that morning, STAT had moved out all the buyers who’d been at the auction the other night, as well as the supernaturals they’d been there to bid on. Well, all except the people who’d been injured, like Rory’s sister.
The acrid odors of smokeless powder and a recent fire were heavy in the enclosed space of the lobby, along with the sickening stench of blood. Sawyer tried to analyze the different scents, hoping to pick up Rory’s and anyone else’s he might know, but it was no use. There were simply too many competing smells.
They found four bodies a few meters into the entryway—two bad guys and two STAT support agents. Misty and Forrest immediately crouched down to check them for a pulse. Sawyer could have told them it wasn’t necessary. He would have heard a heartbeat if either of them was still alive. They got to their feet with a shake of their heads, confirming he was right.
Jake pointed at Sawyer, Harley, and Caleb, then gestured toward the stairs, indicating he wanted them to check the upper floors. Sawyer gave him a nod, heading toward the stairwell with Harley and Caleb, while Jake, Jes, Misty, and Forrest spread out to clear the smoke-filled first floor. Sawyer fought the urge to stay downstairs and search for Rory. There was no way Rory would willingly have left his sister alone, and her room was on the ground floor along with every other injured person who was still recovering. Sawyer had to trust Jake and his STAT teammates would find him.
They found two more bodies on the steps leading up to the second floor, a STAT agent and one of Yegor’s goons. Since the second and third floors were where the buyers and supernaturals had been, clearing them was quick.
“Thank goodness Tessa got all of the supernaturals out of here before Yegor’s goons showed up,” Harley whispered as they continued up to the topmost floor. “Do you think that’s why he was here?”
“Maybe. But I think it’s more likely he was here for Brielle.” Sawyer glanced over his shoulder as they neared the fourth-floor landing. “She knows too much about Yegor’s operation.”
When they got to the top of the stairs, Sawyer opened the door carefully. Three dead bad guys were lying on the floor, the front of their tactical uniforms stained with blood from gunshot wounds. Sawyer picked up the murmur of voices coming from down the hall and he took a careful peek around the doorjamb only to duck back inside as a bullet slammed into the wall near his head.
“Don’t shoot!” he shouted. “We’re the good guys!”
He heard Tessa mutter something that sounded like, “About damn time,” then shouted for everyone to hold their fire.
Sawyer darted a quick look out into the hall again to see Tessa and three other STAT agents using the old nurses station and pieces of furniture as protection so they could cover both the stairwell and the elevators. Tessa and another guy were holding STAT-issued handguns, but the other two had MP5 submachine guns like the guy at the bottom of the stairs. They must have picked the weapons up from some bad guys they’d taken out.
He, Harley, and Caleb stepped around the bodies on the floor and into a combat zone. The nurses station, along with the surrounding walls and floor had been shredded by small arms fire, what looked like hand-grenade blasts, and scorch marks that could only have come from Adriana’s lightning. Most of the ceiling tiles had been blown out and were either hanging loose by their metal framing or lying in a smoldering mess on the floor. Half a dozen additional bodies were strewn along the floor, both Yegor’s men and STAT agents.
The air held a burnt-ozone smell, again probably courtesy of Adriana, making Sawyer’s nose sting. The damage wasn’t limited to the area around the nurses station, either. Several sections of the wall along the corridor seemed like they’d been smashed by a charging rhino. Some of the holes were so big he could see into the rooms beyond, where wounded agents scrambled around trying to help others who were hurt even worse.