Two more quiet shots pierce the night, and I feel the impact reverberate through the couch as they hit. The distant sound of wood splintering hits my ears, and then a door bangs open somewhere in the back of the house.
Fuck. They’ve breached the back door too.
My head whips in that direction as heavy footsteps thud against the worn hardwood. Three more men come into view in the back hallway, guns raised.
Without thinking, my arm flies up, my finger squeezing the trigger. My shot catches one of the men in the shoulder, and he stumbles, letting out a pained grunt. The other two men let off shots just as a large hand clamps around my arm, yanking me sideways.
A bullet pierces the couch where my head was just a second earlier, and Ryland drags me behind him, firing at our attackers himself.
As Ryland and I break off from Marcus, all three of us scrambling to find new cover, I realize the standoff at the front of the house was meant to be a distraction, something to keep us occupied and focused in the direction while the second team moved to box us in.
I haven’t seen Michael or Gabriel, so I’m guessing Adrian and his team are working alone.
Fuck. How many are there? How big of a fucking team did he bring?
And how long can we last against them?
Ryland and I dive into the kitchen through the open doorway that connects it to the living room, taking cover behind the wall. A loud thud makes my heart jump, but when I peer around, I see that Theo and Marcus have tipped over the heavy bookshelf in the corner opposite us and are taking cover behind it.
Our attackers are relentless. We’re barely holding off the team at the front and the one that’s staked out the back hallway, but it’s only a matter of time before they break through our defenses. I always thought of Adrian as the weakest competitor in the game, but obviously there’s a damn reason he lasted this long.
Bullets are flying across the living room, coming from so many directions that it’s almost impossible to track them all. Theo catches a man in the knee, and when he goes down, another bullet goes through his skull. Blood stains the floor around him.
At least one more person has entered through the back door. From where I’m braced against the wall in the kitchen, I can get a glimpse down the hallway that leads to the back of the house. As I peer out cautiously, I catch sight of the man I clipped in the shoulder shoving open the bedroom door where we left Dominic bound on the bed.
Fuck.
My heart lurches in my chest, a wave of fear crashing through me. I fire at the man again, but I miss this time, and he slips into the room before I can try again. Two muffled shots ring out, and then there’s a yell and a heavy thud.
My stomach feels like someone pumped it full of battery acid. A bitter taste coats my tongue, and the pops and pings of gunshots around me sound muffled, as if we’re all underwater.
I don’t know Dominic, not really. But the idea that he might be dead makes something shrivel inside me.
No.
No.
With a harsh yell, I lean around the kitchen doorway slightly and take aim at the front door. I may not be able to shoot into the bedroom, but I can at least do something.
My heart pounds as I take aim and fire at the small expanse of someone’s shoulder that’s visible outside the front door. It’s either blind luck or blind rage, but my bullet finds its mark this time. Droplets of blood spray, and when the man staggers sideways a little, I fire again, piercing his chest. He falls through the open frame of the doorway, dead before he even hits the ground.
Ryland glances at me, looking a little impressed, but I don’t have time to think about it. I don’t have time to think about the fact that I just killed a man. Adrian is still staked out in the front, and the men who took up positions in the back hallway are still there, boxing us into the living room like cats chasing mice.
Suddenly, two pinging gunshots ring out.
I look over in time to see two of the men who took cover in the hallway topple.
Dominic leans heavily on the bedroom door frame as he swings his weapon around. His hands are still bound, but he’s managed to undo the tape that was wound around his ankles. He must’ve gotten the gun from the man who broke into the room.
The two men at the front of the house—Adrian and one other—turn their fire on Dom, and he stumbles backward.
But his shots gave us the opening we need.
The men in the back hallway are all down, and Dominic has drawn Adrian and his buddy’s fire.
Theo and Marcus don’t waste the opportunity. They both burst out from behind the bookshelf they had angled in one corner as cover, bullets flying as they race across the room.
Adrian and his man shift their attack to the men rushing toward them, but they’re too late. Marcus shoots the man whose shoulder I clipped, catching him in the neck, and he goes down with a gurgling grunt.