“May,” Roman breathes, taking in the woman before him, the woman who silently cared for the boys, a prisoner to that castle just as much as they were, despite her freedom to come and go.
“Just go,” she begs, tears streaming down her face. “Take the children and go. There’s nothing left for me here. If you try to disable it, the timer will stop and we will all perish. You must take the children, Roman.”
“May,” he repeats, shaking his head. Leaving her to die is not something he’s capable of doing.
“Roman DeAngelis,” she snaps. “Don’t you dare start going soft on me now. These children need you. Take them out of here. Do it now.”
“Shayne,” Roman demands, the rest of his orders not needing to be spoken out loud. My heart races with fear, even just knocking her could set it off. I can’t risk it. I have to get them and leave, and as much as it kills me, I’m going to walk out of this door with those children in my arms and not look back.
I race toward the crib in the corner of the room and reach down toward the screaming baby, cradling him in my arms. “There’s a go bag in the closet,” May instructs. “Take it.”
I do as I’m told, my gaze snapping back to the timer.
Four minutes and three seconds.
Fuck. I still have to get them out of the house and far enough away not to be impacted by the bomb.
Grabbing the baby’s go bag, I hook it over my shoulder and glance across the room to the two girls. “I need you two to walk very slowly toward me,” I tell them, meeting their horrified stares as Roman continues to skillfully gaze over the bomb that could blast us all to pieces.
Three minutes and forty-eight seconds.
The girls nod, gripping on to one another’s hands as they begin to make their way toward me, tiptoeing across the room as though they’re scared to even breathe, and hell, I think they just might be. Fuck, I am too. The baby squeals in my arms, probably past due for a sleep or a feed. Hell, maybe the little dude just needs to take a shit but it’s not something I can deal with now.
The girls safely make it to my side, and I awkwardly hold on to the baby as I move toward the door. “Let’s go,” I tell Roman, hating the way he stands like a statue watching the timer slowly counting down. “ROMAN,” I demand.
He doesn’t move and May shakes her head. “Don’t be a fool, Roman DeAngelis. Get out of here while you still can.”
He doesn’t budge and tears spring to my eyes as I release the little girl’s hand and grip Roman’s chin. “Snap the fuck out of it, Roman. That bomb is going to go off the second you touch it. You’re not fucking leaving me like that, do you hear me? You can’t save everyone, but these kids? You sure as fuck can save them. I can’t get them out of here and far enough away by myself.” The tears spill down my face as I watch the moment realization dawns on him and his heart falls right out of his chest, shattering into a million pieces on the ground before me. “I can’t do this without you, Roman. Please, we have to walk away.”
Roman’s gaze falls to the baby cradled in my arms before turning back to the time.
Three minutes and twelve seconds.
Devastation pours out of him as he meets May’s pained stare. “I’m sorry,” he breathes, his voice breaking as he grips the elbow of the little girl at his side and slowly begins retreating out of the room.
May presses her lips into a tight line and nods her head. “It’s alright, Roman. I always knew you had the biggest heart out of all of them. I don’t hold this against you. I’m not angry with you, but you need to go, and you need to go now.”
Roman nods, and with one final step, we cross the threshold of the bedroom and Roman turns to me, panic in his eyes. “Get the fuck out of here.”
We run, booming down the hallway as Roman grips onto both of the girls, the younger one in his arms while the older sister stumbles trying to keep up with our speed, but Roman doesn’t dare let her fall. “MICK,” Roman calls. “EVACUATION ORDER. NOW! GET THEM OUT OF HERE. WE’VE GOT A LIVE BOMB AND IT’S GOING TO FUCKING BLOW.”
“Done,” Mick fires back before I hear him in my ear, the same message being relayed to every last soldier in our team. “ABORT MISSION. LIVE BOMB. I REPEAT. ABORT MISSION. GET OUT AND SAVE YOURSELVES.”
I clutch the baby, holding him tight to my chest as we hit the top of the stairs. I try to keep him from jostling around, unsure just how fragile they are. He keeps crying, and damn, if I could, I’d be screaming my fucking lungs out too, but it’ll have to wait until we get out of here and to the safety of the surrounding forest.
We storm down the staircase, and as soldiers run for their lives, racing out the doors and smashing their way out through the windows, only two fuckknuckles are running in the opposite direction, their eyes wide as they search us out.
Levi waits at the bottom of the stairs, collecting the older sister as Marcus scoops me into his arms, slipping the bag off my shoulder and lightening my load as we bolt for the stairs. I have no fucking idea how much time we have left to spare, but it can’t be good. We got up eight flights of stairs and a block down the street in the space of two minutes, so surely we can do it again with three children.
Fuck.
We break out into the cold night and bodies litter every inch of the grass, blood running down the path and staining the manicured lawn, but I don’t dare hang around to check just how many of the bodies belong to us. We can do a headcount when we get back to the Moretti residence, assuming we make it back.
My heavy boots slap against the hard ground and I cringe realizing that we have to leave the way we came in. We can’t possibly scale the high gates with the children. We’d have to physically pass them over and that would take too much time. We have to risk detouring past the guard booth before doubling back toward the thick bushes.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
I push myself faster, all too aware of the screaming baby in my arms. We hit the guard booth a moment later, and getting through it and stepping over the dead bodies takes precious seconds that we don’t have. Getting back past the gates, I smell sweet freedom, and we run as fast as we can, the other soldiers already deep into the safety of the thick forest.