Catching Teardrops (MAC Security 5)

I nod even though she can’t see me, stepping in front of the door of the last room I need to check. I stand to the side of it before snapping my body forward and looking through the glass, taking stock of everything and pulling back.

“There’s something playing on the monitor here,” I tell everyone, looking around at all their positions where they’re spread out on the floor. “I’m going in.”

Counting to three before I move my arm and open the door, I wait an extra beat before throwing myself in the room, my body moving with my gun as I keep it up in front of me. My gaze wanders around the room before stopping on the screen and frowning at what’s playing. It cuts back and forth, a voiceover coming through the speakers before a rocket shows on the screen, fire burning underneath it as the voice counts it down.

Something clicks in the air around me, and when I step forward and see the black box on the desk with numbers running down, I realize—

“Bomb!” I shout before spinning around and running out of the room as the voiceover reaches four. “Run!” I’m darting for the stairs, watching as Daley moves behind Kitty toward the door we came in.

“Three.”

My body smashes into a chair, causing me to stumble.

“Two.”

I stand up, seeing the door ten feet in front of me as Kitty and Daley push through it. My breaths come faster, my adrenaline pumping but I’m too far away to get to safety. This is it, this is when you’re meant to see your life flash in front of your eyes, but all I see is Lily’s sleeping face, her hair spread out over the pillow next to me.

“One.”

LILY

“Lily!” I roll over, my body tired, my muscles aching as my eyes open and the darkness in the room surrounds me. “Lily!”

I lift into a sitting position, my heart racing as the bedroom door opens, light filling the space, and when I turn to look at the other side of the bed, it’s empty.

“Dean?” I frown at his pale face as he steps toward me.

“We gotta go,” he says, his tone and movements frantic.

“What?” I pull the covers back. “What’s happened?”

He throws the jeans off the floor at me and I pull them on, my hands shaking as I zip them up.

“Luke.” He pauses before running his hand through his hair. “He’s hurt. He went out on a job and… he’s at the hospital.”

“Oh my God.” Tears spring to my eyes, my breaths sawing in and out of my body. He can’t be hurt, he can’t be. Not after everything I just gave him.

“Come on,” Dean says, turning around and heading out of the bedroom with me hot on his heels. “I’ll take you to the hospital. Everyone else is already there.”

LUKE

The piercing noise reverberates through my ears and all I want to do is lift my hands to cover them, but no matter how much I try, I can’t move.

Something crushes me, not letting me take a full breath.

My head rolls to the side, my eyes wide open as I watch in what feels like slow motion as Ty and Evan run toward me, their mouths moving but I can’t hear a word they’re saying over the shrill noise in my ears.

I blink and they’re there, pulling something off me, heaving until I can finally take a breath.

Hands come on my chest, Kitty’s face appearing over mine, her mouth moving, and I finally catch the word, “Okay.”

/>

“What—”

Her hand moves, yanking out the earpiece and muffling the piercing noise a little and that’s when I realize it’s not coming from around me, but from that and my eardrum.

“We need to get out of here,” she says before standing up, and then several pairs of hands are grasping at me, trying to pull me up from the floor.