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Lorcan goes to a panel on the wall near the door and hits a few buttons. “The alarm was triggered in the basement.” He frowns.
“What? Why does that matter?”
“You can’t trigger it unless you’re inside the house.”
“One of Zhang’s men escaping.” Malik didn’t look good enough earlier to be doing this on his own. Could someone else? Is it the bureau, or is something else going on?
“Possibly. If not, whoever it is, they know what they’re doing.”
Let’s hope that’s true.
Lorcan goes to the door, gun raised, and pops it open. He peeks outside, checking in both directions before signaling for me to follow. The alarm is so loud I’m not sure we’ll hear anyone approaching, anyway. With light feet, we race down the hallway, guns at the ready. When we get to the stairs, he signals for me to go slow and follow him.
“I’m your bodyguard,” I say into his ear above the blaring alarm.
“Now isnotthe time for jokes.”
We whirl, guns raised at the heavy footfalls approaching behind us. It’s Ian and Sean.
“Ian, take the perimeter. Sean, search the rest of the house. The alarm says basement, but I want to be sure,” Lorcan calls out the instructions in a terse voice above the wailing siren.
Tension radiates off him as he watches the other two men leave. Adrenaline courses through me. We’re both so tightly wound, I worry we’ll make a mistake. Is Finn already there? Has anyone been hurt?
We creep down the stairs, Lorcan in front, me close behind. At the bottom, he peers around the corner.
“Antonio is down.” His voice is pitched low, and I’m not sure I’ve heard him. “No sign of Finn or anyone else.”
“I’ll go to the right,” I call back. “You take the left.”
The hall is wide, and there are cells on either side. When I was here earlier, the doors were closed. Now, they’re thrown open, some of them hanging on their hinges. At the wall, he punches in a code, and the alarm cuts out.
“What the hell happened?” he mutters to himself as we advance.
A couple of the rooms have bodies, left for dead or already dead. It seems like anyone who was conscious and able to leave fled the property. The double doors to the backyard are wide open.
“I’ll keep searching.” He gestures at Antonio who is sprawled at the entrance to a room. “Check him.”
I cross the hall and place the gun on the ground. There’s a lot of blood and a bullet hole in his forehead. Still, I check for a pulse. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s you never know what people are capable of surviving. It’s the only thing giving me a whisper of hope for Malik. “No vitals.”
Lorcan looks in the last room and comes to my side. He presses his fingers into Antonio’s neck and then tries to find a pulse on his wrist. There’s a slight edge of desperation in his movements, as though he doesn’t want to believe it’s true.
“What do you want to do?” My shoulders fall at the realization Antonio didn’t make it out alive. His poor kids.
“There’re dead bodies strewn all over. I need to call in a crew.” Lorcan pinches the bridge of his nose. “Who could have done this?”
“The Zhangs are the obvious choice.”
“We’ve dismantled and disrupted enough of their activity. I know they’re too scattered. This takes organization. Planning.” He scans the area, shaking his head. “Inside information.”
“The alarm was going off for a while.” I head down the hall, peering into doors again. There’s no sign of Malik except for his blood on the floor. I send up another silent prayer to whatever god might exist he makes it through this. “Where is Finn?”
Lorcan presses the heels of his hands into his forehead. “Maybe he’s not here.”
Neither of us is privy to Finn’s comings and goings, but something about him not being here tonight feels wrong. He was enjoying his prisoners far too much to leave them unattended.
Ian pops his head in the double doors that were left wide open in the escape. “There are a couple bodies out here. Want me to check them out?”
“Yeah.” He glances at Ian before focusing on Antonio. “Have you seen Finn? Did he go out?”