Page 84 of A Knight’s Revenge: The Complete Series

CHAPTER THREE

JOLIE

A s Bruce maneuvered our boat along the western shore of Industrial City, I pulled my balaclava over my face and tightened the straps of my helmet. The clock was ticking, and I’d have Zach in my arms again within the hour if everything went according to plan.

Zepp’s voice sounded in our earpieces. “Our drone picked up twelve heat signatures at the target. Ten scattered around the front of the warehouse with at least six guarding the main door. There’s one guard on the small back door, and our boy is likely being held back wall, center.”

Fresh rage thrummed through my veins.

“Thanks, Zepp,” Dom’s voice responded. “Shadow Team, get ready to disembark. Boat drivers, prepare to head south after we unload.”

There was no dock on the west bank of Industrial City, and Andrea had made sure the docks to the north under the bridge into the City were blocked by a large container ship idling on the water. So, we were doing a drive-by to unload before we trekked the half mile inland to our target.

Bennett appeared next to me. “Ready, Angel?” He pulled his own face covering up over his mouth and nose, his mossy green eyes scanning the shore with a focused intensity that settled something in my bones. “They’re not prepared for this. The Families have no fucking idea who stands against them. ”

“Damn right,” Noah said from my other side, slinging his sniper rifle onto his back.

“I’m ready,” I replied. “I have a lot of anger to burn off right now.”

“Strap in, lovebirds,” Max called to us as he straddled the side of the boat. “It’s go time.”

And with that, we were off. The shoreline, shrouded in darkness under the cloudy night sky, blended right into the black waters of the river.

As our boats skirted along the crumbling retaining wall, we hopped over the side one by one, taking care to land lightly in our heavy boots on the dusty gravel.

Dom signaled to me, and he peeled away with the larger group, headed to attack the warehouse from the front in the most distracting way possible.

“Be safe, sweetheart,” Noah whispered to me, squeezing my hand before he melted into Dom’s group.

As Team Shock and Awe disappeared through the narrow pathway leading into the first cluster of shipping containers near the shore, my little team snaked southeast, intent on attacking the inadequately guarded back of the building.

“Bennett, I’m leading,” I griped as he strode ahead of me, his big body moving through the shadows like a slippery ghost.

“Nah, I like this better,” Max said from behind me. “We can stare at that fantastic ass.”

“Max, your eyes better be on your surroundings ,” I hissed over my shoulder.

Bennett remained silent, refusing to give up the lead, and the three of us wound our way through the rusty warehouses and crooked, flickering streetlamps until we’d worked our way inland and the shoreline disappeared from view.

Kara’s hushed voice came through our earpieces. “Team Shock and Awe is in position.”

“Team White Knight is fifty yards south of target, ready to approach,” Bennett replied.

“ Bennett ,” I snapped. “Stop doing my job.”

“Shh, Angel,” he murmured. “We’re about to get Zach back.”

I blew out a breath. Fuck yes, we were.

Max snickered from behind me. “That was too easy, Jojo. ”

“Shut up, Max.”

We moved another twenty yards forward, and Zach’s prison came into view.

The warehouse was a large cube of faded brown brick, its few narrow windows dark and covered by steel bars.

In the dim yellow light of the sidewalk lamp, we could just make out the drab green door that allowed entry to the back, our only obstacle a small, rusty padlock hanging above the brass doorknob.

Suddenly, an explosion sounded from the front. The loud clatter of someone ripping open the large rolling steel door of the main entrance followed, and then?—

Chaos.

Shouting, rapid gun shots, the bright orange flare that lit up the sky—Martinez and his flamethrower at work—and that was our signal.

We rushed the back door, and Max made quick work of the shitty padlock with one precise bullet. Bennett lifted his heavy-booted foot and kicked the door in, and within two seconds, the lone, confused guard was down, the victim of my semi-automatic pistol and my rage.

“Zach!” I shouted as I hurdled the Enforcer’s body and ran for the center of the back wall.

He was there, splayed out on the cold floor, his back against a steel pole and his arms behind him, wrapped in fucking chains .

Bennett and Max covered me, firing shots toward the front of the warehouse where the few Enforcers who hadn’t run outside into the commotion were engaged in a fight with Kara’s team.

“Princess!” Zach’s tired face lit up like Christmas morning as I sprinted his way. “You missed me.”

“Shut up, you ridiculous, sexy asshole,” I breathed as I fell to my knees in front of him.

“Of course I missed you. Don’t do this shit to me again.

” I ran my gloved hands all over his body, feeling for injuries.

There was blood all over his fucking clothes and his face, and everyone in this goddamn warehouse was going to die .

“I’m okay, baby girl, I promise,” he said. “Just see if you can get me out of these chains, yeah?”

Bennett had positioned himself in front of us, pistol held aloft, and he was firing the occasional shot into the fray in the front.

“Here!” Max yelled, pulling something from the pocket of one of the fallen Enforcers. He launched it at Bennett, who snatched it out of the air .

“Key,” he said, turning to toss it my way.

“Fuck yes,” I hissed as I caught it, then I scrambled around the back of the pole and jammed the key into the lock on the chains. It clicked, and the chains fell away from Zach’s arms and pooled on the floor in front of me.

Zach was on his feet in an instant, looking no worse for wear as he bolted for the front of the warehouse.

“Zach!” I shouted, suddenly terrified. He wasn’t wearing Kevlar like the rest of us—what the fuck was he thinking?

Bennett tossed him a gun, which Zach caught in one hand without so much as a glance at it as he streaked past Bennett, and I watched in equal parts awe and horror as he launched himself over the back of the metal table that had been flipped on its side—where a lone Enforcer had taken cover while continuing to fire shots at Kara and her team.

Just as one of those shots hit Kara in her shoulder, Zach tackled the Enforcer to the ground behind the table.

“Shit,” Bennett swore as the sounds of struggle ensued. He pulled me to my feet, and we both dashed to the front of the huge room. The occasional popping of gunshots continued outside, though the shouting and general sounds of mayhem had abated.

Zach jumped up from behind the table, a second gun in hand and new bloody gash on his forehead. He tucked his extra pistol into his sweatpants—a model of gun safety—and aimed the other at his captive as he proceeded to drag him out from behind the table by his leg while wearing a feral smile.

Ramon .

“Inside is clear,” Kara announced into our earpieces as she nursed her wounded shoulder, aided by a concerned Julie—her second-in-command and her wife.

“What did I say, Ramon?” Zach said as he dropped him in the middle of the floor, his gun still pointed at Ramon’s head. “I told you that before this was over, I was going to break every bone in your body.”

“You don’t have the balls, boy,” Ramon bit out through clenched teeth. He was clearly in pain, so Zach must have already done a number on him.

“You don’t think so?” Zach asked lightly. He tossed a look over at Bennett and me. “Make sure he doesn’t go anywhere. ”

We both drew our weapons and aimed them at Ramon while Zach padded on his bare feet to the corner of the warehouse. He proceeded to dig in a black duffle bag he found there.

“Aha!” he exclaimed, pulling a set of brass knuckles from the bag.

“Did you think I didn’t remember the times in the past when you’d gotten these babies out for my punishments, Ramon?

You warned me we were about to take a trip down memory lane before you were so rudely interrupted by my Princess and her…

.” He cast a curious look around the warehouse at the few members of our Shadow team that weren’t dealing with whatever was going on outside. “Personal commandos.”

I glared at Ramon over the barrel of my gun. “You’ve tortured Zach before?”

Bennett gave my hand a comforting squeeze. “Andrea started punishing Zach this way right after they took you from us.”

I squeezed the trigger, burying a bullet right in Ramon’s kneecap. He screamed in pain, so I went ahead and shot the other knee out, too, because I liked the symmetry of it all.

“Oh fuck, baby girl,” Zach cooed at me as he returned to my side to lord over Ramon as he convulsed on the floor. “That was hot, but you gotta leave some for me, okay?” He pulled me in for a lingering kiss to my forehead, and then he got to work.

After sliding the brass knuckles onto his right hand, Zach proceeded to brutally and painstakingly break as many bones in Ramon’s body as possible while the rest of us looked on with both respect and grim satisfaction.

After Zach finally ended it all with a clean shot to the head, I pulled him into my arms. He sagged against me, still breathing hard, and I vowed to never let him go again.

“I’m fine, Princess,” he said, wrapping an arm around me and sandwiching me between his big body and Bennett’s. “Just need a decent night’s sleep, and I’ll be good as new.”

We’d just see about that, but before I could argue with Zach about the need for our doctor to go over him with a fine-tooth comb, the rest of our team finally began to stream through the open bay door.

“Outside is clear,” Dom announced in our ears about ten seconds before he walked through the door. “We had a few of the runners get away, but they won’t be showing their faces in the City again after that kind of cowardly shit. ”