Page 114 of Boomer

“Come on. I’ve got you. Just a few more steps.”

The safe room was still open. Someone saw them and shouted their names.

They were ten feet from the threshold when Taylor heard it. The sound of boots hitting tile. Fast. Heavy. Close.

She turned, heart slamming in her chest.

Too many. Too close.

She shoved Anna toward the doorway with all the strength she had.

“Go!”

“No—”

“Go!Lock it! Lock it now!”

Anna stumbled across the threshold, caught by two hands. Taylor raised her weapon and turned.

The door slammed shut behind her with a final hiss of pressurization. She’d saved them. That was enough.

She pivoted, fired twice, ran to the cages.

Taylor sealed the secondary barrier, braced her back against it, and tightened her hands around the grip of her Glock.

The hallway narrowed here. Concrete and steel. One entry. No retreat. She didn’t flinch.

She thought about Ansel, her parents. Then another…Boomer. Don’t let them near my family. Please come back to me, my love.

Her mind snapped into full tactical mode. She reached behind the server stack and pulled a GPS micro-tracker, the one she always kept hidden for worst-case, and tucked it into her boot.If they take me, I’m not staying lost.

The door at the end of the hall shook. Slammed once. Twice. Exploded inward.

Two black-clad men charged in, fast and brutal. Taylor didn’t hesitate.

Two shots each to the heart, but only one man dropped.

The second reached her, and she drove her elbow into his throat, pivoted, and fired twice into his thigh. He screamed. She kicked him into the wall. But more were coming.

A flash-bang rolled in, spinning across the tile. “Shit—” White light. Pain.

Her ears rang, her concussed brain shut down. Her vision went sideways.

Hands grabbed her, but she fought like hell, teeth, nails, knees. She bit one of them hard enough to taste blood. Elbowed another in the ribs so savagely she felt something crack.

But a rifle butt slammed into her temple, and the world slipped.

Her last thought wasn’t of the people she couldn’t save. It was of the man who would come for her. Boomer. She tried.Gott,she fought. But they took her.

If she never saw him again, she would hold on to what they’d had with tight fists into the dark, his beautiful face her only light.

He and Bashapproached the house, crouching just out of sight of the front door.

A hulking shadow loomed on the porch. Armed. Tense. Boomer looked at Bash. “I’ll go around back.”

Bash nodded.

Boomer slipped through the neighbor’s backyard and climbed the fence, quiet and fast in the dark. His NVGs turned everything green. Somewhere in the distance, a dog barked. Good. Distraction.