Page 29 of Echos and Empires (After #3)

FIFTEEN

“Emma’s gone! They fucking took her!”

Alex exploded into the room like a grenade, breathless, and full of panic. His words blasted through the small space. The sentence caught Chris like shrapnel, cutting into the moment with ragged urgency.

“She’s been kidnapped.”

Chris’s eyes narrowed with purpose, turning from man to soldier in an instant.

His rifle lay forgotten, guts splayed open for cleaning.

Nothing mattered now but this: find Emma.

“You’re sure?” Chris’s voice was already geared for action, each syllable a loaded bullet.

He stood, movements sharp, jaw clenched in a line of raw intention.

“I saw it happen. I was right there.” Alex’s breath came in heaves, chest rising and falling like a bellows feeding panic. “Fuck, man. I couldn’t stop them. I was worried if I didn’t play along they’d hurt her or the babies?”

“Who?” Chris fired off the question with surgical precision. “Who took her?” Chris vaguely heard the plural but had no time to ask Alex who else was in danger.

“The nurses. The doctors. Both.” Alex spat the word out as if it were poison.

He ran a shaky hand through his hair. “Everyone is coming in with weird symptoms and one minute they were trying to send Emma home for the babies protection and the next they were demanding she go with them while I stay behind.”

“And you fucking left?” Chris’s eyes blazed with a heat that threatened to torch the room.

“I thought the five of us would have a better chance of getting her back. We need to get everyone.”

“You left?” Chris repeated, trying to understand what Alex told him with what he wanted to do to the man for leaving just because he’d been separated from her.

“Chris, there’s fucking twins! There’s two little ones and we need to be careful or they could hurt her. I had to leave so we could get her.”

The world closed off, plunging him into darkness for the quickest of moments. “Twins?” he hissed the single word, uncertain if there was another woman in danger now.

“Twins. Two. I saw them and heard the heartbeats. It was when we reported it to the doctor for Emma and the babies’s safety that their tune changed. Chris, I’m worried they might lock her away. Twins must be huge.”

“Twins,” Chris repeated, the world titling as badly as it had the day the bombs dropped.

“Are we going to get Bash and Liam?” Alex’s voice steadied, sculpted now with the sharp edge of resolve.

“Damn right. Grab your gear. We leave in two.” Chris’s commands were the iron binding that held panic in check.

He moved with the unthinking precision of instinct, every gesture a strategy, every breath a plan.

“Bash! Liam!” Chris howled through the house, the world still unsteady but there wasn’t time. They had their family to save.

Chris moved like a missile locked on its target. No distraction. No hesitation.

Bash popped up at the top of the stairs, his eyes calculating and quick. “What’s wrong?”

“They have Emma,” Chris barked, the words falling like an incendiary. “The medical team she was supposed to trust. They took her somewhere.”

Bash rushed down the stairs, the loaded weight of his anger doubling the size of his already large frame. “Where?” He was already strapping on his holster, checking the ammo with lethal efficiency.

Liam emerged from the back living room, Ranger at his heels. “What the hell are we shouting about?”

“Emma’s been taken,” Bash growled, beating Chris, the words like jagged glass in his mouth. “At her appointment.”

“Christ.” Liam vanished into his room on the other side of the downstairs and emerged with his pack, securing the straps with deft, quick fingers. “Let’s fucking go, then. Ranger, stay.”

The dog gave a small whimper but laid down on the tile floor.

Chris’s eyes were flint, sparking with grim intention. “We take whatever we need and burn it all down if we have to.”

“Chris,” Alex seemed to urge.

Sighing, Chris relayed the message. “You should know, it’s not one baby. It’s two. Emma is pregnant with two small lives depending on us more than Emma ever had. We don’t fuck this up.”

Chris heard the responses but really couldn’t tell who said what as his blood still seemed to rush loudly through his ears with his anger.

The group moved like a single organism, each man a vital part of the whole. Bags were thrown together with fast, ruthless efficiency. Ammunition, weapons, grim determination—all checked and double-checked.

“They better hope she’s not hurt,” Bash muttered, rage threading his voice.

“They better hope they can fucking run,” Alex shot back, fire lancing through his tone.

Liam joined the verbal onslaught. “They don’t know who they’ve fucked with.”

“Move out. We can’t afford to find William. He’ll be pissed, but he’s not here and I’m not waiting.”

He left, the rest of the unit’s heavy steps behind his, the momentum of their fury propelling them forward. They were shadows and steel against the ash-gray world, silent and purposeful. Every step beat out a war drum cadence, closing the distance with measured intent.

“We stay tight,” Chris ordered, the weight of leadership grounding them. “Get eyes on her, then move.”

Each nod was a promise, a vow sworn in silence and sealed in blood. They moved with the precision of a unit that had fought and bled together. Unspoken signals passed between them, a language of instinct and urgency.

The make-shift streets blurred under the pounding rhythm of their strides.

Buildings loomed and vanished like ghosts in the poisoned fog.

There was no stopping, no slowing. Nothing mattered but the goal that pulled them ever closer, a magnet of raw need.

Chris cut the distance to the medical center with surgical precision.

The medical center loomed ahead, a monolith of sterile white and gleaming glass. Its pristine facade mocked the chaos churning within, the secrets festering behind closed doors.

A blur of motion exploded from the entrance. Chris tensed, his rifle snapping up in a heartbeat, ready to neutralize any threat.

But then he saw her—Emma, his Emma, rushing towards them like a force of nature unleashed.

Relief crashed over him like a tidal wave, threatening to buckle his knees.

But he stood firm, catching her as she collided with him, her small frame slamming into his chest with the force of a freight train.

He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close, breathing her in like oxygen to a drowning man.

“Emma,” he rasped, her name a prayer and a plea.

“Are you okay? Did they hurt you?” His eyes roamed over every inch of her body, checking for any sign they’d dared to harm her while acknowledging they didn’t have long to stand out front before someone would likely be coming. She was running. She’d escaped.

She pulled back, her hazel eyes wide and wild, her curly brown hair a tangled halo around her face. Panic and relief warred in her expression, a battle played out in the trembling of her hands.

“I’m fine,” she gasped, her voice shaky but determined.

“What happened?” Liam asked, his voice tight with concern. “How did you get away?”

Her eyes swept over them, flickering candles of relief and urgency. “You all came for me.”

“Of course we did,” Alex said, his voice threaded with love and frustration. “We’re not losing you. Not ever. I wouldn’t have left had I known you were going to kick their ass all on your own. I’d have stayed and waited for you.”

Emma met Chris’s gaze, the connection raw and unfiltered. “The only reason I got out is because you and Bash pushed me so hard. I’m so sick of needing that type of training, but it’s saved me so many damn times.”

“You did good,” Chris interrupted, pride an unhidden treasure in his voice. He held her close, like he might never let go. “Now, answer Liam.”

Emma took a shuddering breath, her words tumbling out in a rush.

“Warrington is the monster who attacked us. It may have been a cover up to save the island, but Warrington is not human. Not as far as I’m concerned.

He’s only allowing the best children to survive.

Even with how difficult conception is. He’s picking and choosing! ”

“That son of a fucking bitch!” Chris snarled, now moving with Emma half in his arms back toward the house. “I’ll kill him.”

“Besides that, we have to accept that many people know what he’s up to.” Liam added, somehow level-headed.

“How did you get away, you were running?” Alex asked, of course Alex would ask for details.

“They were going to give me some memory-erasing shot. I assume it’s similar to a truth serum concept. Bash, you saved me without evening being there.”

“How the fuck do you figure?” The big guy snarled, surprising Chris that he could be so gruff with Emma.

“Your defense tactics. I was able to break free and then inject the nurse. They tried to use some memory suppressant—like they use in surgeries. As far as she knows, she did exactly what she’s told and there’s no reason to track me down.”

“You think there aren’t any cameras?” Alex hissed.

“There weren’t. It was a giant white room.

He’s too vain to record his criminal acts I would stake my life on it.

” She reached into her pocket, slightly shoving Chris’s arm off her shoulders, and pulled out a small thumb drive.

It glinted in the harsh light, a tiny beacon of hope.

“I managed to steal this,” she said, pressing it into Chris’s hand.

“And a few of those shots. I have to believe they’ll keep trying to control me with them, I’ll be ready to turn the tables. ”

His voice was gravelly with awe and anger and gratitude all woven together. “You’re amazing. How the hell did you do this?”

“I’m not entirely sure,” she offered a shaky smile.