Page 34 of Knot Letting Go (Knotty Streak Omegaverse #4)

Waves knocked against the back of my head. No other guards at the back. None on the roof. I crawled on my belly to the shore and removed the snorkeling gear, abandoning it where I dropped it.

Time to be like a fucking ninja. Keeping low to the ground, I raced up to the patio, hiding behind a thick foundation post. I swept the dripping water from my face and quietly took out the flare gun.

It had survived the swim dry, and after making sure it was loaded, I gripped it in my right hand while holding the carjack handle in my left.

I briefly closed my eyes, taking in a few deep breaths.

Praying to whoever was listening, I didn’t care, I wanted the girls and Konstantin to come out of this unscathed.

I wanted Lillianna to laugh again and live the happiest of lives.

I wanted Aubrielle to light up the world with her smile and get everything her beautiful soul deserved.

I wanted Konstantin to have the family he’s always needed and to finally find some peace.

Me, I wanted to be the guy who made those things happen. And right now, that meant playing commando.

One more breath. Fuck.

Gripping my weapons, I peered around the post. My head and shoulders were above the patio, but most of me was still hidden. The man by the patio door was still there. I needed to get his attention to draw him outside, and hoped there was only one of them.

I scooped up a rock from the sandy ground and tossed it onto the deck. It thunked and rolled, coming to a stop against a table leg.

Hidden behind the post, I heard the swish of the glass door opening and the footsteps of a heavy man.

I bent my knees to keep as low as possible, but up enough to see where he was.

The big ugly bastard looked bored as he glanced to the left and then the right.

Not in front of him or even down to where I was hiding. He was shit at his job.

He took out his phone and, seeing nothing that got his interest, put it back into his pants pocket. Then he pulled out a thin piece of torn white fabric. Rubbing it between his fingers, he brought it up to his nose and inhaled.

What the fuck?

That was the same color of the shirt Aubrielle was wearing today. He had a piece of her fucking shirt.

I bared my teeth with a growl as rage surged through my veins. Fuck him .

I raised the flare gun and fired.

The bastard lifted his head just as the flare hit his chest. He let out a shout as his shirt erupted in flames and ran to his right to fall into the sand, beating his body to try to put the fire out.

Dropping the gun, I ran up on him with the carjack handle in both hands and roared. I would smash in his skull. This fucker touched my Omega. He wouldn’t live to see another day.

He saw me at the last second and raised an arm to block my first blow. I whacked him again, and he kicked me in the gut, sending me falling backward into the sand. Scrambling to my feet, I fought to get in a good breath.

Pushing himself up, he let out a pained cry as he glanced at his chest. The flames were gone, leaving behind a sizzling raw mass of flesh and blood.

One of his nipples was completely gone and a tattoo seemed to be melting as it continued to bubble.

Bits of his shirt had been fused with his body as everything oozed down his torso like a grotesque landslide.

“I’m going to fucking kill you!”

I dodged his first punches and swung with the handle, but the few hits I connected with didn’t seem to phase him at all. He’d gone berserk with the pain, and fuck, he was a solid wall of muscle.

“Look at what you did!” He smashed a fist into my shoulder. “You’re dead, Birk! Dead!”

All I could do was duck and weave. He knew me. I tried to pick out his face from my memory, but all I came up with was that he was one of Lorenzo’s nephews.

His name didn’t matter. He’d hurt Aubrielle. The burn was the least I was going to do to him.

I kicked up sand and tried to take him out at the knees, but nothing worked. The bastard was insane.

He frothed at the mouth and wasn’t slowing. I had a metal bar and all he had were his fists, but I was the one starting to falter after each hit. My arms were burning and sweat was stinging my eyes.

A fist connected with my jaw and sent me stumbling.

I spun back around and slammed the handle against his side. Once, twice.

He grunted and hit me again. This time, my feet went out from under me and I lost my weapon.

The fucker was instantly on me. His heavy weight pressed me into the sand as his hands wrapped around my throat. I elbowed his legs, jabbed his ribs, and kicked my feet, but I couldn’t get away.

“I’m going to fucking choke the life out of you!” His fingers dug into my flesh as he squeezed. The world grew hazy around the edges.

I hadn’t gotten the girls yet. It couldn’t end like this.

Smacking his burnt chest, I dug in my nails and ripped the flesh like crepe paper. He bellowed at me, but didn’t let go.

My lungs screamed for oxygen and my head felt like it might implode.

Gunshots blasted from the other side of the house. Several of them.

But they wouldn’t be able to get to me in time.

I couldn’t die. Not yet. My job wasn’t done.

The knife!

With the last of my desperate strength, I dug into my pocket and fumbled with it. For a second, I thought I wouldn’t be able to grasp it, but I locked my fingers around the handle and flicked out the blade.

I jammed it upward into the asshole’s side and jerked it out in a slicing motion. He howled and slammed my head into the sand. Blackness was taking over the world.

Yanking back my arm, I aimed for his head. I nicked his ear. So close.

He leaned in the direction opposite of my hand with the knife and I drove it sideways.

Right into his eye.

The pressure on my throat was immediately gone, and I sucked in a huge lungful of air. I kicked him off and rolled toward the deck, my throat on fire with each inhale.

The fucker screamed and kicked, flailing about on the ground with his hands pressing against his wound. He became coated in bloody sand like a real life horror movie monster. Then just when I thought he’d never die, he suddenly went still.

Shouts echoed from within the house, but no more shots.

I waited, not daring to move. Watching his chest, it didn’t rise for ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty. A full minute.

He was dead. I coughed out something that was like a laugh or sob.

“Quill!”

I sat up at the sound of my name and nearly vomited.

Talis slid onto his knees at my side. “Are you alright?”

I nodded, motioning to the dead bastard and my throat.

“I can see. The police and EMTs are on their way. Let’s get you into one of those chairs and put some ice on your neck to stop any swelling.” Talis, ever the calm and cool professional.

I let him help me up, and I stood for a few seconds trying to find my balance.

Konstantin burst out from the open back door. Thank fuck he was alive.

“We can’t find Lillianna and Aubrielle. They aren’t in the house.”

No fucking way. They had to be here.

I shook my head and stumbled toward the door. Both Talis and Konstantin grabbed me before I fell over.

“They checked everywhere? All the closets and bathrooms? Is there an attic or crawlspace?” Talis quickly questioned.

“Nowhere.” Konstantin repeated with a frustrated grunt. He seemed cool, but in his eyes, the panic threatened to spill out. “I was certain Lorenzo had them here with him. He wouldn’t have trusted them to be anywhere else.”

“Leave me. Find them,” I croaked, swallowing hard. All of this was for naught if we didn’t save Lillianna and Aubrielle.

Talis cursed under his breath and then pressed the button on the radio attached to his bulletproof vest. “Ping the house.”

I frowned. Konstantin was immediately on that strange order. “Ping? What do you mean?”

“Aubrielle and Lillianna were wearing museum bracelets. There’s a chip in them that allows security to locate someone if a child goes missing or is looking for their parent—”

“Why didn’t you do that before? We could have found them much quicker!” Konstantin seethed.

“Because the ping only works in a block’s radius.” Talis explained, holding up his hands in a calming motion. “We pinged their bracelets at the museum, but they weren’t there.”

The radio crackled. “They’re here.”

My heart leapt. Konstantin darted back into the house, and I was right on his heels. My legs felt rubbery, but I ran on pure adrenaline. Aubrielle and Lillianna were here. Likely in some stupid hidey hole that no one found yet.

We pulled shelves away from the walls, ripped up carpets, and yanked paintings off the walls. Talis’ team even smashed holes in the plaster. All the while, we shouted for the girls.

I was going out of my mind. None of us could find them.

Talis pinged the house again. “They’re here. Or, at least, the bracelets are.”

No. I wasn’t having that. They were here.

I ended up back outside looking for a shed or a boathouse. Even a tent by the beach. Nothing.

My world was crumbling. I wanted to scream at the fiery setting sun. Where the fuck were they and why weren’t they answering?

They weren’t dead. They couldn’t be dead.

I slowly turned to stare at the beach in front of the house. No.

Not dead. I refused to acknowledge that possibility.

Then a flash of light against metal drew my gaze to the space under the deck. A giant fucking cistern. My heart beat so hard, I thought it was going to launch itself out of my chest.

“There!” My voice cracked as I sprinted toward the rainwater containment unit. “The cistern!”

Konstantin and another one of Talis’ team came out the back door and ran around to it.

“How does it open?” The anguish in my words sent me into a coughing fit. I still ran up to it and banged on the side. “Lilli! Aubrielle!”

Konstantin was immediately on top of some type of wheel, cranking open a hatch. His chest heaved with the effort. Tears pooled in the corners of his eyes.

He threw open the hatch and peered inside.

That’s when we heard the blessed cry from Lillianna. “Daddy!”

She was alive. She was fucking alive!

I raised my arms in a silent cheer of celebration as spun around to set itself right again.

“I’m coming in to get you.” Konstantin was already climbing up and thrusting his legs through the hatch. “Watch out so that I don’t jump on you.”

But everything was thrust out of harmony once more when Lillianna added, “Hurry, Daddy! Aubrielle isn’t moving.”