Page 16

CHAPTER 16

Sienna

Four men charged onto the balcony, and Sienna’s heart shot into her throat. Her instincts screamed at her to move, to run, to do something.

Rusty shielded her with his body, holding her back against the marble pillar.

“Soda, cover rear! Guard!” His command was sharp but low.

The dog darted behind Rusty, facing the opposite direction to him, and released a low warning growl that should have any attacker backing away.

Sienna gripped Rusty’s waist, trying to see past his broad shoulders.

The attackers darted between the pillars, constantly shifting and deadly, and barely visible in the dim light. Her heart thundered in her ears as she caught glimpses of their approach—two from the left, one from the right, moving in perfect sync.

Are they communicating somehow? She wracked her brain, trying to remember if she’d spotted any comm channels on the server before she killed the network, but everything had happened too fast.

Including Rusty.

He’d moved with lethal efficiency in every action, taking down those guys before she could even process what was happening. Even now, with men zeroing in on them, he shielded her from danger without hesitation, proving that the same man who’d stolen her heart all those years ago was still there, beneath all that military precision.

One guard flicked on his weapon light, and the beam cut through the darkness like a lightsaber. Rusty’s gun cracked, and the attacker dropped without a sound. A cry caught in Sienna’s throat at how efficient it was. One bullet, one man dead. The man hadn’t even had time to scream.

Gunfire erupted everywhere. Glass shattered. Bullets thumped into walls.

She ducked down as the booming sounds bounced off marble, and she couldn’t tell where the shots were coming from. Her ears rang with each blast, and the balcony became a blur of gunshots and shouts.

A chunk of marble exploded by her head, spraying her face with dust and tiny fragments that stung like needles. She ducked lower with a strangled gasp, biting down so hard she tasted blood. Her body trembled as Rusty pressed her harder against the pillar, his body bucking and jerking with each return shot.

“Soda, down! Stay down!” Rusty’s command was absolute. Sienna could just see the struggle in the dog’s rigid posture. Clearly, her instincts told her to protect her handler, but years of training kept her in place.

Oh God. Where’s Pickle?

Was he . . . was he—She couldn’t even bring herself to consider him dead.

He has to be alive. Has to be.

The air burned her throat—acrid, chemical. This was nothing like those sanitized self-defense classes where the guns were loaded with blanks. Those classes felt like child’s play now. All those practiced moves and controlled scenarios were bullshit. Nothing had prepared her for this.

This was fucking real.

A man was dead merely feet away, for fuck’s sake.

Another explosion of marble showered her head, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Soda’s high, desperate whine cut through the chaos, and Sienna’s heart stopped as her eyes flew open to search the darkness for Soda. Relief nearly buckled her knees when she caught an amber-red flash of Soda’s eyes that proved the K9 was still alert, still alive, and still holding her guard position.

Sienna twisted her fingers deeper into Rusty’s shirt as the firefight stretched endlessly. How many bullets did he have left? Did the guards have more men to send up here?

As if summoned by her fear, Rusty’s gun clicked empty.

“Fuck!” He dropped the spent weapon and drew another in one fluid motion, but instead of returning fire, he went statue-still. Both hands gripped the gun, aimed at something she couldn’t see, and his entire body coiled with deadly focus.

A sickening thud added to the chaos, and Rusty’s sharp grunt of pain pierced her worse than any bullet could. “Son of a bitch!”

“Rusty!” She dug her fingers into his shirt, pulling him toward her. “Oh God. Are you hit?”

“I’m okay.” He grunted with a sharp inhale.

There was no blood, and he didn’t crumble in her grip.

“But. . . but?—”

“Got the Kevlar.” The words ground out through his clenched teeth as if every syllable hurt. He fired once, then burst from their cover like unleashed lightning, ripping her fingers from his shirt as he charged into the darkness.

“Soda, attack! Take him!” Rusty’s command cracked through the air like a whip.

The dog exploded past Rusty like a massive furry missile. A man’s body hit the floor with a sound that would live in her nightmares forever.

Soda’s snarls mixed with a man’s desperate screams that no human throat should ever make.

Then another guard cried out as he went flying over the balcony railing. The wet crack of his final impact two stories below punched through the atrium, drawing shrieks from the women that echoed everywhere.

“Get more men up there! You fucking idiots.” Wang’s voice boomed from below. “Kill them!”

Sienna’s blood ran cold as the thunder of boots echoed up the marble steps, closing in from both sides of the balcony.

“They’re coming,” she cried, her voice cracking, but she didn’t know if Rusty even heard her over the chaos.

Fragments of violence erupted in the darkness—the sickening thud of fists meeting flesh, grunts of pain, and Soda’s guttural, deadly growls.

Why doesn’t Rusty shoot? Oh God . . . is he out of bullets?

Her breath hitched, panic clawing at her throat. I need to help him.

Her heart pounded a frantic rhythm against her ribs, each brutal impact of the fight sounding like a countdown to disaster. Years of training flared to life in her muscles, coiled and ready. Watch. Wait. Strike when the moment is right—to hell with waiting!

Through the swirling marble dust, two guards emerged like phantoms, their shadows stretching long and menacing. One veered toward Rusty, the other toward her.

Sienna sank into the shadows, her pulse a war drum in her ears. She tracked the guard’s movements, her body taut as she counted each step.

Three steps.

Her pulse roared.

Two steps.

Marble crunched under his boots.

One.

She struck like a cobra, palm heel to throat. He gasped for air. She kicked his nuts. He folded over. She grabbed his head and slammed him into the marble wall. The crack was satisfying as he dropped like a stone.

She kicked his ribs, but when he didn’t howl, she figured he was out cold.

Holy shit! I did it!

The fight was over in seconds.

Gasping for air and battling to comprehend that she’d taken out an armed guard, she spun toward the fight behind her. Rusty faced two men at once with his bare hands.

Every strike flowed into the next, beautiful and terrible. The violence was a show of strength and stamina like she’d never seen before.

A shadow detached from the chaos. Soda launched onto one of the guards. His scream of terror lasted only seconds before the dog cut off his cries.

Rusty’s fist made a crushing blow to the man’s neck. As the man bent over, clawing at his throat, he came face to face with Soda. Her growl rolled through the air like thunder, and the final guard’s eyes flew wide. He ran like a devil was on his ass.

Soda caught him in three strides, sinking her teeth into his hand. He yanked himself free and jumped over the balcony, screaming all the way down and ending with terrible silence.

Rusty whirled toward Sienna, battle-fierce and desperate all at once. Their eyes locked through the settling dust, and she sprinted to him, dodging around the bodies. Her heart hammered with leftover adrenaline and relief as her sneakers crunched over marble shards.

He opened his arms, and she slammed into his chest, feeling the hard ridge of the Kevlar vest and the rapid rise and fall of his breathing.

His arms locked around her like he would never let go.

In that moment, she fell for him all over again. Not for the charming young man who used to chase her into the tumbling waves, but for the man he was now—brave, protective, unstoppable. He was her real-life hero.

“You were amazing,” she breathed.

“Me?” He curled his hand over her hair. “You took down that man with one kick. That takes some?—”

“You have ten seconds to surrender,” Wang bellowed from below, his tone clear and calculated, “or I execute these women. One. By. One.”

Gasping, Sienna lifted her head from Rusty’s chest and found his eyes in the darkness. The steel in his gaze matched the ice in her veins.

Below them, the women whimpered. Pleaded.

“Ten.” Wang’s voice echoed off marble walls like a cannon shot as he began his countdown.