Page 92 of Storm and Tempest

Two MSI operatives raced to the back of the warehouse. Everyone else braced for the front entry.

Instead of gunfire, the front of the building exploded. Jax hunkered down, ducking his head at the smoke and debris that rained down. His ears rang with the concussive force of the blast.

He checked the windows again and saw someone lowering himself to the ground on a rope. The second the guy’s feet touched the ground, Jax wondered if it was already too late. He ran at the man, tackling him to the ground. The rope caughtbetween them, twisting both as they fell. Jax landed on his shoulder and cried out as pain whipped through it like lightning.

He kicked out at the guy, unable to move his arms for a second as the pain vibrated through his upper body.

The other man rolled them and slammed Jax’s head against the floor. Jax got one leg up and kicked him back, lifted his upper body off the floor, and squeezed off two shots.

His opponent fell back, dead.

Jax slumped back to the floor and hit his head again. He winced, breathing hard. Awareness coalesced around him, and he realized the others were in a firefight with whoever had come through after that explosion.

He stayed low and made his way to where Bear and Ramon fired over a short stack of crates, and Maizie hunkered down on the floor between them.

“You good?”

“You killed that guy.” She whimpered. “I saw you.”

Jax nodded, unsure what she needed him to say. “They aren’t going to get to you.”

“I might not be the target. Maybe they don’t care about me at all.”

He found that hard to believe, but it wasn’t going to be reassuring to her. Beside him, Bear quit firing. “They backed off. One dragged the other out.”

“Injured and on the run?” Ramon turned to them. “Sounds like fun.” The Hispanic man touched Maizie’s shoulder with his offhand. “Stay with Jax.” Then he hurried away, and Jax heard him call out to Zeyla.

Bear gave orders to his guys, and they ran after Ramon, giving chase to the team who’d tried to infiltrate this warehouse.

“Should we go tell the others it’s safe to come out?” Maizie asked.

He shifted so he could put one knee down.

She tucked her legs closer to her chest, her knuckles white from gripping her knees.

“In a minute,” he replied. “It’s over, but we need to be sure.”

She nodded. “That was intense, but it was over quickly.”

“It always goes faster than you think.” He touched her shoulder. “You good?”

“I wasn’t in any danger.” She considered what she was saying. “I might ask Bear if I can do some training with his team.”

“It would help you to know what they’re thinking, and how they approach problem-solving.”

She bit her lip. “There’s something I need to tell you, and you aren’t going to like it. But it wasn’t worse than those people coming to kill us, and Zeyla said I should just let you know later. So you could focus.”

And now that the situation was resolved, she could say it. “What’s going on?”

Maizie lowered her knees, her backpack beside her. She probably felt odd not having her laptop or iPad in her hands.

She started to speak, hesitated, then said, “Elliot Adams was killed a few hours ago. The transport was ambushed, and he was executed.”

“Were any other agents killed?”

She shook her head. “But…”

“What is it, Maze?”