Page 58 of Victorious: Part 3

“Movement on the water!” Dash’s voice comes through tight with urgency. “Multiple boats incoming from the east. The Cartel’s bringing reinforcements.”

I didn’t think my blood could turn to ice, but suddenly, I’m feeling very, very fucking frozen.

We’re about to be caught between explosives and a fresh wave of Cartel soldiers with nowhere to fucking run.

“All teams, extract now! Repeat,extract now!”I scream down the comms, needing my woman and brothers to get the fuck out of there.

The container door explodes outward as Nycto, Toxin, Dash, Nerve, Atomic, and Ominous sprint toward the boats. Behind them, continuous gunfire illuminates the air from pursuing soldiers, and beyond that, the running lights of approaching vessels.

Toxin leaps from the barge to our boat, and the other guys are loading all the weapons from the cache into the other boats beside us, just as the first incoming round splashes into the water beside us. I catch Toxin around the waist, hauling her down as bullets whine overhead.

“Go! Go! Go!”Nycto shouts. “Nerve, set off those damn drones.”

“You got it,” Nerve states, working hard on his tablet to hack the Cartel’s own drones.

Our boat engines roar to life, and we pull away from the barge as the facility erupts behind us in a chain of explosions that light up the night sky like the Fourth of fucking July. The shockwave hits us like a physical blow, and I instinctively cover Toxin with my body before the debris rains down around us, showering us in ash and embers from the chaos we just saved Tampa from.

Panting and coughing from the smoke as I continue to cover Toxin, I smirk, knowing that as the Cartel’s weapons cache burns behind us, we managed to remove enough of their weapons and take them with us, so that when we blew what was left, we didn’t create a natural goddamn disaster.

Only the end of the Cartel’s reign in Tampa.

Checkmate, Javier.

Check-fucking-mate.

When the echoes fade, all that remains is a burning skeleton of twisted metal and concrete, flames reaching toward the starslike accusing fingers.

“Sound off,” Nycto calls out. “Everyone better have fucking made it.”

“Brass, I’m bleeding but breathing.”

“Atomic, present, and pissed off.”

“Dash, I’m all good.”

“Nerve, that was fucking crazy.”

“Ominous, alive, and carrying a fuck-ton of intel and weapons.”

“Whiskey, all good.”

Silence stretches for a heartbeat before I realize everyone’s waiting for me.

“Yeah, I’m here. Toxin and I are…” I look down at the woman pressed against my chest, her face streaked with soot and her eyes blazing with adrenaline. “We’re all good.”

As we race through the darkness toward shore, Nycto checks in to LA for the final transmission of the night.

“L6, this is T4. Mission complete. Couple of injuries, but we are 10/4,” Nycto calls.

Static crackles over the comms as we continue through the water, but then the female voice answers, “Understood, T4. Great job. Get some rest. L6 out.”

Dropping back against the side of the boat, Whiskey takes us home, and I hold Toxin as she grins up at me. My fingers slide through her hair while I stare into her eyes. “You are a fucking badass, you know that?”

She chuckles, shaking her head. “I’m the first female Defiance club member, I have to be a badass, baby. But when we get home, I’m just gonna be your Old Lady, and we’re gonna celebrate this win in a really,reallykinky way. Down in the bricking cell.”

I waggle my brows at her, and go to reply, but Brass cuts in first, “I’m bleeding out here, can you guys ease up on trying tokill me with your bullshit?”

Whiskey chuckles, and I grin, holding Toxin tighter, pressing a kiss to her temple. “No can do, brother, you’re gonna have to suffer in silence.”