Into the Mist (Falcon Mercenary Group #1)(70)

“Promise me,” Gabe said, his grip tightening around Ian’s shirt. “I don’t deserve anything from you guys but Katie is innocent. They want her. I’m stable…”

Ian pressed harder on the wound, despair tightening his throat as he realized nothing he was doing was staunching the blood flow. “We’ll find her, Gabe.”

“I’m sorry,” he murmured. “Tell Eli…so sorry. They said they’d kill her if I didn’t give you guys up. Realized too late. They wouldn’t kill her…they want her…like me…she’s all I had.”

His eyes seemed to fix on a spot beyond Ian and Braden, and then they slowly closed and his head fell to the side.

“Son of a bitch,” Braden hissed. “Goddamn it, no!”

Ian moved his bloody hands to Gabe’s neck, desperately feeling for a pulse. Grief and anger ricocheted through him when he got no response. No flutter to tell him Gabe was still alive.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Jonah and Mad Dog rounded a corridor and immediately fell back as shots were fired in their direction. They flattened themselves against the wall.

“Goddamn it, we don’t have time for this,” Mad Dog snarled.

Jonah stared at him. “Ty needs us. Let’s do this. She doesn’t have much time.”

Mad Dog held up three fingers and did a silent countdown. Jonah ducked low and Mad Dog hurled himself around the corner, rolling and firing.

The staccato of gunshots filled the hallway as he and Jonah laid down fire. Bullets tore into the wall above Jonah’s head. The two men in the front went down. Three behind began a hasty retreat and ran right into three members of the Falcon secondary.

“You’re with me,” Jonah barked to his men as he bolted up and raced down the corridor to the heart of the complex.

A few seconds later, they swarmed into an inner room. Small, circular in shape. It housed a glass tube that looked like an elevator shaft. Bingo. Their way down.

He and his men fell back as a low whir sounded, indicating the elevator was in use. Jonah pointed to two of his men to position themselves to the right and motioned to Mad Dog and the remaining man to go left. Jonah took position in front and waited.

When the glass pane slid upward, the door of the elevator revolved sideways and Eli stumbled out carrying Ty. Jonah froze for an infinitesimal moment. He saw the blood dripping from Ty’s leg and arm, saw how still she lay in Eli’s arms. Fear whispered through his veins.

“I want a perimeter around her.” Mad Dog intervened when Jonah remained silent for that one moment. “We move out, now. D, we’re coming out. Make damn sure there’s a chopper waiting in the vicinity. I don’t care how you make it happen.”

“ETA is two minutes,” Damiano returned.

Jonah recovered and rushed toward Eli. He moved to take Ty from Eli’s arms, but Eli fixed him with a cold stare. It was the stare of a man who feared losing everything. Of a man who wasn’t going to let anyone take her from him.

“I’ll take your front,” Jonah said.

Eli nodded, tightened his grip around Ty’s limp body and fell in behind Jonah.

Mad Dog and the three secondaries closed ranks around Eli, and they rushed toward the exit.

“Perimeter and facility is secure,” Damiano reported. “Falcon secondary awaits your next orders.”

“Tell them to maintain their position. I want a complete sweep of the facility,” Jonah said even as he charged forward. “I want computers, disks, surveillance. I want every piece of information they can find. Nothing gets left behind.”

Eli held his precious burden closer as he followed behind Jonah. His chest was tight with emotion, with fear. Paralyzing, agonizing fear. He couldn’t breathe. Through the panic, he remembered his own men.

“Damiano, do you have a location on Ian and Braden? Has anyone reported seeing Gabe?” He couldn’t damn well leave them behind, but he wouldn’t leave Tyana either.

“Negative. They aren’t wired. Wait a minute. I’m getting a report from Falcon secondary. They’re removing Gabe’s body. Ian and Braden are with them.” There was a long pause. “I’m sorry, Eli.”

Eli stumbled for a moment, recovered his footing and pressed on, his chest encased in ice. Gabe was gone. Tyana was dying in his arms. He’d been helpless to stop any of it.

They burst out of the west entrance, and Jonah held up a hand. “Everyone back and take cover. I’m going to blow the wall.”

Beat the hell out of going over.

Eli backed into the building with the three Falcon secondaries hovering protectively around him. He turned, shielding Tyana’s body with his.

She was so deathly pale. The dark red blood contrasted starkly against the white of her skin. He kissed her forehead.

“Don’t die, sugar,” he whispered. “You and I have way too much to work out.”

The explosion rocked the entire building. Plaster and light fixtures rained down from the ceiling. Eli closed more tightly around Tyana as one of the florescent tubes bounced off his shoulder.

“Let’s go,” Jonah ordered from the entrance.

Eli hurried out to see a gaping hole in the stone wall. They ran through it and up the rocky terrain surrounding the complex.

“Chopper is landing a quarter mile away,” Jonah said close to Eli’s ear. “We’ve got to move.”