Shadows and Silk (27 page)

“Report, goddammit,” Declan said. “Huxley? Don’t you fucking die on me.
Sophia
will be pissed.”

A small exhale of a laugh could be heard through the earpiece and Brant knew the sound
well. He looked at Max and saw the other man recognized it as well, and even as the
sounds of death filled their ears, they started down the tunnels with their weapons
ready.
They had to keep going.

“She will be pissed,” Huxley said softly. “Smith is down. And I’m—hit.” A few seconds
of labored breathing went by before he spoke again. “Take care of her for me, Dec.
I know you will. I’ve always known
about
—”

“I’ll take care of her,” Declan answered before Huxley could tell whatever deathbed
secret he’d been about to share. “She’ll be safe. I swear it.”

The line went silent, and Brant and Max traded off covering for each other, moving
through the tunnels like death itself when they came across the cartel soldiers.

“Report,” Declan ordered.

“
All the rooms we’ve found so far are empty,” Max said. “We’re coming up on the last
few
in this sector.”

“I’ve got one that looks promising,”
Dec
said. “It’s got very nice locks.”

“SEALs
are kicking butt and taking names,” Jade said. “The party is still going on, but
there aren’t as many to tango. No sign of Alexander Ramos yet. Keep your eyes open
down there.”

There were several locked doors at the end of the hallway, and then another
that
tunnel led to the left. The underground area was huge, and they’d never find what
they were looking for
paired off
this way.

“I’m splitting off,” Max said
, echoing his thoughts
. “We’ve got another tunnel. I should be headed in your direction Dec.”

“Copy that. I’m still working on this door. It’s coded.”

Brant nodded once at Max, and then Max split off and went quickly down the other tunnel.
Brant went through process of
unlocking and securing each of the rooms he came to, and if he’d only been giving
them a cursory glance, he would have missed the secondary door inside the last room
he opened.

It was a bunker of sorts, with two cots and a makeshift closet filled with blankets
and extra clothes. But behind it was another metal door.
This one smaller than the others, only coming to his shoulders.
There were two different locks on the door, but the keys were hanging right there
on a hook.

“I may have something here,” he said. “Stand by.”

The keys turned easily in each lock, telling him they were used often and well maintained
because of it, and he held his weapon at the ready as he turned the knob. The smell
of blood and dirt and fear hit him in the face as he pushed the makeshift closet out
of the way and let the light filter in.

Pale, dirty faces stared back at him out of terrified eyes, and he counted quickly,
noting that Darcy wasn’t among them.

“I’ve found the girls. It looks like at least one of them is hurt. Darcy isn’t with
them.”

“I’ll find her,” Max
promised
.

Brant had to put his trust in Max. He had no other option.

“Hi,”
he
said, making slow movements and keeping his gun down as he approached the girls.
He knelt down in front of them, but to the side so he could see the door.
“I’m going to get you out of here, but you’re going to have to help me. I can’t carry
all of you. Is everyone able to walk?”

“Except for Jenna,” one of them sa
id. She looked to be the oldest. “I think her leg is broken.”

“Okay then. I’ll take care of Jenna and the rest of you are going to stay behind me.”
He took out the gun from his ankle holster and held it out to the one who’d spoken.
“Shoot if I tell you to and then run like hell.”

She nodded and took the gun, and then Brant scooped Jenna up in his arms. She was
unconscious and he didn’t like her color, but there wasn’t time to examine her now.
They started out the door, but Declan’s voice made him pause.

“We’ve got a little problem here,” he said.

“What kind of a problem?” Max asked.

“That door I was telling you about? I finally got it open. Ramos has this place set
on a time
r
to blow to hell and back once the exterior doors are breached. We’ve got about
twenty-two
minutes to get out and get clear.”

“Jesus,” Brant said, not sure if he were swearing or praying. “Find her. You’ve got
to find her.”

“Get the girls out,” Dec said. “Jade, meet him at the exterior and you can lead them
to safety.”

“
On my way,” she said.

“I think I’ve got something here,” Max said. Brant could only listen with helplessness
as Max cursed at the lock on the door. “Gotcha, you bastard,” Max said. And then he
said something that froze Brant’s blood.

“Oh—shit. This is bad.”

“Is she alive, goddammit?” Brant screamed.

“She’s alive.” Brant heard Dec’s exhale of
relief. “But, holy shit is this something I never want to see again.”

“Just get her out of there,” Dec growled.

“Roger that.
I
should be on the east side. I think. This place is a maz
e. She’s manacled by some
heavy
duty
chains. It might take me a minute to get her down.”

“I’m headed your way,” Dec said. “I can’t disarm this bomb. I don’t have enough time,
and it’s unstable as it is. This place is going to blow. Get those girls out.”

Brant
sighed with relief that they’d found Darcy, and he
looked at the bedraggled girls
in his care
and said, “We’ve got to run.
Help each other if you have to.
I know you can do it. I need you all to be really strong right now.”

They looked at him like
with trust in their eyes
and nodded, and then Brant started running for the nearest exit.

His heart pounded in his chest and his lungs burned
as they ran
, and he tried to lead the girls so they wouldn’t
fall over the
bodies they’d left on the ground.
He heard Dec say, “Holy shit,” as he caught up with Max, and then he listened to both
of them curse as they tried to free her from the chains. He didn’t know what Darcy
had faced in that room, but he prayed he could help her get through it.

“Declan?” the sweetest voice he ever heard came through the earpiece.

“Figures you’d give him the credit,” Max said good-naturedly. “But I’m actually the
one who saved you, sweetheart.”

“My hero,” Darcy said. And then a
single gunshot sounded through his earpiece
followed by
another—an insurance shot—
and then everything went silent and his blood chilled. Sweat soaked his skin and clothes
by the time he saw the hole where there had once been a door, and he saw the quick
pinpoint of light against the ground
—a signal from Jade.

“I’m in place,” she said. “I’ll take them from here.
Go help them.
Go. Go
!
”

He
handed Jenna over to her waiting arms. Arms he knew were strong enough to bear the
load. And then he turned around and headed back inside the tunnels, the temperature
not nearly as cool as when they’d first entered.

“Max, Dec,” he said softly, knowing the receiver would pick up his voice. But there
was no answer from either of the other men.
He took out his earpiece so he wouldn’t be distracted by trying to hear something
that wasn’t really there as he took the opposite hallway from where he’d been. He
knew he was heading toward the direction Max had gone, but he didn’t know ho
w far
he’d made it
or how long the tunnel was.

The lights flickered, and he hoped to hell the SEAL
s
had secured the perimeter and weren’t right on top of them when this thing blew.
He could count on Jade to pass the word.

Brant’s
footsteps were silent as he slowed and listened for any signs of life. His hand was
steady on his weapon and his focus complete. He’d been in similar situations more
times than he could count—only this time it was the woman he loved and his friends
whose lives hung in the balance. He couldn’t let that affect him though. They’d all
be dead if he did.

He calculated the time they had left before the bomb blew in his head, and knew he
was fighting a losing battle. But just as he had the thought he heard the whisper
of voices from not far away.

The tunnels came to a crossroads, and it was sheer luck that had Brant coming up to
the side and slightly behind Alexander Ramos instead of directly in front of him.
Fear and rage ate at Brant from the inside out as he watched Ramos yank Darcy up by
the hair and hold the gun to her head. Her small cry was like a knife to the heart,
and he swore Ramos wouldn’t survive, one way or the other.

He had to take a deep breath and assess the situation.
Declan faced Ramos, and his weapon was on the floor in front of him and his hands
were up, though Brant knew that didn’t mean anything.
There wasn’t man or machine
who
could move faster than Declan. Max lay crumpled on the ground to Ramos’s other side,
and the
re
was so much blood around
his body
he knew his friend couldn’t have possibly survived.

“You won’t stop me,” Ramos said. “Even now your SEALs are dead and the drug is being
transported to the first of many auction sites.” He rubbed the gun down the side of
Darcy’s face, and laughed as she flinched. “But maybe I’ll keep her. I watched on
the surveillance tape what she did to my scientist. She is feisty, yes?”

“You know none of us are getting out of here,” Declan said calmly. “That little insurance
plan you’ve got cooking down the hall will make sure of that.”

“Then I guess I should kill you now so I can make my escape.”

Ramos lifted the gun and several things happened simultaneously.
Darcy went limp in his arms, Declan dropped and went for his gun, and Brant took the
shot he’d been waiting for.

He didn’t even wait to watch Ramos
fall
. He ran to Darcy and scooped her up in his arms while Declan threw Max over his shoulder
and they both ran like hell towards the exit. The lig
hts continued to flicker and the hill they were inside of seemed to moan and stretch
around them, shaking loose chunks of concrete and debris.

The pale light of morning could barely be seen as the lights went out all together,
and Brant stretched his legs and pushed himself even harder as an unholy rumble shook
the ground
beneath
them. They shot out of the underground tunnels and headed for the safety of the trees.
Then the earth crumbled beneath their feet, and the hillside behind them dissolved
like snow. The atmosphere charged around them as a heat like nothing he’d ever felt
chased him like a demon out of the depths of hell.

The only thing Brant knew was that he couldn’t let go of Darcy. The shockwaves sent
them flying through the air, and he tucked her tightly against his body and turned
so he’d take the brunt of the fall.

He landed with the force of a thousand men, and he stared
up as the
sun
began
to trickle through the leaves above him
,
and
he
wondered if this was the whi
te light everyone talked about. He couldn’t breathe and he had no feeling in his limbs,
so he figured this must be it.

And then his lungs
started to work and he inhaled in
a deep gasp of air, even as the feeling came back to his limbs in the form of pain.
Not heaven. And then the woman he still held tightly in his arms moved and lifted
her head so he could see those bright blue eyes, and he decided maybe it was heaven
after all.

“Brant,” she said. And then she burst into tears, burying her head against his chest
as her tears soaked straight through
what was left of
his shirt.

“It’s all right, sugar,” he said, pulling her closer. “I’ve got you. I’ve got you.”
He buried his face against her hair and breathed her in. “And I’m never letting you
go.
I love you, Darcy.
”

Her head jerked up, and if he’d been a hair slower, she’d have
headbutted
him in the chin.

“What?” she asked. “What did you say?”