For The Wicked (Fantasy Heights) (16 page)

“…messed something up. It’s been almost half an hour. What if Bishop missed the text and he doesn’t show?”

“He’ll show.”

Damn right, he would.

He budged the door with his foot and slipped inside, knowing he’d have only a moment to assess the situation before Tony, Brent and Yvette could react to his sudden appearance. His eyes ticked through the sights. Josh. God dammit, Josh. Out cold. Cuffed to a post. Amanda at the table. Black cases on the tabletop. Janos drugs? Brandon Briggs slumped forward in his chair. Lily Briggs near him on the floor.

Tony, Brent and Yvette clumped together, all three facing him now. Eyes wide.

Fear in Tony’s eyes, quickly doused. “Don’t panic,” he said. “He won’t shoot with all the gas fumes in here.”

The hell he wouldn’t. The flash inside a gun barrel didn’t produce anywhere near enough heat to ignite fumes. He swung the gun up and slightly left to squeeze the trigger, putting a bullet into Tony’s shoulder. A puff of vaporized fabric and blood rose up, and then Tony took a stumbling step backward.

So loud. Jesus, he’d forgotten how loud it was to discharge a weapon without ear protection. Physically painful. And Tony was still on his feet. Gun still in his hand. Thomas felt his finger tense a second time. If Tony didn’t go down…

He did. The guy went down like a boulder dropping off a cliff. Slow, at first. Picking up speed. Loud, too. Screaming his head off from the pain, though it took a second for Thomas’s hearing to return enough and register the noise.

Next he focused on Yvette. Seeing her was like seeing a ghost. She looked so much like Kay. But the eyes were wrong. Kay’s eyes had been cold and dead. Yvette’s were wide and alive. She gave a startle reaction, arms contracting, bringing her hands up to her shoulders in a warding-off gesture.

Brent, the weasel, hit the deck.

Remembering the vehicle he’d heard, Thomas sidestepped away from the door to his left, toward Josh, keeping the gun trained on Yvette. She was unarmed. He argued with himself, not terribly convincingly, that it would not be okay to pull the trigger and knock some wind out of Janos’s sails.

Yvette began to yammer. Afraid.

Thomas was more concerned about Brent. Lost track of him. He hadn’t simply dropped to the ground. He wasn’t where he’d been. Brent was on the move somewhere.

Easy enough to contain. Thomas swept the gun right, toward the door and shot the dirt behind Amanda and Brandon.

The noise hit him hard for a second time. And he saw Amanda crunch forward. She was awake. Just staying still and non-threatening, but tell that to his adrenal glands. Fear for her safety with Brent under that table, armed with God-knew-what, almost bent him double.

The ringing in his ears was nearly his downfall. He had no warning that Tony was on his way back to his feet until the guy was up and staggering.

Brent popped up beside him. Yvette wrenched the gun from Tony’s hand and skittered behind both henchman like they were a pair of human shields.

Fuck. Now what? It was no longer a matter of taking out Tony Prosper. To bring down the armed target, he would have to take down all three. And he would cross into ‘in cold blood’ territory.

The rest happened so fast, he never had time to react.

Nicole appeared at the door. He caught her entrance out of the corner of his eye, and she did not have his cares about justifiable anything. She zipped to the right, removing Amanda and Brandon from her trajectory.

She fired. Three shots. Four. Five.

Thomas warded off the startle response, battling his body’s adrenal reaction to the noise and shock. He sighted Nicole, and squeezed the trigger.

She must have sensed his change in focus. At the last possible instant, she jerked backward. His bullet only dinged her left elbow.

But a ding was enough. She cried out and crunched up, reflexively tucking her elbow protectively against her side.

And then Thomas’s worst nightmare began to unfold. He felt a whoosh of air as the door flew all the way open and Neil came stumbling inside, bringing with him the worst smell Thomas could imagine.

Smoke. He could even see it waft in behind his former friend before the next catastrophe made itself known.

Behind Neil, someone else was emerging. First a gun. Then arms, expertly bracing a shooting hand. Rolled-up shirtsleeves.

Holy shit. He knew who it was before the kid made it fully into the barn.

Jerod Hughes to the rescue. The kid had all but thrown Neil into the barn. Shoved him straight into Nicole, who stumbled, too.

Neil grabbed onto Nicole, steadying her. He brushed against her elbow and she cried out in pain.

Watching Neil glance at the elbow, then raise his eyes Thomas’s direction made time crunch to a halt. Only a second, but the guilt, fear and anger exploded behind Neil’s eyes.

The only thing that shook the standoff was Jerod’s voice. “Whatever you’re about to yell at each other, save it. I couldn’t reach Neil in time to stop him setting a fire. The grass is still wet, but the fire’s in no danger of going out. We’ve got two, maybe three minutes before it reaches the gas outside. You have to get Josh and Amanda out of here. Now.”

Neil roared at Jerod. “Traitor!”

Jerod started to say something, but Neil and Nicole swung around together. Up came Nicole’s weapon. Another deafening discharge. Terribly, deadly close range. Jerod Hughes lurched backward like he’d been hit by a bus.

No. Oh, fuck. No.

This time, Thomas lost the battle against shock. Jerod was shot. Josh still cuffed to that pole, and Amanda in the middle of mortal madness with a fire creeping closer and closer to the gas dumped outside. Which would catch in a nice hot fireball, hit the dried wood and ignite the gas tanks strapped to the walls.

Later, he would know that momentary lapse had cost him dearly. He should have gathered himself and shot Neil Sarzo and Nicole Desney right there on the spot. He should have done it. But when he looked at Neil, the guy who had once saved his life, he could not pull the trigger.

Neil told Nicole to run and pushed her toward the door. Thomas remembered months ago, when Wade had been riding his ass, warning him that one day, loyalty would get him killed.

Maybe it just had.

Thomas’s gaze fell upon Amanda. She was gaping at him. Stone terrified, but she had a dangerous, furious glint to her eyes that warned she could make herself a player in this mess if he let it happen.

As he watched, she turned to face Neil. She reared back, seeing Nicole’s gun in his hand. It set Amanda off, once and for all. Letting out a roar of enraged terror, Amanda came out of her chair and launched herself at Neil. Who caught her neatly, and promptly had her hung up with an arm hooked beneath one of hers, a big, strong hand locked behind her neck, holding her in a painful, awkward, immobile position.

Thomas knew the words were impotent, even as he barked them out. “Let her go, Neil. Leave her out of this.”

“No. We both know she’s the only way I escape this room. And we’ve got no time to argue. If you get blown up again, I won’t be there to save you.”

Thomas gritted his back teeth together. Don’t shout. Don’t agitate him. And God he wished Amanda wouldn’t look at him that way. Pretend she wasn’t there, for now. If he had to shoot, he wouldn’t hit her. Probably.

Neil rearranged his grip so that he could hold Amanda with one arm, and press the gun to her throat with the other. Neil’s eyes strayed to Josh, and Thomas couldn’t believe what he saw. Concern. Regret.

He watched frustration and calculation overtake Neil’s features in waves.

Finally, Neil reached a decision and spoke. “The keys to Josh’s handcuffs. They’ll be on Tony. Find them.”

It took Thomas a moment to absorb what he was hearing. Neil was offering him a chance to get Josh loose. Maybe a chance to get him out before the gas caught.

Thomas took it. God help him, but he’d take anything he could get. On his way to Tony, he tested his luck. “Let her go, Neil.”

“Fuck no. I let her go, and either she’ll claw my eyes out, or you’ll shoot. She stays right where she is.”

Hardening himself against the nightmare Nicole had made of Tony Prosper, he dug into pockets. Nothing in the back ones. Better luck up front. A small key ring yielded a car key, a couple regular keys and the key he prayed belonged to those cuffs.

He heard Amanda ask a very Amanda-like question. “What did they give Josh? And what about Brandon and Lily?”

“I don’t know,” Neil said. “Quiet.”

“I will not be quiet. How could you? How could you fall in with these people?”

Good question, but pointless. It didn’t matter why Neil had fallen in with DriveRate. Only that he had, and he was now the enemy.

Thomas had a hard time getting the cuffs key into the slot. He was shaking too hard.

“Stop talking,” Neil told Amanda. “Listen, instead. I’m in charge now. We don’t need DriveRate anymore. I’ll serve the whole works up on a platter. And you have my word there will be no more trouble at Fantasy Heights.”

“Your word? Are you serious?”

“My word has protected Fantasy Heights and everyone in it for four years. And I have nothing to gain by hurting anyone else. I let you and Thomas and Josh skate out of here in exchange for leaving me and Nicole alone. It’s a fair deal.”

Thomas planned to challenge that, but finally felt the key catch and release one side of the cuffs. He had no trouble with the second one. It opened just in time for Amanda to start coughing. The smell of gas was getting worse. And smoke. Getting hard to breathe in here, and they had a lot of people to get outside.

Swearing darkly on the inside, Thomas knew he would never get everyone out. There simply wasn’t time. Worse, if Jerod Hughes wasn’t already dead, he soon would be. Desperation made Thomas rise from his crouch to speak in his calmest tone. “You skate on one condition.”

Neil pierced him with a suspicious look. “What?”

“Help me move these people out. Amanda and I can’t do it alone.”

Again, he watched Neil battle suspicion.

“God
dammit
,” Thomas told him. “You’re a doctor, for Christ’s sake. If you won’t save these lives, I will shoot you right here and take my chances.”

Neil caved. The three of them hauled Josh out to one of the vehicles first, then Lily and Brandon. All the while, the fire crept closer and closer to that gas. Less than two yards to go when Amanda insisted they go back for Jerod.

Neil refused. “He’s dead. There’s no point.”

Amanda slapped him across the face. “There is too a point, you son of a bitch. Go to hell!”

To Thomas’s horror, Amanda spun on her heel, ignored the advancing fire and ran back to the shed. No choice but to follow her. He never even looked back to see Neil slink away. He followed Amanda, followed the sound of her coughing and struggling.

He found her fumbling to get an effective grip on Jerod’s shirt. The kid had been hit high up on the left side of his chest, just south of the collarbone. A survivable wound, maybe.

“He’s alive,” Amanda croaked. “Help me.”

Thomas had never felt anything like the adrenaline flood that followed. He nudged her out of the way to scoop the kid off the ground with his internal time clock reminding him twice a second that they had precisely zero time to reach a safe distance.

The gas caught just as they squeezed through the doorway. Amanda broke into a run, and he followed. Adrenaline saved his life. Without the chemical speed boost, no way would he have made it behind Tony’s truck in time to avoid the first blast.

Amanda clung to him and he curled himself around her and forced them both down to protect Jerod’s head and torso. Pure reflex, but he was glad he’d done it. Even with the truck between them and the fireball, he still managed to take a couple shots of shrapnel in the back. They stung but not too badly. And he had kept Tony’s keys. Still half stunned from the blast, Thomas hauled Jerod into the back of the truck, then hustled Amanda into the driver’s seat.

He didn’t know if there would be another blast as more tanks ignited inside that shed. Maybe yes, maybe no, but before he closed the door on Amanda, he barked directions to the ER. Seeing the fear in her eyes, he made sure she understood he would be right behind her in the truck where they’d loaded Josh, Lily and Brandon. And then he grabbed her arm and looked her right in the eye. “Bad timing, but I can’t let loyalty keep me silent forever. I love you, Amanda. I didn’t say it that night. I should have.”

Complicated reaction. Too mixed for him to understand in the midst of all the chaos.

What he did understand was being grabbed and kissed as if his mouth were the only source of oxygen for twenty square miles.

Jesus. Okay. Yep, he’d done the right thing. And she loved him. No doubt about it.

Amanda sat curled up under Josh’s arm. Both of them flinched along with Thomas while the ER doctor made another stitch in Thomas’s back.

His injuries were miraculously minor, thank God. Jerod Hughes was not so lucky. Best estimates said his surgery would take hours. None of the doctors would commit themselves to a prognosis.

At least Jerod was alive, and the fire was out. To hear tell, the fire department had a heck of a time containing the blaze to the shed, but they had won in the end. Three bodies had been recovered. Tony, Brent and Yvette were all confirmed dead.

Amanda forgave herself for feeling almost nothing over their deaths. If she understood things correctly, Tony, Brent and Yvette had killed Derek. Nicole had killed them out of revenge, and while Amanda could understand Nicole’s actions to some extent, it would be a while before she could accept the part Neil had played in all this.

Her gaze naturally sought Thomas. This was the first time he’d been off the phone long enough to be treated for his injuries, and she knew many dark days lay ahead for him over Neil’s betrayal.

And then there was Josh, and the breakup. Thomas still didn’t know. Amanda was not looking forward to dropping that bombshell. She hoped Thomas would handle it better than she could. This scare, everything that had happened since Josh broke it off, had made it even harder to let go. She wanted to clutch onto Josh and Thomas, hold them to her, and never let them out of her sight again from sheer gratitude that they had made it through this horrible night.