Page 46 of Deadly North

I send up a silent prayer that Gigi is still here and unhurt as we run for the stairs and fly down to the first floor.

The second we get down there, chaos erupts. While we were upstairs, the Scorpions have arrived in force. It’s a fucking war zone. Bullets are flying everywhere. Shit is exploding around us. I can’t tell how many of us there are versus them, but the odds aren’t with us. I dive behind a dumpster in the corner and get my bearings, catching sight of a Scorpion in my line of vision. Pulling back a little, I aim and fire, catching him in the shoulder. He cries out and goes down. His gun skitters across the floor away from him.

Across the room, I see someone lying on the ground not moving. It’s Reed. I can’t be sure if he’s unconscious or dead. Rage fuels me as I crouch low and run toward him. When I get there I see he’s bleeding from his forehead. He groans as I drag him by the armpits to cover, holding his head. “Fuck,” he hisses.

“You good to hold on?” I ask him.

“Yeah. Motherfuckers were shooting at me, and I hit my head when I dove for cover. I’ve got a couple mags left. I can hold my own here.”

Just then, a scream makes my blood run cold.

Gigi.

I turn just in time to see her being dragged away by one of the Scorpions, who’s got a gun to her head. It’s Blaze. She’s fighting him, but Blaze pulls back the pistol and cracks her across the jaw with it. She stops fighting and crumples against the pain. “Gigi!” I yell, starting toward her. Aiming my gun at them, I silently beg her to break away from him so I can get a clear shot.

But before I can fire off a round, there’s a loud crack, and then my leg goes out from under me.

“Mack!” I hear Gigi scream as I fall.

The pain seems to come from somewhere else, muted and confusing. But all the same, I can’t stand up, can’t seem to make my leg do what I want it to do. My gun is still in my hand, and I lift it, but Blaze is using Gigi as a shield, dragging her away. I shout obscenities and try to get up. Out of the corner of my eye I see a body hurtling toward me. I turn to see a Scorpion barreling toward me. I shoot him at close enough range that a bloom of red instantly flowers on his chest. He falls to his knees, clutching at the wound, then onto his face.

When I look back over, Gigi is gone.

After that, nothing matters.

We getout of there somehow. We leave behind three dead Scorpions, and none of our men.

Back at the clubhouse, Wishbone tends to my leg. I barely feel it. I’m half-fucking-delirious from the pain of losing Gigi. The physical pain doesn’t even seem real. I stare into nothing, seeing only her face everywhere I turn.

I couldn’t get to her in time.

How could I have let this happen? How could I have let them take her?

I failed. She’s out there somewhere, with Blaze. He’s doing God knows what to her right now. And we have no fucking idea where she is.

At some point, Fury comes in with Elmo, who tells me he’s finally got intel on Blaze.

“Fucking took you long enough,” I snarl. I want to kill Elmo. I want to kill everyone.

“You’re gonna want to shut the fuck up and hear this,” Fury tells me. If he’s still pissed at me about fucking his sister, he’s not letting it show. “I think we figured out who Blaze is.”

“What do you mean, who he is?” I snap.

“Listen, for fuck’s sake,” Fury snaps back. “Elmo, tell him what you found.”

“The reason it took me so long to find anything out about him is that Blaze just fuckin’ appeared out of nowhere. It’s like he didn’t exist. The name he goes by on documents doesn’t exist. No social security number, nothing.”

“Then how did you find out anything about him?”

Elmo pulls out the tablet he’s carrying. “Facial recognition. Biometric software is getting better all the time. So even if you as a human don’t recognize someone, the tech probably can. Even if they’ve aged. Or if they’ve got scars. Or a beard.”

He taps a couple of things and turns the tablet around to show me a head shot of Blaze, with his characteristic thick beard, scarred skin, and ever-present bandana. Then, next to that image, he pulls up another. A man a few years younger. Clean shaven. No bandana.

“These two shots are the same guy,” Elmo says.

“So, who is he?” I ask, confused.

“This is Dylan,” Fury says quietly. “The guy Gigi dated way back when. The one who beat her up.” He waits a beat. “The one I killed. Or so I thought.”

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