Page 23 of K-9 Guardians

Muñoz’s screamed orders were nothing compared to the crunch of bone as the knifeman collapsed. Scarlett helped herself to his blade as the man who had held Gruber rushed forward with a knife of his own. She swiped at the bright steel in his hand but won a fist to the face instead. He launched at her, blade first, but missed her rib cage and embedded the knife into a metal filing cabinet as old as the oversize desk.

Scarlett knocked him out cold with an elbow to the face, but they were running out of time. The longer they stayed in this room, the sooner they’d be surrounded. The first soldier came at her again. She landed another kick to his chest and sent him backward, but it wasn’t enough. He ran at her, and all she could think to do was tackle him to the floor. They hit as one, each struggling to get ahold of the knife in her hand.

Gruber latched on to the soldier beneath her and jerked his head back and forth to tear through clothing and flesh and anything else that might get in his way. The resulting screams triggered a high pitch in her ears as she let the Doberman keep himself occupied. Adrenaline gave her the false sense of being able to tear through anything else that got in her way. She turned to deal with the last soldier holding Julien against his will.

To see King standing over the body with his son tucked behind him. The tactical knife from his thigh was in his hand. His shoulders hitched as he tried to catch his breath. Blood and sweat combined across his skin, deepening the carved lines in his face.

Scarlett took an initial step forward, all too aware that his will to protect and defend could turn on her any second. His wound was bleeding freely. There was no way they were going to make it without an intervention. Soft whimpers escaped from the boy hiding as much of himself as possible, and she tucked the knife in her hand into her back pocket. They weren’t finished. There was an entire warehouse of cartel members standing between them and their escape. “You good?”

“Yeah. I’m good.” King headed for the items piled on the desk and shoved them back into his pockets. The last—his badge—seemed to weigh on him heavier than all of them together from around his neck. Shuffling back toward Julien, he hiked his son into his arms. “Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said.

Just before he collapsed.

HECOULDN’TFEELhis leg.

King tried to get a hold on his vision as a blurred shape rushed toward him. Everything seemed to slow down and speed up at the same time. Muñoz clawed across the floor like the snake he was, blood trailing behind him in long streaks.

But it was the woman running for him with a dog draped over her shoulder that held King’s attention. Her features remained out of focus until she was fisting one hand in his shirt and hauling him to his feet. There was no mistaking her for his partner. Or what she’d done to try to get them out of here alive.

“Scarlett.” Her name was strangled in his mouth.

Gruber lunged for Muñoz and took the son of a bitch straight back to the floor. King struggled to shift his weight onto his good leg as Scarlett reached for his son’s hand. The boy kicked and punched with everything he had, but the security operator took every hit with hesitation. She yelled something at King, running for the door.

And all he could do was follow. Because she was carrying them. All of them. Hans, Julien, him. With her strength. With her determination, and he couldn’t help but want to stay close. She was aggressive and rational and passionate. She was everything he needed as King forced himself to take that first step, and she was the one who was going to get them out of here alive.

King maneuvered around Muñoz, who was still trying to claw toward the door. Bloody hands locked around his ankle and threatened to pull him down, but Scarlett had already gotten his son out the door with Gruber on her heels. King would do whatever it took to make sure they left together. Leg be damned.

Muñoz’s mouth formed words drowned out by the hard pounding of King’s heart. The bastard’s fingernails dug through the fabric of King’s pants and bit into skin. “Not...over.”

“Yeah, it is.” King shucked the lieutenant’s hold and lunged out the door, both hands on the frame for support. His leg was dead. No telling how bad the damage was, but it didn’t look good. Didn’t feel good, either, but it was nothing compared with the alternative. His son would not witness King’s murder by the same drug cartel that had sentenced his mother to death. Julien had suffered enough. King would take a stab wound any day.

Full-blown chaos exploded from every corner of the warehouse as their escape party left the safety of the office. Scarlett forged on up ahead, leading them to cover behind a row of boxes that wouldn’t hold up against a hail of bullets for long. Julien jerked out of her hold, and she couldn’t get him back, surveying the fight in front of them.

His son bolted out into the open. Terrified. Confused. With no place left to go.

King had no choice other than to set weight on his bad leg to catch the ten-year-old around the middle as he ran past. A scream ripped up the kid’s throat and tore King’s last remaining strength from him. No one should ever have to hear a scream like that. Dragging Julien into the nearest aisle, he set his son’s back against his chest as bullets impacted the wall in front of them. King covered Julien’s forehead with his hand, setting the kid’s head against his chest. “It’s okay. I’ve got you, Julien. I’ve got you. Do what I’m doing. Just breathe, buddy. Follow what I’m doing.”

It was the same thing he told Julien every time the nightmares came for his son. The same comforting hold that kept the ten-year-old from hurting himself or others. And it was all King could do now.

Scarlett chanced a glance toward them, exposing the situation in her expression. They were out of options.

The realization hit harder than getting the news about Eva or the call about Adam. Because this wasn’t a bunch of operatives that’d been thrown together in the name of public safety. The men and women he served with had signed on to risk their lives for the greater good, and as much as King would give his own life to save any one of them, this was his son at risk now. The only person he had left to care about in his world.

“That’s right. Breathe like me, and soon it will all be over.” He kissed Julien on the crown of his head. “We’re going to get out of here. We’re going to go home. I just need you to be brave for a little longer. Okay?”

Julien’s grip left half-moon impressions in King’s hand, as though the boy had marked him as his own. His son nodded.

Blood seeped from his wound and settled beneath his leg in a pool that got stickier and thicker by the second. The knife hadn’t penetrated all the way through, but it’d done a hell of a job on the way in. King was bleeding out. Slowly. Minute by minute. And the harder he pushed himself, the sooner he’d have to let Julien go.

Scarlett’s gaze dipped to his leg, then back to his face. Understanding seemed to hit as they sat there warding off bullets.

“You’re doing great, buddy.” King tried repositioning the bad leg, but the damn thing wouldn’t move. Not an inch. The pressure in his chest reached an all-time high. No matter how hard King had fought to be the father Julien deserved, he wasn’t going to make it out of this. Wasn’t going to be there for his son. Not like he’d come to hope. “Now, you see that pretty lady with the dogs? Her name is Scarlett. She’s the one giving the orders. I need you to do everything she says. She’s going to make sure you’re safe.”

Scarlett let Hans slide down to the floor—gently. She kept low as she came to sit by King and Julien, her mouth trying for a smile as the world around them threatened to collapse. “Do you like dogs, Julien?”

His son nodded, though from the angle of his head, King bet the kid wasn’t looking at her. And he wouldn’t. Not until he started trusting her. It was only in the past couple weeks, King had gotten the pleasure of his son’s eye contact. It’d meant so much then. More so now.

“This is Gruber. Funny name, huh?” Scarlett tucked the Doberman into her side and planted a kiss behind the dog’s ear. “Would you like to pet him? He likes scratches behind his ears.”

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