Page 26 of K-9 Guardians

“I’m kind of in the middle of the last favor you asked of me.” She swung the rifle up as they passed each aisle on the way back to her entry point. “Not really sure I can take on much more at the moment. You know, facing off with a bunch of armed sociopaths and all.”

King forced her to a halt. Pain and something along the lines of death infiltrated his expression. He swayed on his feet. Any second now, he wouldn’t have the strength to stay upright. Hell, it was a miracle he’d gotten this far. “Tell Julien I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect him the way he deserved.”

Air lodged in her throat. Scarlett strengthened her grip on his T-shirt. “You’re going to tell him yourself.” She moved them forward. Fifty feet. Forty. They were almost there. She could see the outline of the door ahead. They were going to make it.

A gunshot exploded from behind them.

Searing pain thudded through her midback and shoved her forward. King lost his hold on her, and they hit the floor in a tangled heap of limbs. Agony spread beneath her waistband and up underneath her Kevlar vest. One hand stretched out in front of her, she reached for the door that would get them both out. Only it wasn’t enough. Her lungs suctioned for air. The Kevlar had taken the hit, but she couldn’t rush the recovery.

The gunman shouted something she couldn’t decipher. Calling the rest of the shooters to his location.

No.She had to keep moving. Had to get King back to Julien.

“Scarlett.” King’s hand found hers.

“I’m fine.” The lie slipped easily from her mouth, and right then she had her answer. People who promised they were right behind their loved ones in an impossible situation lied to make acceptance easier. To give hope. “We’re going to make it.”

Her heart thudded too fast at the back of her head, screaming for her to stop, to rest, to give up. But that wasn’t her. Scarlett rolled onto her back and latched on to the rifle jutting into her rib cage. She squeezed the trigger, taking out the gunman advancing on them.

The soldier crumpled to the floor. A multitude of footsteps echoed off the metal warehouse walls. Three sources. Maybe more. This was her and King’s last chance.

She latched on to King’s hand as though it were a lifeline. It was. Pushing her upper body off the floor, she got her feet under her. Bruising intensity dug deeper into her back the more she aggravated the wound, but she couldn’t stop. Not until she kept her promise. She reached for King, helping him stand. “We have to move. We have to go.”

The door was right there. So close and so incredibly far away. The voices were getting louder. Closer. But she wasn’t going to slow down. One foot in front of the other. And they were finally there. Pushing through the door she’d pried open, and then out into the night. They crossed the parking lot, leaning on each other for strength, but that strength was quickly running out.

Scarlett set her gaze on the SUV ahead. Only something wasn’t right. The back door... It shouldn’t have been open. Fear penetrated for the first time and intensified the pain in her low back. “Julien.”

His son’s name brought King’s head up as they picked up the pace.

Desperation unlike anything Scarlett had felt before burned through her. She practically dove into the back seat of the SUV, hands spread wide in search.

But he wasn’t there.

“Where is my son, Scarlett?” King nearly ripped the opposite door off its hinges. “You said...he was safe. Where is he?”

She clutched the SUV’s frame as everything inside of her went numb. “He’s gone.”

THEY’DHADHIM.

Julien had been right there in his arms.

Something heavy and uncomfortable seemed to be sitting on his leg. King couldn’t move, and the instinct to fight bubbled up inside him. Pinpricks of numbness spread through his palms.

No. That didn’t feel right, either.

A soft rhythmic beep broke through the pounding of blood in his head. Increasing. Like a heartbeat. This...wasn’t him coming around tied to a chair after being knocked out cold. Something was different.

King fisted a handful of fabric as he forced his eyes open. Dim lighting and deep shadows played a game of dominance which neither was winning. There was the black outline of an open door off to his right. A blue glow came from a window next to it.

The room was small but private. The source of the rhythmic annoyance was right there beside his bed, along with whatever was monitoring the clear rubber tubes coming out of his forearm.

Hospital.

Made sense after taking a tactical blade to the thigh. The memory of which created a deep ache he knew he couldn’t actually feel. At least not with whatever pain meds they had him on. More like remembered pain.

And it was nothing compared to the anguish of finding Scarlett’s SUV empty once they’d escaped the warehouse.

He didn’t remember much after that.

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