Page 47 of Come Alive
“What are you—” James sprung up, putting his hands in front of him. The idiot did exactly as he assumed he would.
Stephen had an out-of-body experience as he caught sight of Yara’s face, of the horror stricken there, of the realization thatshewas his target. He aimed for her stomach and pulled the trigger.
Chapter 29
Kazi
“Break the lock,” Emilio murmured, gesturing for two men across from them.
They were outside the warehouse, the one Emilio had seen James being dragged into. Kazi had worked quickly to secure the building’s blueprints. Studied them on the ride over and relayed to their team the maze that it had been turned into. They all had directives. Find Izzy and Yara. Protect them both, no matter the cost.
Except Kazi was worried Emilio wouldn’t hesitate to put Yara in danger if it meant shielding Izzy. His hand reached down, pulling out his hunting knife, gripping it, and readying himself for a fight.
He had a gun, too, but their goal was to move in silence for as long as they could.
With the door unlocked, Emilio signaled for Mateo to make entry. The man didn’t hesitate to barrel his way silently through the door, somehow embodying both a gorilla and gazelle.
The sight would have been humorous if it weren’t for the fact that Yara was being kept hostage somewhere in this building by her unhinged psychotic father.
Steve is Yara’s bio dad.
The text from Emilio earlier had caused all of Kazi’s worst fears to be realized. He knew with certainty that this man was the reason for Yara’s early trauma; he was unsure how they would find her, was terrified how she would return to them.
He swallowed the gravel down that had formed in his throat and focused on the here and now. On Izzy’s two other men,Maddox and Oliver.He despised Oliver’s father’s legacy, but Maddox didn’t seem as bad.
After a few more beats, Emilio gestured for the rest of them to file inside.
Kazi led the way, pivoting his head. There were doors to the left and right that Kazi knew led further into different parts of the large building. Straight forward, a door about twenty feet back led to another circuit of hallways, and on the ground directly in front of him was a man in all black, in a pool of his own blood. Evidence of Mateo.
A girl’s scream came from the right, but he didn’t recognize it.
“Take the right,” Emilio told his second in command,Logan.
The large man bent his head in agreement before rushing off down the hall, one of their men following behind.
Kazi couldn’t see Mateo any longer, the man must have rushed on against Emilio’s command.
“He would have gone straight back. Follow the bodies he left, and go in that direction too. Maddox and Oliver will come with me. Signal if you find them.”
Kazi didn’t wait, he sprinted back towards the door, swinging it open, his breath coming out erratically as he jumped over another body. But he skidded to a halt at the end of this second hallway. There was an extra door to the right that wasn’t on theschematics. He imagined Mateo would have continued straight back, but this door called out to him.
I hope this isn’t a mistake.
As soon as he opened the door, he came face to face with a man. He was a bit taller than Kazi with cropped blond hair and a scar etched across his face. He was so close, Kazi could see the flecks of brown in the man’s eyes.
Kazi had less than two seconds to act, and he was out of practice. Even still, the knife found its way quickly into the man’s throat. The bubbling gurgles the only sounds he made as Kazi freed the weapon and the man fell to the ground.
Kazi turned a corner, passing an open door leading to a security room. He paused, his eyes going towards the screens.
Bang!
The gun shot rang out around him, and for a sick instant, he thought he had been hit. Once he was able to focus, he realized it wasn’t close enough. He sprinted further down, turning one last corner, and saw him.
Steve Landon. Stephen Wick.
Kazi didn’t pause, he didn’t think, his full intent was to stop this man at whatever cost. He dove onto Steve, the knife in his hand landing in the man’s gut.
Steve fell back onto the ground with Kazi on top of him, but the man bucked up from beneath him, attempting to escape.
