“Oh no, sweets. I definitely intend to get out of here. I put too much time, energy and money into this to let it go to shit around me.” Dragging her in front of him, he started toward the door. Panic slammed her dead center. He was going to use her as a living body shield.
Rodale turned toward them, and she stiffened in her captor’s arms. Eyes wide, she stared helplessly while Rodale stalked toward them. He raised his arm, and she flinched, a whimper cocked and ready in her mouth.
Something hit the door with a thunderous bang, and she jolted. Rodale’s fist dropped to his side, and he crossed to the window. With a fierce yank, he pulled the entire blinds—anchor and all—from the wall.
The scene outside revealed another hover jet parked next to Kiantu’s, along with a cavalcade of military-grade vehicles. At first she assumed they must be a part of Rodale’s insane militia, until she noticed that the men stationed in front of the vehicles had high-tech weapons aimed at the building.
A stream of curses pelted from Kiantu. “Goddamn Howertech. What is that bastard doing here?” He flung a barbed glare at Rodale. “You double-crossing shit. Were you planning to cut me out of this deal? Sell my formula to him and share the profits?”
Rodale gripped the windowsill in a seal-cracking hold. “That’s military out there. I’ve gotta have me some of those toys they’re packing.” His lips peeled back with terrifying, maniacal glee. Moving to the door, he ripped it from the hinges and flung it aside before lurching outside. He got no farther than two steps before snipers opened fire on him. Blood spraying everywhere, he thunked to the ground, face down. An agonized wail sprang from Leena, and she started toward the door.
“Leena, no!” Avi jumped on her sister, tackling her to the floor. Ignoring the flailing limbs trying to knock her free, Avily held her sister down.
“No, we’re the chosen ones, baby sis. Our time is now. Don’t you see that?” Leena screamed, tears trickling down her cheeks. Her eyes wild, she twisted her wrist, revealing the syringe tucked in her hand. Before Avily could grasp at her sister’s intentions, Leena gave another desperate cry and plunged the needle into Avily’s arm, releasing the air dart.
Avily stumbled off her sister, gasping. She could feel the toxin spreading through her veins like a living parasite. Shaking, she dropped to her knees.
Leena made a dash for the door again, but Avily held barely enough strength to call out to her in anguish. She steeled herself for the rapid report of gunfire.
Voices carried from outside. Strident shouts and demands for weapons to be laid down. Several endless moments later, footsteps pounded the earth, drawing ever closer. A shadow crossed the floor planks, and she raised her head, her vision swimming.
Backlit by the diminishing sun, Jerrick stood in the doorway, his expression frantic and his chest heaving. He spotted her and rushed forward. Skidding to his knees, he scooped her up, crushing her to him.
“Jer. I knew y-you’d come for me.” Her eyes rolling back, she slipped into the endless void of darkness.
Clutching Avi tight, Jerrick pushed the hair back from her face. She was lifeless in his arms. That realization freezing his blood, he searched for a pulse. It was there, but thready. His gaze fell on the empty syringe close by, and his stomach bottomed out, right before its contents threatened to reverse course. A dull roar rushed in his head, its pounding refrain a ceaseless loop of Ohfuckgodsno.
“This is a touching scene, but I’m afraid I’ll have to miss the final credits.”
Snapping his head sideways, Jerrick locked stares with Lex. Or rather Stephan Kiantu. The terrified beast within Jerrick that demanded retribution for Avi surged against its bindings, longing to rip Kiantu limb from limb. Somehow he kept his rage contained. Stephan would get what was coming to him. “You’re not getting out of here, fuck wipe. The entire place is surrounded.”
“Precisely why I intend to use you and the girl as hostages.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you, Kiantu. And neither is she.” Gently settling Avi down, Jerrick straightened and stalked forward.
Kiantu cringed against the wall. His gaze flickered toward the left. “Elrick, why the fuck aren’t you helping me, you worthless piece of shit?”
Jerrick risked a glance in the direction Kiantu was staring and noticed a man slouched in one of the chairs. Judging by the vacancy in his eyes, he was deader than a doornail. “Looks like your man took a permanent leave of absence, minus the severance pay.”
Kiantu held up his hands. “Look, we can come to a gentleman’s deal. I’ll set you up so you’ll never have to worry about money again. Just help me get out of here.”
“That’s a mighty generous offer.” He stopped in front of Kiantu, the cold fury currently eating his insides making it all too easy for him to enjoy seeing the man squirm. “Only thing is, I’m no gentleman.” Pulling his fist back, he leveled a bone-crunching punch dead square in Kiantu’s face. The man slid to the ground, blubbering. Tempting as it was to make good on his desire to kill the motherfucker, Jerrick had more pressing matters to attend. Like ensuring Avi wouldn’t succumb to the same fate as Kiantu’s man.
Grabbing Stephan by the lapel of his suit coat, he dragged the cretin to the doorway and tossed him out onto the dirt before rushing back inside to Avi. He gathered her into his arms just as Thane sprinted through the door. “I see you got Kiantu. The others are—” He broke off as his attention dropped to Avi. “What the hell happened?”
“She was injected with the formula.”
His expression matching the awful emotion residing in Jerrick’s chest, Thane sprinted to his side. “We need to get her to Howertech’s lab. Now.”
Heart in his throat, Jerrick secured Avi tight to him and raced to the waiting hover jet. He spared the briefest glance to the activity commencing around him, barely registering the militia members being rounded up. He spied Leena in one of the groups, crying her eyes out. The hover jet’s doors hissed shut, sealing her from view.
His ex was the last thing on his mind right now. She was the past. His future lay unconscious and frighteningly vulnerable in his arms.
If Avi died, he’d have no place to go but with her.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
He’d never been happier to see white lab coats in his life.
Staring helplessly at the commotion around him, Jerrick held tight to Avi’s hand—the one lifeline in his nightmarish world.
She hadn’t roused at all during the twenty-minute flight to Howertech Laboratories’ corporate headquarters. The additional two minutes it’d taken them to ready a makeshift emergency room for her amped his desperation to the breaking point. He needed to do something, damn it. Not sit here, watching the life force slowly drain from the only good thing he’d ever known.
A shuffling noise sounded. Jerking his head up, he met Thane’s worried gaze. “How long will it take them to create the vaccine?”
“I don’t know.”
That wasn’t fucking good enough. They needed to be in here now, doing everything in their power to make Avi better. To bring her back to him.
His mind insisted on torturing him with constant flashes of the vacant eyes of Kiantu’s man. The greasy ball of nausea churned relentlessly in his gut. “The case-study patient. What was the time frame…?” He couldn’t bring himself to choke out the words.
Thane gave him a sorrowful look. “An hour, tops.”
“Then they better have that goddamned vaccine ready soon.”
“I’ll go check on its progress.” Thane slipped away from the doorway, his footsteps diminishing into a distant echo in the cold, sterile hallways of the laboratory.