They raced outside. She couldn’t pull in any breath. Her legs just kept going. Escape. That had been their code word. She just needed to—
When the last bomb detonated, the force tossed Tina as if she were a rag doll.
Chapter Eleven
Anton Devast inclined his head. “And then there was nothing left.” He’d been watching the clock on the stark, white interrogation room wall. If Carl had followed his orders, if he’d stayed on the schedule Devast had made for the detonations, then the float graveyard had just blown up in New Orleans.
The whole block would be a wreck.
His chaos. His havoc.
Mercer had his phone out. He was pulling the pretty blonde from the room. Demanding to know the status—
The door shut behind Mercer.
Anton exhaled slowly. It wasn’t the revenge he’d wanted.
But it would have to do.
* * *
“TINA!”
Drew wiped the blood from his eye as he leaped to his feet. His clothes were singed, blisters covered his arms and— Where was Tina?
She’d been in front of him before the last detonation. He’d tried to reach for her, but the blast had torn her away from him.
His gaze searched to the left. The right. Smoke billowed all around him. Tina couldn’t stay in this smoke. It would hurt her.
Maybe that’s why she wasn’t calling back to him. Maybe she was having another attack. The smoke had set it off before, on that runway, and maybe—
“D-Drew...” Just a whisper; a strangled gasp that he heard above the flames.
That gasp was the sweetest sound to his ears. It meant that she was alive.
He ran to her, following that gasp. She was on the ground, struggling to sit up. He shoved his hand into the hidden pocket on his vest and pulled out her inhaler. “Easy, Doc, I’ve got you.”
Always.
She took the inhaler. Her lashes lifted so that her eyes met his.
The fire was still spreading, surging higher and higher. Sirens wailed in the distance.
“I have to get you out of here.” He scooped her up into his arms. It wasn’t about a mission or priorities. He didn’t think it ever had been. It was only about her.
Now, she truly was the only good thing left in his life.
He looked up. The other agent was there—the man who’d come up behind the building and taken out most of Devast’s men. Cooper Marshall. Drew knew the guy by reputation, but had never worked with him. Cooper’s blond hair stuck to his temples, slick with sweat. He had a gun in his left hand. “Get her out,” Cooper barked. “I’ll make sure we’re clear.”
And that no more of Devast’s men had survived to attack again.
Drew held tight to Tina as he raced away from the scene. He’d gotten her out of that inferno. She was in his arms. Safe.
When he’d learned about his sisters—
No.
Drew immediately slammed the door on that thought. Not now. Can’t think of them now. He was barely holding together as it was.
He had to protect Tina first.
Tina, then—
Paige had wanted to stay with me.
His back teeth ground together. His eyes burned.
His arms clung even harder to Tina. He kept running with her cradled against him. The smoke was so thick that he could barely see as he rushed forward.
She had her medicine. She was safe. Alive.
His sisters...
I’m so sorry. He’d failed them. Let them all down. They’d died, because of him.
The sirens were wailing. He could see the lights of an ambulance approaching.
Grief threatened to choke him, but Drew kept running toward that ambulance.
Police were on the scene now. Drew caught sight of Gunner and Logan. They were keeping the local authorities back.
They’d all have to stay back until they made sure there weren’t any more bombs. The rescue teams would be held in a safe zone until the bomb squad completed their sweeps.
He had to make it to that zone.
Just a few more steps...
Made it.
The EMTs reached for Tina. They put her on a stretcher. She shoved their hands back. “Drew—”
“You’re safe.” Ash stained the hand that he slid over her cheek. “It’s over.”
His heart was leaden in his chest. His whole body seemed numb. He’d used his control in the field more times than he could count; locking his emotions away. But this was different—
My family is gone.
Tina grabbed his hand when he would have stepped back. “Wh-what...h-happened?”
The EMTs were trying to work on her, but she kept pushing them away and clinging to Drew.
“Your eyes...” Tina whispered. “They’re wrong...something...happened.”
He didn’t know what she meant about his eyes. Other than the fact that they kept burning as if they were on fire. Drew shook his head.
“T-tell me...”
His shoulders bowed. “They killed my sisters...” He should have known the exchange was too easy. His darkness, his job—it had cost Kim, Heather and Paige their lives.
“Drew!”
His head whipped up at that frantic call. That had—had just sounded like Paige.
“I can...see them,” Tina said, voice husky. Her gaze slid over Drew’s shoulder. “Not...dead.”
He spun around.
Walking through the smoke, he saw Dylan—and his friend was right beside Paige, Kim and Heather.
Alive. All of them were alive!
Drew shook his head. No, no, the explosion—
Paige ran to him. She hit his chest so hard that he took a step back. She was crying and laughing and holding on to him as tightly as she could.
Drew’s stunned gaze rose and met Dylan’s.
“Devast used devices like those collars two years ago, back in Brazil.” Dylan’s lashes flickered. “Those vics didn’t get free in time. I wasn’t going to let the same thing happen again.”
Then Kim and Heather were there. All holding him. All laughing and crying as the smoke drifted in the air.
The ambulance’s siren wailed once more. He looked back. The ambulance’s door had just slammed.
The EMTs were taking Tina away.
He tried to head toward the ambulance, but his sisters tightened their hold on him.
Drew needed to make them understand. “I have to—”
“I thought we were all going to die,” Paige whispered as the tears slid silently down her cheeks. “Is this...is this what you do?”
“You risk your life like this, all the time?” Heather’s face was stark, white. Fear lit her eyes.
He couldn’t answer her. Families weren’t supposed to know about the missions he faced.