Page 140 of I Will Mend You
“Are you okay?” I whisper, patting him down for wounds.
He catches my hand, his touch infusing me with a jolt of electricity, and brings my knuckles to his lips. “I’m fine.”
“But you flinched.”
“My armor absorbed the bullet, but not the impact. How are you holding up?”
I gulp. My heart is racing, I can barely breathe, but I’m not about to add to his worries. “This is still less terrifying than my last memory of Charlotte. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Worried about me?” he asks, his voice lightening. I don’t need the night vision goggles to tell that he’s smirking.
Heat rises to my cheeks. The fear of losing him was a knot in my chest, tightening with every flying bullet. “Of course, I worry. Who else would keep me warm at night?”
He leans in, pressing a quick kiss to my lips. The contact is brief, but it leaves me breathless, sending a flush of sensation low in my belly.
“Let’s capture Charlotte. Then I’ll keep you warm all night long.”
Heat spreads to my core, awakening parts of me I thought were long dead. The muffled sound of crashing has me jolting back to the present, and I crawl out from under the bed and slip on my night vision goggles.
Charlotte’s room is a mess of bullet holes and debris. The rug we lay on now has a hole in its middle and the mattress we hid beneath is cratered. I glance at the metal door leading to her panic room, which is unsurprisingly intact.
“What are we going to do?” I ask.
Xero reaches into his backpack and pulls out an ax. It’s a lightweight, titanium model with an edge that looks sharp enough to split a hair.
“We’re going to get her out,” he snarls, the resolve in his voice sending a thrill down my spine.
“What if she’s armed?”
He flashes me a grin. “I have you to watch my back.”
Before I can react, he moves to the door and swings the ax. I unholster the pistol with trembling fingers, wondering if his confidence in me is misplaced. I’m about to confront a demon of my past.
What if I freeze?
Xero hacks at the door with the ax like he’s auditioning for a part inThe Shining,and I ready the gun. The moment hepenetrates the metal, I’ll be there to shoot Charlotte before she has the chance to retaliate.
I adjust my goggles, letting the Bluetooth slip back in my ear. The volume is quiet, but Tyler’s voice screams through the headset, “She’s escaped! There’s a convoy of trucks approaching. Evacuate, evacuate!”
Alarm kicks me in the gut, sending my pulse ratcheting up to a hundred. “Xero, we need to go. Charlotte’s already left.”
He whirls around. “What?”
“Camila’s giving chase,” Jynxson’s voice resounds through the device.
“Fuck!” Xero rushes to the door leading to the hallway, attacking it with frenzied swipes of the ax. The metal buckles under his furious assault, leaving massive dents.
Three swings later, the door crashes onto the floor, and we rush through the hallway and down the stairs. Shutters cover every opening, enclosing us in the dark. We continue down to the basement, toward a vent leading to the sewer, when Xero’s feet skid.
“Change of plan,” he snarls.
“Why?” I peek out behind him.
Lurking on the floor is a device the size of a cell phone, flashing with a countdown from 49 seconds.
My heart skips a beat, fear clawing at my insides. “Is that a?—”
“An explosive she activated when evacuating the house?” he growls.