The ballpark came into view up ahead, and it had every cell in Blake’s body vibrating. Ready to maim. Capture. Kill.
Steve had remained in contact with them the entire trip. Blake watched everything through the security cameras. He watched the footage of Willow being dumped in the locker room. He saw the bomb strapped to her torso.
His muscles tried to seize up on him, but he pushed down the fear. The fear that Jackson may not be able to deactivate the bomb in time. That everyone was going to be too late.
He couldn’t think about that right now. All he could do was trust in a man he’d never met. A stranger. To save the woman who was the center of his world.
The van slowed at the front of the ballpark and Logan, Callum, Liam, and Jason got out. Steve had mustered help in the way of three local soldiers and an officer to take down Ahmad’s team. The four guys were joining his teammates.
Steve’s men had raked through the security footage and found at least a dozen of Ahmad’s known associates inside, some masquerading as security, others as spectators. That wasn’t including the guys they’d already seen with Ahmad himself.
Declan had taken out the two men in the security room, and Jackson was currently on his way to take out the two guys Ahmad had stationed in front of the Mariners’ locker room.
Blake and Aidan remained in the back of the van, Tyler behind the wheel as he drove them to the north exit. Ahmad was their target. And Blake wouldn’t be stopping until the man breathed his last breath. Because as long as he was alive, his family wasn’t safe. Would never be safe.
“Jackson made it inside the locker room. He’s with Willow,” Steve said through the earpiece.
Blake struggled to keep his breathing steady at Steve’s words.
When the man cursed, Blake frowned. “What is it?”
“Ahmad just left the north exit with half a dozen guys.”
Tyler pushed the van to move faster. Blake’s hand tightened on his gun, refusing to believe even for a second that Ahmad might get away.
When Tyler whipped the van around a corner, Blake saw them. Seven men climbing into a white van. A second later, the van was moving.
Tyler didn’t slow.
Ahmad’s driver spotted them and figured out what was going on pretty damn quickly, because almost immediately their vehicle sped up.
Blake cursed under his breath as they gave chase. Opening his window, he aimed and shot at the van. Aidan did the same on the other side.
A traffic light in the distance turned red, but Ahmad’s van didn’t slow.
Blake saw it seconds before the collision—a bus moving through the intersection. Ahmad’s vehicle hit it at high speed.
There was the loud crash of metal hitting metal. And not just from the van and the bus. The busy road around them ground to a halt, half a dozen other collisions taking place as car after car rear-ended each other.
Tyler stopped the van at an angle, and they jumped out, using it as protection.
They’d barely stepped onto the road when bullets started to pepper the air, hitting the other side of the vehicle. Blake cursed. The assholes were probably out of the van, realizing they were sitting ducks if they remained where they were.
Blake turned to the van, using his enhanced strength to wrench the door clean off the side of the vehicle. He turned to his teammates. “Cover me while I move forward.”
Tyler and Aidan nodded. The second they started shooting, the return fire ceased and Blake ran, holding the metal door up as a shield in front of him.
As bystanders ran from the scene, their screams echoed off the buildings. He reached the van in under two seconds to find only one guy remaining. The man was just straightening, poking his gun out the open driver’s window, when Blake fired, shooting the guy in the side of the head.
A bullet hit the metal door in Blake’s hand. He turned, shooting a man twice in the heart and once in the head.
Moving away from the van, he kept the metal door up like a shield. When he spotted a guy hiding between two cars, Blake moved closer. He kicked his leg out, giving one of the vehicles a big shove. A grunt sounded from between the cars. Blake moved to the side, gun trained on the man who was now stuck and coughing up blood, shooting him in the temple.
Ducking, he moved along the cars again. He knew his friends would watch his back, shooting anyone they spotted. But they could only shoot who they could see. Blake needed to find the men they couldn’t. Including Ahmad.
From his peripheral vision, he caught a glimpse of a guy’s head inching forward as he used the backed-up cars as protection.
Blake ditched the metal door and remained low as he weaved between the cars. Then he stopped, crouching and lifting his gun. The second the guy popped his head up again, Blake shot him dead.
At the sound of fast steps from behind, Blake spun, unsheathing a knife as he went, and slashing a man’s throat as he lunged forward.
Another one dead. Not the man Blake was looking for. The man who really needed to die.
Where are you, Ahmad?
Blake circled the area, all the while remaining low and quiet. His gaze paused on the bus. He hadn’t boarded it because of the civilians he could still see inside.
But that didn’t mean Ahmad hadn’t.
Moving cautiously up the steps, Blake paused. Passengers sat to either side, some shaking and staring. Some too scared to look up. Blake barely glanced their way.
His entire focus remained on Ahmad—standing in the aisle at the back of the bus, holding the driver in a death grip, gun held at the driver’s temple.
Blake’s fingers tightened on his pointed gun. “Let him go.”
“No.” Ahmad’s eyes were full of rage and hatred. He knew he’d lost. The fight. The war. He’d lost everything.
Steve’s voice sounded through Blake’s earpiece. “Jackson deactivated the bomb. Willow’s safe.”
Outwardly, Blake didn’t react to the words at all. Internally, the shards of ice and fear thawed in his chest.
“The bomb’s deactivated,” Blake said quietly. “My family will live.”
Ahmad growled his fury.
“You failed,” he continued, gun never wavering from his target. “And I hope that torments your soul while you rot in hell.”
Ahmad’s eyes widened even as Blake pulled the trigger, expertly missing the bus driver and hitting Ahmad in the skull.
