Chapter 19 - Under Fire
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Two men in tactical gear stepped through the smoke into the bedroom. They had night-vision goggles and silenced submachine guns.
“Sweep the room. Find the kid,” one of them growled.
Clare held her breath, her knuckles white around the brass lamp. One of the men approached the closet. He reached out to slide the door open.
Before he could touch it, a shadow moved in the doorway.
Sebastian.
He hadn't gone to the docks. He had realized the trap halfway there and turned back. He wasn't in his wheelchair. He was leaning heavily against the doorframe, a suppressed pistol in his hand.
“Looking for me?” Sebastian asked.
The two hitmen spun around. Sebastian fired twice. The man closest to the door dropped instantly, a bullet right between his eyes.
The second man fired wildly. A bullet clipped Sebastian’s shoulder, spinning him backward. He fell hard to the carpet, losing his footing on his still-weak legs.
The hitman aimed his rifle down at Sebastian’s chest.
Clare didn't think. She lunged out of the closet with a feral scream, swinging the heavy brass lamp with all her might. It connected with the hitman’s skull with a sickening crunch. The man stumbled, his rifle firing into the ceiling.
Sebastian rolled over, grabbed his pistol from the floor, and put two rounds into the hitman’s chest.
The room plunged into silence, save for the ringing in their ears.
Clare dropped the lamp, her hands shaking, and fell to her knees beside Sebastian. Blood was soaking through his shirt.
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“You came back,” she sobbed, pressing her hands against his wound.
Sebastian looked up at her, a bloody smile on his face. “I told you. I protect what is mine.”
