Darling Wildfire (Red Rabbit #2)

102

KAELIN

Cal led the way towards the house. It was the grey before the dawn and everything had a muted quality to it. A heavy fog rested across the landscape with the dark green treetops poking through. It was haunting and beautiful—the calm before the horror that would inevitably ensue.

Knight had received the signal from Demetrius. The games would start in an hour and our job was to help him clear the mansion and find a man named Albatron. Well, their job. Mine was to find the server room and plant the kill codes for the drones so that when the games started, the drones would first be transferred over to West’s control and then rendered useless. We carefully made it into the house where we parted ways with Nyx who went off to find the others, specifically Atlas. He kissed my cheek.

“Give ‘em hell,”

he said with a wink.

We entered the first room and ran into trouble immediately. Cal and Knight had to go after one of the guards who tried to get away and Ghost was just finishing knifing a second when a third rushed out from the back room. I didn’t want to use my gun yet…so far the men had been silently using their knives—so I pulled mine out and intercepted him.

“Intruders in the—”

I didn’t let him finish his report over comms. I brought him to his knees and shoved the blade into his neck. When I looked up Cal, Knight and Ghost were watching me.

“Shit,”

Ghost muttered. “Gigs up.”

He pulled the comms unit off one of the dead men and put it into his other ear. Cal and Knight did the same.

“Get to the server room,”

Cal ordered. “Ghost, go with her.”

Ghost and I made our way through the house. The server room was off the main control center so when we got to the doors, there were two guards posted outside. Ghost leaned out into the hallway and using his handgun with a silencer, shot both men. He motioned for me to follow him and we settled on either side of the door. He opened the door just enough to peek inside and signaled to me. Two men. Take right.

Ghost shoved open the door and he shot the left. I didn’t hesitate but shot the guard on the right and we moved into the server room. While Ghost watched my back, I pulled out my phone and the drives and got to work.

A short time later, I heard Ghost curse.

“Shit, they’re sweeping this wing, we need to go,”

Ghost said.

“Alright—almost done,”

I muttered. “Just transferring control over to West.”

I set the countdown on the kill code and pocketed my phone and the drives. I nodded to Ghost. “Let’s go.”

We made it as far as the door of the server room before guards streamed in and immediately started to fire at us. Ghost returned fire, shoving me around a corner. Both sides were pinned down with bullets flying everywhere.

“We need to move,”

Ghost growled.

He leaned out and delivered a barrage of bullets, taking that moment to look towards the exit.

“On my go, run,”

he glanced at me briefly.

“What about you?”

He didn’t answer, simply poked back out and yelled at me to go. I didn’t hesitate, knowing better than to ask questions.

Staying low I sprinted to the door, flying through just as bullets bit into the wood frame. I slammed into the bank of security monitors, barely catching myself on one of the chairs.

I turned back to run and help Ghost when an arm wrapped around my neck from behind.

My gaze connected with Ghost and then I was fighting to get out of the hold. Somehow I got out of the man’s grip—whether it was training or a miracle, I didn’t know—and quickly put a bullet in his head.

I tried to get a second one off as another guard came at me but he was too fast and knocked the gun away.

A hard hit stunned me long enough for him to disarm me entirely. A second hit sent me to the ground. My ears rang, the gunfire sounded muted and I heard yelling.

I looked up and the last thing I saw were the guards standing over an unresponsive Ghost before everything went black.