Saving Serena (Hawk Security #1)

Chapter 38

CHAPTER 38

Duke

I’d lost my edge.

Tony Spinelli had pulled the knife from his boot and gotten me in the thigh before I could pull away.

“Fuck.” I grabbed his hand.

“Fucker,” Lucas yelled.

I struggled with Spinelli.

Lucas sprinted over and ended the fight with a swift kick to Spinelli’s head. The fuckwit fell back, limp. I pulled the knife loose and rolled onto the floor, holding my leg. Blood spurted from between my fingers.

Serena was on me in an instant. “Hold on, Duke. I can’t bear to lose you.”

Lucas had gauze out a few seconds later and applied it over my fingers. “Hold this tight.”

“Duke,” Serena wailed.

“Get us a life-flight helo,” Lucas roared into comms. “Cobra’s down. He’s been cut.”

“How bad?” Jordy asked.

“Get it now,” was Lucas’s only reply as he took off his belt and cinched it tight around my leg.

“Terry, status?”

“Only minor wounds here,” he announced. “You take care of Cobra. I’ve got everybody secured and plenty of ammo left if one of ’em moves.”

Serena leaned over and kissed me. “Don’t you dare leave me, Cobra.”

I noticed Johnson Spinelli sprinting away. “Get him.”

Lucas ignored me. “I’m not fucking leaving you, Brother.”

Serena

“I love you, Cobra,” I yelled as the helicopter door closed with Jordy accompanying Duke instead of me.

Duke had taken bullets and a blade to keep me safe, and it tore me apart to not be with him when he needed me.

Lucas pulled me away from the spinning rotor.

“You should have told them I was his sister,” I argued.

“No way. I need to get you back to the house. Winston has the contents of the locker, and until we go through it, we won’t know if we’ve rounded everybody up, or if someone else is still out there.”

“What locker?” I asked.

“Rossi sent you an electronic key to a locker full of blackmail material on Pons.”

I couldn’t even begin to make sense of that, but it didn’t matter. Only Duke mattered to me.

We watched as they lifted off and headed for the hospital.

“He’ll be all right, won’t he?”

Lucas nodded. “He’ll make it. I only wish I was as tough as Duke.”

Terry joined us. “The locals want to talk to Serena, get her statement.”

Lucas shook his head. “Tell them to get in line. She’s talking to the Feds first, at her house.”

I’d explained the basics of the pollution-collusion plot to Lucas while the paramedics were treating Duke.

Terry shrugged. “I’ll try that.”

“Wait,” I said. “There’s a teenage girl inside somewhere. I think she was trafficked and is being held against her will by Pons.”

Terry looked back toward the house. “I didn’t see her.”

“You’ve got to find her,” I pleaded. “Her name is Natasha.”

Lucas nodded when Terry looked to him for confirmation.

“Will do.” Terry left at a jog.

“Let’s get you inside.” Lucas led me off. “We leave as soon as I give the locals a statement.”

“Can we stop at the hospital?”

“No. It’s not secure.”

I sighed and shut up. I’d learned you didn’t win an argument with Lucas Hawk.

Duke

I groggily pried my eyes open to see the trace on the monitor as its beeps competed with the noise of the helo’s rotors. I couldn’t keep them open. I strained to hear the beeps, as that meant I was still alive.

Then the sound changed, and I was in a Blackhawk kneeling next to Freddy. “At least the pain means I’m alive,” he’d said.

I’d gripped his hand and yelled, “It’s going to stay that way.”

“It’s cold in here.” Then, he’d pulled down the oxygen mask to yell. “Promise me you’ll take care of Marilyn.”

“No need. You’ll be taking care of her just fine.”

“Fifteen out,” the crew chief had yelled.

Freddy had squeezed my hand. “Promise me.”

“Of course I will.”

“I’m cold.”

It had been over a hundred degrees on the deck in that godforsaken desert.

His pain hadn’t lasted fifteen minutes.

I willed my eyes open again. It wasn’t a Blackhawk anymore, and we were flying over California hills. “Jordy?” I yelled through the oxygen mask.

He squeezed my hand. “Right here, Cobra.”

I liked the name. I’d always admired how deadly Cobras were. “Promise me you’ll take care of Serena.”

“I’m leaving that to you, Bro.”

“I’m cold.”

“BP’s dropping,” the paramedic said. “Push another unit of O-neg.”

“We’re out.”

Then things went dark.