She holds her gun closer at that. “Got it, babe, let’s go. I’m getting hungry.”

“You can eat my dick later, darling.” Kenzo grins, and honestly, it’s nice to see him joking again. For a minute there, I thought we lost him.

D grabs the handle and looks back at us. “Three, two, one, go!” he calls, as he breaks open the door and rushes out. We follow after him, aiming around, but no one is here. Stepping up next to Roxy, I watch her back as we sweep the room. Ryder nods at the stairs, and I go first, Roxy behind me as we reach the first level.

There are two ways to go, so I glance back at Ryder and gesture to Kenzo. He nods, and Kenzo breaks off and goes with me. I look to Roxy then. “Go with them, baby, and watch their backs for me. I’ll see you soon.” I turn away, but she grabs me, and her lips crash into mine. Groaning, I kiss her back before she pulls away and turns, gun in hand, and follows after Ryder with D trailing in her wake.

I watch her go, my heart slamming in my chest. I’m going to marry that girl one day and make her mine forever. Until then, I need to clean this shit show up and get her home. Kenzo walks behind me, his back to mine as we begin to sweep the corridor. They have to be here, and I’m betting there’s at least one Triad member.

They have a rule, they are never all together, but they would have wanted information, so one would have been here. We find him, get what he knows, and then we hunt the others down. Destroying their worlds.

Then we make her the center of ours.

I open a bedroom door and sweep it before moving on. Kenzo takes the left side, and I take the right, before we go upstairs again. We get halfway up when shots come down at us. Slamming against the wall, I take aim and fire back, but the angle is wrong. Cocking the shotgun, I rush up the stairs, firing as I go around the corner, taking the man by surprise. There’s one next to him, and he slashes out with a knife. I smash the gun across his face, and he falls back to the wall, then I fire at him. No point being discreet. Looking around, I reload.

Kenzo moves past me on the third floor, but ducks back when a bullet hits where he just was. “Five, end of the corridor and moving down.”

I step up behind him and nod at him, ready. We both kneel and fire around the corner. Yells of pain come and the shooting stops. At least three of them are dead, one is crawling to his gun, and one is struggling to breathe, his hand covering his bleeding chest.

Kenzo slips down the corridor, stomps on the crawling man’s back, and blows his brains out as I snap the neck of the man leaning against the wall. After checking the others, we move on. We have to be getting close to where the Triad is waiting, and they must be rapidly losing numbers.

“Last door is shut,” Kenzo murmurs, and I look up to see he’s right. All the others are missing or open, so we head down there.

I kick open the door and rush the man taking aim, slicing easily across his neck as I glance around. “Fuck, they are like rats,” I mutter, as I meet Kenzo out in the hallway.

“You’re not wrong, looks like the roof.” Kenzo sighs, noticing the propped open door leading to stairs that go up.

“Fuck,” I grumble, and slip through it.

At the top of the stairs is a metal door, and we have no idea what’s behind it. I look to Kenzo who grins, loading his gun again. “One more time, brother. Let’s kill them and get our girl out of here.”

Grinning back at him, I grip the handle and count down silently, then rip it open as we both pour onto the roof.

It’s teeming with them. The fucking bastards were just waiting for us—a last stand. One catches my shoulder with a bullet, so I throw myself to the side and duck behind an air vent while Kenzo manages to shield himself with a post.

Knowing Kenzo can handle himself, I lean around the vent and try to pick them off. I manage to drop a few before they get smart and just continue firing. It keeps me so distracted, I don’t notice the men suddenly at the door to the roof until it’s too late.

One manages to grab me, and I have to roll, stopping in the open doorway before rolling again as a barrage of bullets follow me. A pained yell sounds nearby as I stumble to my feet.

My head whips around, and I spot the knife glistening with blood protruding from Kenzo’s stomach as he tumbles to the floor. I notice the man creeping up on him, and I know there is one coming for me, but it’s not a choice.

My family comes first.

I take aim and fire at the man sneaking up to kill him.

“Garrett!” Kenzo screams in warning, but I turn too late, already knowing that when I took aim, it was him or me.

As my eyes are closing from the hit, I watch Kenzo try to get to me before being knocked out himself. At least they didn’t just kill us here…

Chapter Fifty-One

DIESEL

Following after Little Bird, I try to contain myself. My hands itch to rip her open and put her back together again for daring to get kidnapped, for daring to leave us. Anger is pouring through me, lighting the inferno inside me until I’m a ticking time bomb.

So, when we open the first door and interrupt a man beating another with a bat tied to a chair, I lose it. Pushing past Ryder and Little Bird, I rush in. I hear him warn her to leave me to it, but then everything blurs. Just my demons and me.

Grabbing the bat from his hands, I turn it on him, letting my demons out to play. My arms strain from the force of my swings. The room is quiet except for his screaming and my…laughing.

Huh, that’s me.

When it’s over, I look up. My whole body is covered in blood, my eyes are dark and crazy, but Little Bird pushes free of Ryder’s hold and walks towards me unafraid. Pressing up on her toes, she kisses me softly. “He’s dead, come on, babe.”

She plucks the bat from my hand and leans it against her shoulder as she walks past Ryder, both of us staring after her. “I love her,” I state seriously, and Ryder laughs.

“You fucking better. Nobody else is putting up with your crazy ass.”

We both turn and follow her, checking each door as we go, but all the other bedrooms are empty. The blood starts to dry on my skin and gets itchy, but I ignore it, my eyes locked on my little bird. Even at my darkest, she loves me, isn’t afraid of me.

It might kill her one day…

But fuck, I’m too selfish to care. She’s mine. I’m going to stick a goddamn ring on her finger so the whole world knows. I might even carve my name into her skin. I bet she would like that…especially if I fucked her at the same time—

“D,” Ryder murmurs, and looks over me. “You’re thinking out loud.”

I blink and look from him to Roxy to see her grinning. “Carving, huh? Save it for later.”

She’s walking while she’s talking, and that’s when we hear a distinctive click. Fuck. She turns just as I see it fly towards us through the air. “Grenade!” Ryder screams, reaching for it to protect her, but I watch in awe as she tightens her hold on the bat and, like a total fucking badass, swings, hitting the grenade.

We all watch open-mouthed as it flies back to where it came from, exploding as it hits the stairs, throwing us backwards.

I make sure to grab her when I land above her, shielding her. Her laughter reaches me through the ringing in my ears, and when I glance over my shoulder to make sure no one is firing or coming at us, I gape down into her grinning face. “That was awesome,” she declares.