Page 25 of My Unhinged Alphas
Vale intercepts him.
The target is still standing. Frozen. Eyes wide.
Alive.
Good.
Havoc straightens slowly, breathing hard, blood spattered across the front of his shirt that isn’t his. He turns toward the target with a slow, deliberate smile.
I step forward, gun steady, voice calm despite the ringing in my ears. “Drop it,” I tell the target.
He does.
I glance at Havoc. His breathing is heavy, but his eyes are clear. Focused. He met violence head-on like he always does. He just prefers to announce himself first.
I should be furious. Instead, I feel the familiar narrowing settle in my chest.
The job is still salvageable. Barely.
“Secure him,” I say.
Havoc’s grin widens. “Yes, sir.”
The target’s hands are up. Shaking. For half a second, I think he understands how this ends for him. Then something shifts in his eyes. Calculation.
He drops.
Not surrender. Movement.
He dives sideways, not toward the door we came in through, but toward a narrow hallway I hadn’t clocked behind the crates.
“Move!” I bark.
Havoc is already after him.
I pivot to follow, but the man Vale dropped near the back wall isn’t as down as he looked. He surges up off the floor with a strangled yell and slams into me from the side.
We hit hard, and my shoulder clips the table on the way down. My weapon skids across concrete. He’s on me fast, fingers digging for my throat, the stink of sweat and gunpowder in my face.
I drive my elbow up under his jaw. Bone connects with teeth. He reels but doesn’t go limp. Persistent. I roll, reverse our positions, and pin his arm at a bad angle.
“Havoc!” I shout, not because he can’t handle himself, but because timing matters.
No answer.
The man under me scrabbles for something at his waistband, and I see the knife too late. He slashes. The blade grazes my ribs, hot and shallow.
I don’t hesitate. I grab his wrist and twist until something tears. He screams. I slam his head back against the concrete once, twice, and he goes still.
Breathing. Unconscious.
Alive, technically.
I shove to my feet and grab my weapon.
The hallway.
Damn it.
