Redemption

Chapter Fifty-Eight

"Bobby!" Danni called to them, her voice a worried tone that echoed in the dark abyss that surrounded them. After trying to say some words of comfort to Jack and failing, Danni felt that her services could be used elsewhere. Myles was examining the contents of the cabinet, finding only a few armor-piercing bullets, but not the mass quantity they'd been expecting while Bobby had been quietly reassuring that they would keep Sue safe at all costs.

Three beams of light moved toward where her voice had resonated, though it was difficult which direction she had called from. The lights traversed through the room, but Danni's small frame could not be located. "Danni?" Bobby asked, rushing over to the first pyramid of crates. It had been the most likely direction she had called from, yet still couldn't be sure. Neither he nor Myles or Jack had realized that she had left their sides, and when she did things like this, he wasn't sure whether he wanted to strangle her or kiss her. The thought of putting a leash on her in times like this was overwhelming and could have its perks, he chuckled to himself.

"Over here!" she called, shining her light into the darkness to mark her location.

The three agents rushed to her side when they all stopped to find a large crate filled with guns—most likely illegal ones. Jack picked one up to see if it was loaded, but found the chamber empty. "They're not live," he said, placing it back. Being empty was good, but a large shipment of this kind made him think that more than revenge was on Dessa' mind, if it was in fact Dessa they were dealing with. Price—though he hadn't meant to—had come up with a good theory: what if someone was only making it seem like Dessa was the culprit?

The evidence pointed to him, though and the photographs only increased the probability. He and Sue were the ones to ruin his plot before, so they would be the most likely of targets which was why he'd saved them for last. He wasn't wrong about this; it was Dessa.

"That wasn't exactly what I was worrying about," she spoke up, her light illuminating a box hidden in the darkest corner.

The men's gazes followed, their eyes widening at the sight of a manual alarm clock ticking loudly in the silence of the warehouse. It wasn't going clockwise, though and that was what made Danni's voice hitch slightly and all of their hearts clench. It was ticking down to twelve—fifteen seconds away. "RUN!" Jack ordered, tearing off the way they'd come. He knew the others were following suit and only looked back for a second to make sure he was right. Though, as soon as his head turned, the bomb exploded with full force, then a second which was shortly followed by a third.

Myles opened his eyes, willing them to focus as he watched the blaze in front of them. The flames were high and the smoke was getting out of control as it clouded them from the sun. He blinked once and his vision blurred more. He blinked once again and it cleared. He coughed and groaned when he felt a weight on top of him. It was soft and warm so it was most likely one of his teammates. It was too light to be Bobby or Jack, so he assumed it was Danni, unless there was another person inside when the building blew. "Danni," he coughed, reaching out and making contact with what he hoped was her shoulder; though if it wasn't, he was sure it wouldn't matter very much at this moment.

She groaned loudly as she tried to move, but all of her energy had been knocked out of her in the fall. "I'm okay," she muttered as he tried to help her sit up. She hissed in pain when she scraped her leg off of the pavement. She looked down at the gash that had torn through her pants and saw a few trickles of blood dripping down her leg. She winced as she leaned against the neighboring warehouse, a few loose pieces of the stone and rubble that adorned her cut falling loose and to the ground. "You okay?"

He nodded; a small red gash rested upon his forehead and a cut on his lip. "I'll live." His brow furrowed in curiosity as he looked around for his other two friends. "Where are Jack and Bobby?"

"Here!" Jack wheezed before he was taken over by a coughing fit.

"You two okay?" Myles asked.

"I'm okay," was all he said and all he needed to say before Danni got shakily to her feet and rushed to Bobby's side as quickly as her injured leg could carry her.

The Aussie was laying face down, a large bump had formed on the back of his head, but he wasn't bleeding. He would have one hell of a headache that was for sure. She motioned to Jack to help her turn him over, which he did with a loud hiss of pain. His wrist had been sprained when he tried to brace himself during the fall and it hurt to move it just the slightest bit. They were successful with turning Bobby over and Myles reached into the inside pocket of his jacket to remove his cell phone. Yet, when it was revealed, he found that it was completely smashed from when Danni landed upon him. "Anyone have a phone?"

Jack nodded as he removed his from his pocket and tossed it to Harvard with his good hand, coughing all the time. He tried to take in a deep breath of good air, but he only choked on it and coughed more. He decided not moving and taking short breaths was the best option.

A large cut marked Bobby's usually flawless forehead, Danni noticed as she gently shook him to wake him up. The bump wasn't large enough for him to have a concussion, she thought—although, she had been wrong before. "Bobby, wake up," she urged, lightly slapping his face to get any reaction. His pulse was strong and he was breathing, so why wasn't he waking up? "Bobby?" Her voice had caught in her throat at the thought that he'd been completely knocked out, which wasn't good if he did have a concussion. She cupped his smoke-dusted face in her hand, lightly stroking her thumb across his lips. "Please, wake up," she begged as her lips lightly covered his.

A smile instantly formed on his face when he'd finally come back to her, a deep, hoarse cough rising from within. He turned his head away from her as he covered his mouth this his hand, only turning back when he was sure he could breathe with ease. "If that's the treatment I'm going to get when someone tries to blow me up, I think I might get into these situations more often," he teased.

"You do and I'll kill you," she grinned, though meaning it whole-heartedly.

"In all honestly, Luv, I'd rather it be you that anyone else." She just shook her head at that comment and bent down to kiss him again.