Once Bitten, Twice Burned(29)

Too many prisoners.

“There are others trapped here,” Sabine said as she walked closely by his side. Ryder kept his head down. They’d been lucky enough to walk right past two guards without those guys even giving them a second glance.

You just saw the lab coats and you didn’t bother to look at our faces.

Richard had hired those guys for their bulk. Not so much for their brains.

“We should get them out,” Sabine told him, voice soft.

“I’ll come back,” he told her. Not on a rescue mission. But a mission to make Richard Wyatt scream in agony.

She glanced toward him.

“We’ll turn the corner up here,” he told her, inclining his head slightly, “then we’ll go in the room on the left.”

“I thought we were going for the exit.”

Boots pounded behind them. More guards. Would these guys be as clueless as the others? Hopefully. If not, then he’d just kill them.

“We are heading for the exit,” he explained, keeping his voice low. “I can smell fresh air coming from that place.” His nose was even better than a wolf shifter’s. Actually, since he’d taken Sabine’s blood, all of his senses seemed to be working overtime.

“Walk faster,” she told him as she started to double-time her steps. Had she heard the guards, too?

They rounded the corner.

Ryder kept following that fresh air scent. He didn’t want to run. He wanted to turn and fight all those fools following him. To have a bloodbath just like in the old days.

But I can’t risk her.

So he clenched his teeth and shoved into the room on the left.

A small window waited. One covered with bars. An office. Barely ten feet long. It smelled of humans. There were half-eaten snacks scattered on a table. A breakroom?

A breaking-out room. He headed for the window. Yanked on the bars.

The footsteps were coming closer.

The bars snapped in his hands. “Come on!” He all but tossed her through the window.

But then another alarm began to blast. One that was coming from the exterior of Genesis. Got it rigged so no one gets out, huh? Too bad, we’re out. Ryder shoved his own body through the narrow window. Chunks of plaster and brick rained down on him as he broke not just the window, but the weak wall surrounding it. Unlike the walls in his cell, this room wasn’t reinforced. Probably because it wasn’t a place for prisoners.

Before he’d even cleared the window, Sabine grabbed his arm. The woman was actually trying to help drag him out of the building. Cute. He didn’t need any help. “Run!” he ordered.

She kept her hold on him. Didn’t run until he did. Unexpected. It looked like Sabine wasn’t the type to leave a partner behind. He’d remember that tidbit about her. Then they were rushing toward the line of trees before them. Guards raced into their path, ready to cut off their escape. The guards had big, shiny guns.

Big fucking deal. He had big, sharp teeth—and he was about to let his claws out. Claws that would make a shifter envious. Had, actually, on plenty of occasions in the past.

He grabbed Sabine’s arm and shoved her behind him.

“Stop!” one of the guards yelled. “Raise your arms and—”

Ryder didn’t stop. Bullets tore into his shoulder and stomach.

He kept running. Grabbed the nearest guard. Broke his arm. Took his gun. Shot back at the others who were foolish enough to still be trying to stop him.

And, even though he’d tried to push her back, Sabine was there. Fighting at his side. Snatching up a gun when it fell from another guard’s hands, and then whirling to fire—because they had more company coming at them from the south.

A quick glance showed Ryder that Wyatt had sent a heavy force outside. He easily counted ten guards—and there, in the middle was Richard Fucking Wyatt himself. “Shoot the prick,” Wyatt snarled at Sabine.

And damn if she didn’t.

Sabine raised her gun. Aimed. Fired.

Richard tried to dodge at the last minute, but the bullet still ripped deep into his chest.

The woman was one very fine shot.

But when she fired, all of the guards lifted their weapons.

Ryder snarled. He grabbed Sabine and turned, cradling her in his arms.

A hail of bullets hit him. Thudding hard into his back. Some even ripped out of his chest as they tunneled all the way through him. He held his body steady, refusing to buckle as the agony burned through him. So many bullets.

Keep her safe. Keep her—

Sabine gasped and her body jerked within his arms.

“Stop! Stop! Dammit, put down your weapons!”

That voice. No way. It couldn’t be . . .

Footsteps pounded toward him. Ryder didn’t turn, not yet. He’d wait, let them think he was weak, then he’d whirl and attack.