32. ~Caleb~

Adrenaline was tearing through me.

My entire body was on edge with it.

With the prospect of this last push toward freedom from all this bullshit.

The prospect of delivering punishment and lethal fucking justice to Elijah.

I needed it. I needed to see him hurt. I needed to see him dead in order to bury what he'd done.

Cas had set up an appointment for me with Doctor Granger right after this. Once this was done, I would be on the proper track toward healing from it all. To being free of it.

"In position," Cas spoke down the line via his earpiece to the other units that were positioned around the old factory, approaching from the shadows like me, him, Dante, and Damien were.

Bastian and Sky were over at the rear with one of Caspian's teams being led by Luke.

The east side was being taken by Mancini Syndicate soldiers, as well as the front.

We were all to move in on the same signal from Cas and overwhelm the force of thirty that the recon team had determined were within the place along with Elijah.

"They're ready," Cas told us. His gaze fell on me and worry plagued his features. "Caleb?"

"I'm fine."

He noticed my hands shaking.

"Adrenaline," I told him quickly. I squared my shoulders and sucked in a breath. "I've got this, I swear." I cocked my gun. "Let's take this motherfucker down."

He laid his hand on my shoulder. "We will," he vowed. "He's not leaving here alive. This ends tonight."

"Locked and loaded," Damien said, readying his gun.

"Give the word," Dante spoke. He'd been in a rigid, ready for anything stance since we'd arrived here. He was beyond seasoned with this sort of thing. Completely solid.

Cas pulled away and tapped his earpiece, and then I heard what I'd been waiting on for the hours that it had taken for us to get up here and into position.

"Breach!" Caspian's voice rang out with uncompromising authority.

He pressed the button on the sleek silver tube, a specialized remote detonator designed by King-Tech and it triggered a targeted, minor explosion that busted the lock on the steel door. Thunder sounded from the more violent and attention-drawing explosions over by the front entrance.

Cas stepped back and gestured at Damien as per our plan, and he barreled on through like a wild bull with us flanking him.

The building was divided into several parts for different forms and stages of processing, along with several offices and a break room, storage spaces.

We entered into a section with storage shelves towering in front of us, a door with a large window leading through into the main factory floor, a conveyor system from the building's former use still occupying half of it, with munitions stored over by the other half closest to us.

Further down, according to our plans was the break room that then led to another opening that housed several offices, which we now knew were being used to store more arms.

We were only a couple of steps in when Elijah's mercenaries rounded the corner coming from the breakroom, headed right for us.

Cas, Dante, and I fired off consecutive shots to the three at the front, blowing through their skulls instantly. And then Damien bellowed and threw himself into the fray, downing two more as he crushed them beneath him, then started wailing on them like a beast. As he was dealing out punishment, blood spraying over his tactical gear, hands and face, six more emerged, coming for us.

Damien threw out his leg and tripped one, then shoved off his downed opponents, grabbed the guy by the thigh and threw him into the door. The force of it wrenched it open and the guy went careening through, where Luke caught sight of him and fired off a shot to his chest that put him out of the fight. He winked at us and continued on battling through his set of hostiles.

I saw Bastian bringing out the best of his knife skills and working in concert with Sky.

As she beat back two opponents, Bastian tossed one of his blades and it embedded in the thigh of one of them. As the guy lost his footing, Sky took advantage of it and delivered a brutal push kick to his face that knocked him out. Then she yanked out the knife, spun to her other opponent who was throwing his fist and stabbed it into his inner arm, stopping the blow. And then Bastian was there with a boot to the face knocking him out.

A fist came at me and I caught it, then used the hold to wrench the hostile around and shove him up against the wall. I drove my boot into the back of his knee and wrenched, forcing a scream from him as a satisfying crack sounded and he hit the ground. A shove to the back of his head knocked him unconscious.

Elijah. I needed to get to that fucker.

I couldn't wait much longer.

I needed this done.

Needed it over.

Needed him over.

The urgency cost me some of my focus in the fight and as I was shoving back another soldier, my focus on the way through the break room, deeper into the facility, I missed someone lunging at me.

In the next beat, I was slammed up against the wall, a hand wrapping around my throat, then a knee driving into my gut.

The big motherfucker smashed my gun wielding hand into the concrete over and over, trying to dislodge my grip. With a final bloodied scrape he managed it and I heard it clatter to the floor.

And then the guy I'd just pushed back closed in.

He didn't get very far as he was abruptly yanked back with a hand around his throat by Cas. He wrenched the fucker around with that sexy powerhouse muscle of his, angled him just right as the guy flailed, and then I heard a distinct snap as he yanked, breaking his neck.

Fuck me.

The shock of it had the guy holding me loosening his grip just enough for me to yank my bloodied hand free and deliver a harsh uppercut to his jaw that had his head snapping back.

Cas was there in the next second, hauling him away by his shoulders.

A bullet from Dante tore through his throat and sent him to hell, his body dropping like a ragdoll.

A final roar from Damien as he crushed his final opponent's face to shit on the rough ground ended the immediate fight and as he sprung back to his feet dripping with his opponents' blood, we all looked out at the fallen bodies lining the floor.

"Your focus is compromised," Cas warned me.

"I want that fucker. Now," I growled.

"It's your lucky day, my pet," a voice rang out.

The fucking voice that was haunting me despite my best efforts to do everything I possibly could to counter it.

We all spun to see Elijah standing between the break room and the rest of this section of the building that we needed to storm now we'd dealt with the welcoming committee.

I bolted forward, but Cas snagged my arm, pulling me up short.

I saw why in the next second as Elijah pulled something from off to the side.

What. The. Hell?

He wouldn't.

He'd obviously lost it completely, absolutely all sense of strategy and reason, because he fired the thing up and a violent expulsion of flames tore through the immediate area.

He raised it higher, making a wall of fucking flames barring our way to him and further into this section of the facility.

"A fucking flamethrower? Seriously?" Damien groused.

"In the middle of an arms facility too," Dante said, shaking his head in utter disbelief.

Yeah, unhinged didn't cover it.

Elijah positioned the flamethrower, rigging it so it was still running, while he then made a break for it.

As we continued to be blocked from making it past the wall of flames, I couldn't stand it.

Especially when Cas and Dante started strategizing about backing out and coming at our target from another angle.

That left the possibility of the fucker being able to slip out.

Hell, no.

My fists clenched and I readied myself.

I caught Damien's eye and I saw him register what I was about to do.

It looked like he was going to stop me or maybe alert Cas.

But then he sighed and gave me a chin lift, letting me know he had my back.

In the next second, before Cas or Dante could figure out my plan, I went for it.

I ran at the flames and leapt through them.

"Caleb!" Cas bellowed.

I ducked and rolled once I reached the other side, as fire licked at my body and hair alike.

I managed to put it out and then I came up into a primed crouch just as Elijah disappeared through a door leading to the other half of the building.

"Don't!" I heard Cas calling. "Wait for backup!"

I ignored it.

I couldn't let this go.

I couldn't let this bastard escape.

Bolting through the door, I caught sight of his spiky hair as he dipped into another room.

I burst on into the space lined with shelving units housing a bunch of metal cases of differing sizes—handguns and disassembled semi-automatics within. I noted the door in the corner that I remembered from the plans led into the front of the building. Panic gripped me as I saw it ajar. Had he already slipped through on his road to escape through the chaos of the battle taking place?

No. No!

I was barely two steps in when that worry proved unfounded, as he jumped at me, body checking me into one of the shelves.

He grinned maniacally as he dug his fingers into my chest, the tactical gear protecting me from feeling most of it. "Yes, there's my pet returning to me, just like I knew he would." He grabbed at my pants, fisting my cock in a brutal grip that had me hissing. "Missed this gorgeous specimen." His eyes flashed. "Missed sinking into that perfect ass more."

I roared and slammed my arms up and out, breaking his grip, then smashed my boot into his gut.

He fell back several feet against the shelves opposite, laughing.

As I stalked to him, more poisonous words spewed forth. "Does King recoil at your very presence, recognizing that you're damaged goods to him? Violated by the man who murdered his parents?" He smirked. "Don't worry, you aren't to me. My special boy."

"Motherfucker!"

I lunged at him.

But he reacted fast, snatched up one of the metal cases and whipped it at my head.

As I grunted and stumbled back from the disorientation, he snagged my tactical jacket and yanked me down. Shoving me against the shelves on my ass, he wrapped his hand around my throat.

I gritted my teeth as he leaned in and breathed me in.

Big arrogant mistake.

I smashed my head into his face.

Blood exploded as the brutal impact shattered his nose.

As he reeled from that, I kicked him off me, pushed to my feet, then hauled him back toward the opening we'd come in through.

"You failed to break me. It was an illusion. And nothing can come between Caspian and those he loves. You're a fool. A sadistic piece of shit. And tonight you die at the hands of those you've wronged."

I pulled my knife and spun it in my hand.

"It wasn't all an illusion. You were there with me in certain moments. I saw it."

"And those moments will be erased soon enough," I growled as I fisted his hair, then jerked him toward me, bringing my knife down.

His hand shot out at the last second before it plunged into his throat.

I grunted and pushed harder, but he held fast, his muscles bunching, all those steroids working to the max.

He smashed his fist into my face, blowing me back onto my ass.

Scrambling up quickly, he wrenched me around onto my stomach, then straddled my back. I cursed as he shoved his hand under me and palmed my cock. Fisting my hair and yanking my head toward him, he leaned in and breathed at my ear, "When I'm clear, I'll come for you. I'll finish the job I started and make you mine wholly. With my know-how and experience and your security networking skills, we'll be unstoppable. Forget King, we'll take everything, run right over everything and everyone."

"You're delusional." And he also had extreme delusions of grandeur to go along with that.

He tugged at my hair making me hiss. "You'll see. By the time I'm through with you, all you'll see is me. And then, when you're right there with me, I'll drag King in on his knees and watch in utter rapture as I have you kill the man you love."

I snarled, thrashing beneath him.

A sharp pain tore through my left arm, stilling my efforts.

It was only temporary before I was able to get a handle on it, but it was all he needed to push off me and make a fucking run for it.

I forced myself onto my side and ripped out the blade, the fucker having stabbed me with my own knife.

And then I spun it in my hand and bolted after him, staggering in my step a little as shock from the wound he'd inflicted tried to get the best of me.

Not happening.

I wasn't stopping.

No matter what.

As he rushed down a hallway, I saw him snatch a metal case off one of the shelving units.

I was almost upon him when he burst through another door, entering the front of the factory.

It only took me seconds to follow after him.

I sprinted into chaos, the battle still raging all around, and I had to dodge bodies and all the combat taking place, which Elijah was using to his advantage.

I saw him push out of the building headed for the brush.

No. He wasn't disappearing on us.

No fucking way.

As I made it out there too, he tossed the silver case behind him and then I saw him rapidly assembling a Sig as he continued to run. Jesus.

He was right at the brush, about to camouflage himself with it when a shot rang out.

He screamed and lurched as a bullet plunged into the back of his tactical vest.

The impact ripped him off his feet and sent him sprawling into the dirt.

I swung my head and looked to see Caspian sprinting for him, his gun still in firing position.

And then he was there before me as Elijah tried to push back to his feet, Cas jumping on him, ripping his gun from his grasp and tossing it aside, as he sat on him and pinned his hands to his chest, completely incapacitating him.

"King," Elijah seethed.

"It's over," Cas growled at him.

He sputtered as Cas dug his knees into his ribs. "You weren't… supposed to rebuild. With Jameson and Wayne gone, it was meant… for me."

"Your biggest mistake was taking their lives that night. It signed your death sentence and guaranteed your ruin."

"You took… everything from me." He looked out at me and a twisted smile warped his mouth. "But I took… what you love."

Cas jerked him up and slammed him back down into the ground, making him choke. "You took nothing. He's right here with me. They all are. You failed. And you'll die knowing that, knowing you lost everything to the one you tried to destroy."

Cas beckoned to me and I stepped forward.

He handed me his gun and I took it. "You're sure?"

"I am."

He remained there pinning Elijah down as I lunged forward and shoved the muzzle into his temple.

Elijah's eyes met mine.

And then I pulled the trigger.

I watched as the bullet tore through his skull, killing him instantly.

Ridding the world of his twisted brutality and depraved actions.

As I just stood there staring at his corpse, Cas grasped my shoulders and pulled me away.

"It's done," he said, wrapping his arms around me tightly.

Footsteps sounded and I looked out as Cas spun with me in his arms to see Dante rushing out of the building toward us.

His gaze fell on Elijah and he looked utterly stunned for a few moments, like he couldn't quite believe Elijah Bane was finally gone.

"It's over," he said, coming to us and stroking Caspian's hair. "The war is won."

The war is won.

A smile spread over my face, the hope I'd been holding at bay now breaking through.

We could finally live again.