Chapter Twenty-Seven

Rossi

Present Day

What the fuck had he been so afraid of?

All he could say was that living with their relationship a secret had impacted him in ways even he hadn’t realized. Sure, it may have been understandable while he been in the Army, but Rossi had kept them a secret even after “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” had been repealed. He’d kept them a secret from his own family and friends even when he left the military.

He was a coward.

A fucking coward, and now he might have lost the most important person in the world to him. Of course, he loved Noah and Seth, but they had their own lives and spouses.

He had nothing without Stefano. He was nothing without him.

“Chief?” Storm’s voice brought him back to the warehouse interior, which had grown darker from the lack of lighting.

“Yeah.” Rossi slightly cleared his throat.

“You good?”

Fuck… he’d been blindly following Storm through the dark without paying attention. Behind them, Quick and Jagger stood silently waiting.

In the dimness of the building, he met Storm’s gaze. The man had just as much to lose as he did. Wild was in that room. And if the situation hadn’t been so fucking tragic, Rossi would have felt glad that Wild and Stefano were together and not alone.

“I’m good.”

Roscoe eased out of the space between two shelves and Rossi turned to their Phoenix lieutenant.

“What’s the plan?”

Roscoe’s eyes widened a bit at Rossi giving him the lead, but then Roscoe nodded. “I’ve got Fear and Lash setting explosives. When those go off, we breach.”

With the number of mercenaries at Dresor’s disposal, there was no way to get into that room without being detected. As much as it scared the hell out of Rossi that something would happen to Stefano and Wild when they took the door and windows by force, he knew it was the only way. They had to use the element of surprise to get into that room.

“Hey!” a voice shouted from down the aisle way.

Fuck!

Surprise had just gone out of the window.

Both Quick and Jagger launched across the distance to the perp at the end of the row. The man scrambled to bring his rifle up, but Jagger was on the guy. The rifle discharged, echoing through the warehouse.

Quick snatched the gun from the guy and slammed it against the man’s head, sending him to the ground and forcing Jagger to release his grip on the perp.

“Fear, Lash, blow it now!” Roscoe growled into his device.

“Fuck! We don’t have them all set,” Lash bitched through the comm.

“Detonate!” Rossi snarled, pressing the device in his ear.

At Roscoe and Storm’s urging, Rossi let himself be pulled between two shelves for protection. A few seconds later, an explosion rocked the left side of the warehouse and Rossi could feel the fucking heat blasting and sucking at the air around them.

“What the hell?” He jerked his gaze to Roscoe.

“They found some C-4.”

Just as Roscoe’s words ended, another explosion blasted the building, this time lighting up the right side.

“Now’s the time,” Rossi said and, not waiting for a response, he moved quickly through the darkened area. His men spread out in different directions.

Running hunched over, Rossi paused when another blast took out part of a wall ahead of him.

Shouts of surprise came from the men around the office area and Rossi sank down on his haunches—eyes locked on the closed door. Stefano and Wild were behind that door.

That last explosion from Fear and Lash had been so close, the windows in the office had blown out. He’d dive through that, glass and all, if he needed.

“Hit it,” Roscoe’s order came through the comm.

From his hiding spot, Rossi watched Phoenix move stealthily in on the mercenaries.

Snick.

Snick.

Silencers went off and some perps dropped, others opened fire. Ghost, Frost, and Seth came down from above. Rossi hadn’t even seen the rafters leading to the office.

Now was his chance.

Lunging upward, Rossi raced across the distance, opening fire on a perp who was raising a gun on Seth. The mercenary toppled and Frost pounced, but Rossi was already past the guy.

He kicked the door with all of his might and when it splintered and cracked open, Rossi went in at a roll. Bullets took out the stucco near his head and he aimed high, sending a few rounds into the lights overhead. Fire flashed from an automatic rifle and bullets showered the area, but Rossi was already moving.

At a dead run, he slipped to his knees and slid across the floor to a nearby desk. Gunfire echoed and again peppered near the door. Crawling through the darkened room, Rossi reached the cage and found the door open.

Fuck.

Wild lay sprawled on his back and Rossi scooted closer and felt his neck. A pulse throbbed, thank fuck. A gash was open on Wild’s head and he tore a piece of Wild’s T-shirt.

“I got it,” Storm rasped, taking the material from his hands. The big man sat his ass on the concrete floor and pulled Wild into his arms before pressing the piece of cloth to his forehead.

Rossi gripped his gun.

“Go,” Storm growled at him.

Without another word, Rossi slipped out of the cage past Roscoe coming inside and made his way across the darkened room toward where the gunfire had come from.

At the end of the office, a door stood ajar and when Rossi reached it, he eased it open enough to slip through.

Having blown out the major light in the office, his eyes quickly adjusted to the dim lighting of the hall. It turned out to be more of an access tunnel than a hallway. Dresor had probably dug it out to avoid law enforcement if a bust ever went down. It wouldn’t matter how many fucking tunnels the bastard dug, Rossi was going to kill the motherfucker one way or the other.

The air moved softly at his back and he jerked a quick look to find Noah. His son didn’t say a word, but the hand firmly gripping his shoulder calmed some of Rossi’s rage.

“Ready?” he rasped, and when Noah nodded, Rossi eased further into the damp, dark cavern.