9. Zach

NINE

Zach

We crept through the shadows of the abandoned warehouse district, Kai on my six, adrenalin coursing through my veins, along with a healthy dose of fear as we closed in on our target. My entire world had been rocked in the space of a few hours, and I didn't know what to do with the worries constricting my breathing.

"We're getting close," Kai murmured, his voice barely audible over the distant rumble of traffic. I stopped at a corner, glanced back at Kai.

"I can do this alone," I warned him. Coming with me meant painting a target on Kai's back—black ops was one thing, but going on our own private mission was going to backfire.

"What would be the fun in that?" he asked, tugging at his vest. He hated wearing them. Typically, he'd moan about it every single scene with potential violence, but tonight he hadn't bitched once. He'd been his usual sarcastic self, nothing different there, and yeah, he'd called me a fucking idiot for heading into hostile territory, but not once did he mention his vest. He moved past me with the fluid grace of a predator, his eyes scanning the darkness for any sign of danger, and I hoisted him back by said vest.

"Me first," I snapped. This was my mission, my rescue, my risk to take.

My fault.

He shrugged, slipped in behind me again, and I gripped my Glock. As we reached the edge of the warehouse, a flicker of movement caught my eye. I raised a hand, signaling for Kai to halt as I scanned the area for threats, and we both crouched.

Four hostiles, Kai indicated, then another finger for the victim. Kerry.

The sound of muffled voices drifted through the night, growing louder as we approached. Peering around the corner, I spotted a very pregnant Kerry against the side of the dilapidated building, Matteo behind her, using her as a shield, a gun at her temple; her face was pale. Why had this happened? Her witness protection had been solid and would have taken her far away from the family. Beside Matteo stood three other men, features obscured by the shadows. A surge of protective something made me stumble—Kerry had been the mark and our way in, a skin job that should have been easy, but had gone so wrong. I'd left her in WitSec, not knowing she was pregnant.

She could be carrying my baby.

And even if she wasn't, she was vulnerable and I was going to get her and the baby away.

My breathing hitched, and Kai rested a hand on my shoulder, the weight of it reassuring.

"I've got this," he whispered.

I shrugged him off. "Stay back," I said.

He narrowed his eyes, then pointed at me, and then his chest. God knows what that meant, but it was the same before every freaking mission.

Kai and I sprang into action, moving swiftly and silently towards Kerry, Matteo, and his three bodyguards.

"Took you long enough," Matteo said, pressing the gun harder to Kerry's temple.

She had tears rolling down her face. She stared up at me, telling me without words just how terrified she was. Her hands were on her belly, and when I glanced up at Matteo, his eyes narrowed in fury.

"Let her go, and we won't kill you all," Kai ordered.

Matteo snickered as if he found it funny. "I'm not letting her go," he snarled. "You took her from me, got her pregnant." He gripped Kerry's hair and yanked her closer. "Then you killed my father, my brother, destroyed my family, so I get to take your family from you. "

"Drop your weapon!" I shouted, my gun trained on Matteo's chest. "Now!"

Matteo was beyond reason, his finger tightening on the trigger as he tilted his chin. "Drop the gun! On your knees."

I raised my weapon. "Sure. Let her go with my guy here and you can take me instead."

"Why would I let her go?"

"She's pregnant with your baby," I said, my weapon unwavering.

"Well, we both know that's not entirely true—it could be mine, could be yours, right, bitch?"

Kerry whimpered, and Matteo cursed as she faltered and threw off his weight, staggering back, giving us enough of a distraction for Kai to take out two of the bodyguards, double tap, and for me to throw myself at Matteo. I lunged forward, tackling him to the ground just as he pulled the trigger. The gunshot echoed through the warehouse, the sound ringing in my ears as I grappled with him on the cold concrete floor.

"Zach!" Kai's voice cut through the chaos, reaching out to pull me away from the struggle. But I was beyond reason, my mind consumed by a single thought—protect Kerry at all costs.

With a surge of adrenalin, I wrestled the gun from Matteo's grasp, my fingers closing around the trigger as I aimed it squarely at his chest. In that moment, there was no hesitation, no remorse, only the cold certainty of what needed to be done.

I shot that fucker through his heart. Once. Twice. The sound was deafening in the confined space of the warehouse. And then there was silence.

"No! Zach, Kerry's hit," Kai shouted in my face, and I went to a crouch next to her. She was bleeding from a wound in her chest, her eyes shut.

"Who shot her! Did you shoot her?" I shouted at him, and he shook his head, backing away, his eyes wide, shock in every line of him.

"Of course not!"

I stared at Kerry lying in a pool of blood, supporting her head. Beside me, Kai checked for a pulse, and then, in a flurry of motion, he shoved at me.

"Help me pick her up. There's a pulse. We need to get her to a hospital," he shouted, his voice hoarse with emotion. "Now."

Together, Kai and I lifted Kerry into our arms, her body limp as we carried her out of the warehouse and into the night. The journey to the hospital was a blur, every step weighed down by panic.

The doctors worked to save Kerry and her baby's life, and through all of it, I watched and waited, with Kai by my side. The bullet hadn't been from my gun, or Kai's. It had been a stray shot, an accidental hit, from the gun I'd wrestled from Matteo.

My fault .

If I hadn't pushed at Matteo, then it would never have gone off. If I'd done something different…

Kerry never reopened her eyes, never saw her baby, and when the doctors revealed they'd saved her little boy, my heart cracked with anguish at the loss for that child.

And then I saw him—she'd had a boy with red hair like mine.

Mine.

"Jesus, Zach," Kai said, his voice choked with emotion. "He has to be yours."