Breaking Conviction by Greer Rivers

Chapter Forty-One

Wes opened his eyes to blurry bright sunlight shining on his face and BlackStone Securities’ war room up in flames. His skin was slick with sweat as he wiped his brow, empty of his glasses, and sat up on the hot cement floor. Acrid smoke burned his nostrils, telling him he needed to get the fuck out of there, but it was the high-pitched shrieks that brought him fully to his senses.

He hadn’t passed out, but he was still disoriented. Although whether from the bomb, the head throbbing alert that automatically went off throughout the building during an emergency, or Thea’s wailing, he wasn’t sure.

“Thea, are you okay? Are you hurt?” His words came out quick and loud, but her screams didn’t change.

They’d had barely enough time for Wes to hide them underneath the heavy round table in the center of the room and Thea was climbing onto him like a life raft in the ocean. He’d lost his glasses somewhere, and it was already so smoky that he could hardly see Thea in front of him. He got on his knees and ran his fingers quickly around the floor to find his glasses. They brushed over his frames, but when he brought them to his eyes, they were cracked beyond repair.

They’ll have to work for now.

He turned to a less blurry Thea and tried his best to not sound panicked.

“Thea? Please answer me, princess. Are you okay?”

In answer, she threw herself around his neck and nearly choked him with her strong grip. He wrapped his arm around her back, tugging her close, hoping she felt a little safer. As he held her, he ran his fingers over her limbs and face to make sure she was okay to move. When he’d confirmed that her cries were from terror rather than pain, overwhelming gratitude shuddered through him and he sagged back on his calves.

“You’re going to be okay, Thea. I’ll get you out of here. You’re safe with me, I promise.”

Once the words left his lips, he shed his worry and allowed his training to take over, narrowing his focus to figure out the best escape route.

Thank God the war room was mostly cement and steel, but whatever had been used in the bomb had ignited the weapons room, too. Together it’d been strong enough to wrench open a huge hole in BlackStone’s outer walls, giving him the odd sensation that they were already outside.

Fuck… the weapons room.

When they’d built the BlackStone facility, it’d made sense to have their weaponry, demolitions, and gun range all in one place. They’d also made it easy access to the war room and the garage so they could plan, suit up, and head out in one swift go.

No one ever thought about what would happen if it was all blown up. BlackStone was the safest place on earth.

Was.

Heat stung his skin, bringing him back to the emergency at hand. He slid with Thea all the way under the table for shelter while taking stock of the room. The gaping hole in the corner had taken out some of his screens and made them sitting ducks for any future explosions.

Draco had been their demo man, stocking up the room with basically every weapon and defense known to man. How had he stored them? Was anything volatile and vulnerable enough to ignite? He had to get Thea out of there before they found out.

In the space between his hiding spot and the door, cement and steel scattered in sharp pieces from the blast. Turning his head on a swivel, he mapped a way around the biggest obstacles to the war room doorway.

“Hold on to me, Thea. We’re going to play ‘floor is lava,’ okay? Do not let go and don’t touch the ground. Hear me?”

Unable to tell whether her shrieky reply was in response to him or not, he wrapped her around his torso like a baby sloth. Despite the fact that her screams echoed in his ears, he breathed easier, knowing that she had the lung capacity at all in the smoky room. Her fear would have cracked his heart to the point of paralysis, but his training took over and aided him to operate on autopilot.

Staying low on his hands and knees to avoid heat and smoke, he crawled through the maze of jagged, molten hot obstacles at an awkward angle to keep Thea safe from the fragments below them. Glass and lava hot metal pierced and burned his palms and he gritted his teeth against the pain.

The room was already gray and black with smoke, but he could make out the open doorway in front of them.

“Almost there, princess.”

A deafening pop behind him made him jump, landing one hand onto a knife-sharp piece of glass. Ignoring the pain, he instantly crouched over Thea to protect her from whatever had detonated from the weapons room. His back stung like a sunburn from a new burst of flames behind them. Thankfully, his shirt still provided him a thin layer of protection against burns, but he knew that wouldn’t last for long if he stayed put.

Thea’s face tucked into his chest and her grip loosened.

“No, Thea, hang on! Lava, Thea. Remember? Don’t touch the ground.”

Small sniffles against his chest in response made him realize she’d finally stopped screaming, but it didn’t provide the reprieve he needed.

Banding his arm around her waist and pressing her as close as possible so she had to breathe through his shirt, he lifted the hand with the glass shard and continued his trek. More fiery pops behind him spurred him on, and he bent even lower into a modified Army crawl across the broken remnants of their war room.

Cool air from the open door wafted in on him and he tried to breathe deep but it was still too smoky. A hacking cough forced its way from his lungs. Every inch in front of him felt like a mile. His limbs grew sluggish and he had to dig deep to access that part of him that kick-started his energy every time his emotions were involved.

Remember Thea. I need to get her safe. Get her safe. Just, get… her… safe.

Then go after the fuckers who did this to her.

The last thought gave him that rage he’d grown up on, lighting his own fire underneath him to cover those last few feet.

Suddenly, the cool air enveloped him and he closed his eyes with relief. His body nearly gave out, and he would’ve collapsed to the ground on top of Thea if strong arms didn’t scoop him up underneath his armpits.

He and Thea were turned over, so that Thea was on top of his chest, still clutching him for dear life as they were dragged into the garage on the opposite side of the hallway. Wes looked up to see Phoenix’s harried expression.

Finally, they stopped moving and Phoenix settled him and Thea against the wall near the garage door. Phoenix kneeled down, his eyes wide and hands brushing through his hair, his ball cap forgotten.

“What the fuck is goin’ on?”

Wes tried to hear him over the emergency alert pounding in his head. He huffed out a cough and struggled to sit up, but was already feeling his energy come back now that oxygen was filling his lungs.

“Someone… attacked BlackStone,” he coughed out his answer. “Can’t stay here… war… weapons room… gone.” He sucked in another healthy gasp of air and swallowed it down his dry throat. “I don’t know if… there are more weapons… bombs. But the weapons room… it could blow. We have to go.”

As he said it, he gathered his strength to get up, still holding on to Thea with his good hand. The other still had a thin glass shard embedded inside the palm, so he gingerly used it to pull his phone and keys from his pocket. Thank whoever the hell up there was watching them that he had both still intact.

“Right, let’s go.” Phoenix nodded. “Wait—Shit. Ascot.”

Thea was back to crying in his ear and Wes blinked, pausing for a second to understand what his teammate was saying.

“No Phoenix, we can’t…” He swallowed again and finally felt like his throat was coated enough to talk. “Down in the basement… door’s closed. No one can possibly get in… without a code… it’s a bunker… hidden. We’ll get him… later. When whoever attacked has left—”

“No man, you know he’s the target. They’ll do whatever it takes to get him. We can’t just leave him chained to a damn chair!”

Wes narrowed his eyes at Phoenix’s point before cursing again. “Fine… if you can’t get him… leave him… we’ll figure it out.”

Phoenix nodded and was gone in the next breath.