Chapter 27 VIPER’S ULTIMATUM
The second bullet cracked past my ear close enough to taste metal.
“Move!” I shouted.
Mina was already sprinting beside me, boots slamming against pavement as we cut across the open stretch of road. Another shot rang out.
We ducked behind a parked sedan just as glass exploded from the rear windshield.
“Roofline,” Mina hissed, peeking around the bumper and firing twice toward the six-story building across the street.
Another bullet shattered the brickwork inches above our heads, showering us in red dust and gravel. We were pinned in an alley that had suddenly become a kill zone.
I peeked around the corner and fired a shot toward the roof across the street. The muzzle flash was blinding in the grey rain, but I didn't see a target. Whoever was up there was a professional. They weren't just spraying bullets; they were waiting for us to make a mistake.
Mina jerked violently and collapsed against me. "I'm hit, Si," she gasped. Her voice was thin, trembling with a shock that was quickly overriding her toughness.
"I've got you," I said. I didn't panic. To my own surprise, I felt a strange, icy calm settle over me. I reached out and pulled her closer into the shadows of the dumpster.
I grabbed the hem of my shirt and tore a wide strip of fabric with a single, violent jerk. My hands moved with a practiced ease I didn't recognize. I wasn't Elena the socialite right now. I was the medic of the streets. I wrapped the cloth tightly around her arm, knotting it with a firm, steady pressure that made Mina hiss in pain.
"I’m out of bullets," Mina whispered, her eyes wide as she looked at the empty chamber of her Glock.
I checked my own weapon. "Fuck, I have only two left."
The sniper fired again. The bullet punched through the plastic lid of the dumpster, missing my ear by a hair’s breadth. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I let the world go quiet. I stopped trying to be Elena. I stopped trying to calculate. I simply let Sienna’s instincts take the steering wheel.
I looked at the side-view mirror of a car parked just two feet away. It was cracked, but the angle was perfect. I could see the reflection of the rooftop ledge across the street.
I fired the corner of the roof as a distraction, a bait to draw the shooter out.
Then I stilled completely, watching the mirror, my finger light on the trigger of my last remaining round.
If I missed this. We were dead.
A gloved hand reached out from behind a chimney stack, the barrel of a long rifle glinting as the sniper prepared to return fire. I didn't think. I just pulled the trigger.
The second bullet cracked through the air and the hand snapped backward violently, the rifle tumbling over the edge of the roof and clattering onto the pavement below before the hand quickly disappeared.
I didn't wait to see if they had a backup.
"Get on my back, Mina," I ordered.
Before Mina could protest, I hoisted her onto my back. She hissed in pain but wrapped her good arm around my shoulders.
“Don’t drop me,” she muttered, sassily making me roll my eyes.
We reached the garage ten minutes later. I kicked the side door open and stumbled into the lounge area.
"Mina! What happened?" Leo shouted, jumping up from the couch. Kael was right behind him, his face turning ghostly pale at the sight of the blood. "We need to get her to the hospital."
“I’m not going to a hospital,” she insisted the moment we crossed inside.
“You’re bleeding,” Kael barked the second he saw us. “What the hell happened?”
“She’s not going,” Mina snapped. “Why would I? I have Sienna.”
"Get the kit!" I barked. I laid Mina down on the sofa, ignoring the way my own hands were shaking now that the adrenaline was cooling. "Jax! Get over here!"
Jax stormed into the room, his face a mask of pure, unadulterated fury. "What the hell is this? “This,” he snapped, gesturing toward the exit, “is exactly why I didn’t want you digging into Harbinger business.”
"Not now, Jax!" I snapped.
I focused entirely on Mina. I cut away the rest of her sleeve, revealing a clean graze. It was deep, but it hadn't hit the bone. I moved with a terrifying efficiency, cleaning the wound, applying antiseptic, and stitching the skin with a steady hand. I realized then that Sienna wasn't just a fighter; she was a survivalist.
When I was finished, I stood up and walked to the sink to wash the blood from my hands.
"Kael, take her up to my loft," I ordered. "She needs to rest. Leo, follow them. Keep an eye on her temperature."
Once the room was empty of everyone but Jax and me, the silence became heavy. I could feel his anger radiating off him like heat from a furnace.
"You could have been killed," Jax growled. He was standing in the middle of the garage, his fists clenched at his sides. "Both of you. For what, Si? For some files? For a name that means nothing to us?"
"You don't understand!" I yelled, spinning around.
"Why?" Jax roared, stepping into my space. "We were fine! We were safe! We had money, we had a reputation, and we had our lives! Now we have snipers on rooftops, and my sister is bleeding on the couch!"
I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell him that he didn't understand. But then I looked at his eyes. They weren't just angry. They were terrified. He wasn't yelling because he was a brute; he was yelling because he had almost lost the only person who made his world make sense.
Before I could overthink it, I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around him. “I’m sorry,” I muttered against his chest.
Jax froze. His entire body went rigid, as if I had just plugged him into an electric socket.
Sienna didn't do hugs. Based on the way Jax was acting, Sienna hadn't touched him like this in years, if ever.
"I'm sorry," I muttered against the leather of his vest. "I'm so sorry, Jax. I didn't mean to put her in danger. I just... I need to know the truth."
Slowly, tentatively, Jax reached down. He placed his large, calloused hands on my shoulders. He didn't pull away. He let out a long, shaky breath, and I felt the tension bleed out of him. "Just don't do it alone again," he whispered. "Please, Si. I can't do this without you."
We stayed like that for a long moment, the only sound the steady beat of his heart against my ear. It was the first time since my death that I felt truly safe.
Then, the phone in my pocket buzzed.
I pulled away, the cold air rushing in to fill the space where Jax had been. It was an encrypted call.
Viper.
"What the hell was that for?!" I screamed as soon as I picked up the call. "Why would you send a sniper after me? Was that some sort of test?!"
Viper was silent for a while. Then she let out a chickle. "I don't know what you have going on there, but I definitely didn't send a sniper after you."
All the fight left my body. If she hadn't been the one, then who had tried to kill us?
"Seems like you've been making quite a mess, firecracker." Viper’s voice was smooth, a sharp contrast to the chaos of my night. "I just heard the Butcher is dead. Was it the same sniper?"
I kept my mouth shut.
"That's your business anyway," Viper commented after a while of silence. "Now it's time for my own test. If you want to be the lead of my new league, you need to prove you can handle more than just a street brawl. I need a leader who can handle the big weights."
"What do you want, Viper?"
"There is a warehouse on the outskirts," she said. “There’s a warehouse in No-Man’s-Land. Inside is something I want.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
My pulse sharpened. “What’s in it?” I asked carefully.
"None of your business, sweetheart."
“And you want me to just walk in and take it.”
“I want you to survive walking in and out,” she corrected. “Bring it to me, and the team lead position is officially yours.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then you’re just another fighter with potential. Don’t disappoint me, Siren.” Then she ended the call.
I looked at Jax. He was watching me, his eyes full of a new kind of dread. He knew what "No-Man's-Land" meant. It was the place where people went to disappear.
"No-Man's-Land?" Jax asked, his voice low. "No, Si,"
"I have to, Jax," I said.
I just had to take it as another step in getting to my bastard ex.