Chapter 168 Boom

Chapter 168 Boom
Knox

They were alive. Relief crashed over me in a wave so strong it made my knees weak.

Thank God.

My attention snapped back to Rourke, watching his every move. For the first time since this nightmare began, the smug bastard faltered. He blinked, just once, but it was enough. His eyes darted to the tunnel behind him, to the echoing voices that had shattered his confidence. His smile vanished, replaced by hard calculation.

Good. Now he understood. He wasn’t in control anymore. He wasn’t negotiating.

He was trapped.

His gaze flicked from me, to Silas, to Victor, to Lily, then back over his shoulder. There was panic in the way his jaw flexed, a man who suddenly realized he had no way out.

“You’ve boxed yourselves in,” he sneered, trying to recover his edge.

Victor shrugged, scratching his beard with a slow, deliberate motion. “Yeah… So have you.”

Silas rested his shotgun across his shoulder, a feral grin splitting his face. “Personally,” he said, “I like our odds better.”

Rourke’s mask slipped. His eyes hardened. Then, with a snarl, “KILL THEM!”

The tunnel exploded.

Five rifles fired at once, thunder echoing off the concrete.

“DOWN!” I roared, diving forward and wrapping an arm around Lily’s waist, dragging her to the ground as bullets tore through the corridor.

Stone shattered above us, raining dust and debris. The air filled with grit and the sharp stink of gunpowder.

Lily landed beneath me, breathless. “You okay?”

“I’m fine!” she snapped, voice shaky.

“Liar.”

“I know!”

Victor broke cover, stepping into the open. Three shots... crisp, controlled, deadly. The closest Iron Serpent dropped before he even registered the hit. Another swung his weapon toward Victor and fired. The shot echoed. Victor jerked, blood blossoming across his shoulder.

“Little help!” he gritted, staggering against the wall, teeth clenched in pain.

Silas didn’t hesitate. He raised his shotgun and fired, not at a man, but at the ceiling. The blast ripped through a support beam with a thunderous roar. Chunks of concrete crashed down, trapping two of Rourke’s men. One disappeared beneath a rain of rubble; the other barely dodged clear.

Victor blinked. “...That’s one way to solve traffic.”

Silas pumped another shell, grinning. “I’ve always been creative.”

Then gunfire erupted from behind Rourke. Jinx’s voice, brash and unmistakable: “I FOUND THEM!” Another shot. “YOU’RE WELCOME!”

Darius’s voice followed, sharp and exasperated. “Less talking!”

“I’M ENCOURAGING TEAMWORK!” Jinx shouted back.

The Iron Serpents spun, caught between two fronts.

“They’re pinched!” Victor called, gripping his bleeding shoulder.

Through the settling smoke, I saw Jinx and Darius burst into the chaos, weapons ready. Jinx fired wildly, bullets ricocheting off the walls. “DUCK!” he bellowed.

Darius shoved him aside. “You almost shot me!”

“I almost shot everybody!”

“THAT’S THE PROBLEM!”

Lily snorted, laughter bubbling up even here. Even now. God, I loved her.

Rourke saw it all... the trap closing, the Reapers in front, Jinx and Darius behind. His face twisted, not with panic, but with cold calculation. He wasn’t trying to win now. He was trying to escape.

“Move!” he barked. His men shifted, professional and ruthless. One threw himself into our line of fire, taking bullets meant for Rourke, bodyguard or pawn, it didn’t matter. Rourke sprinted for the far end of the tunnel.

“Oh, hell no!” I took off after him, Lily’s hand catching my vest.

“Knox!”

“I’m ending this!” I growled.

Three more Serpents poured from a hidden side passage. Of course, another exit. Victor cursed. “They’ve got another tunnel!”

“They’re falling back!” Silas shouted.

“No,” Darius said, voice razor-sharp. “They’re buying him time!”

Exactly.

Jinx vaulted over rubble, breathless. “I’m gonna stab him!”

“You don’t even have a knife!” Darius yelled.

“I’LL BORROW ONE!” Jinx’s grin was wild.

Another explosion rocked the tunnel. This one was smaller, more focused. Not fuel... charges. Rourke reached a steel control box bolted to the wall. My stomach dropped as realization hit.

“No!” I shouted.

Rourke met my eyes, a cruel smile twisting his lips. “You should’ve stayed out of my city.” He slammed his palm onto the detonator.

Everything happened at once.

The world screamed. The ground lurched under my boots as the ceiling split open, concrete slamming down in monstrous slabs. Steel supports twisted and groaned. Dust swallowed us whole.

“LILY!”

“I’m here!” she shouted, voice muffled by the chaos.

A second, closer explosion ripped through the corridor. The shockwave threw me against the wall, my shotgun flying from my hands. Someone screamed... Victor? Silas? I couldn’t tell.

A wall of stone crashed down where Rourke had stood moments before. “No!” I scrambled forward, clawing at the rubble with bleeding hands.

“Lily!” I shouted, desperation clawing at my throat.

No answer.

“JINX!” Silence.

“DARIUS!” Only dust and the ringing in my ears responded.

Then, faint... a cough, somewhere behind the mountain of debris. Someone was alive. I just didn’t know who.

I looked up. The tunnel behind us, gone, blocked by fallen rock. The tunnel Rourke had used... obliterated.

He hadn’t just blocked the exits.

He’d split us apart.

Trapped us.

And somewhere, beyond the mountain of shattered concrete, Rourke was still breathing.

I dropped to my knees and started tearing at the collapsed tunnel with both hands.

Chunks of broken concrete scraped across my palms, splitting the skin open almost immediately. I didn't care.

I grabbed another rock.

Hurled it behind me.

Another.

Then another.

My fingernails bent backward as I dug into the loose gravel beneath the larger slabs.

"Come on..." I growled through clenched teeth. "Come on!"

A cough. Weak. Off to my left.

I froze.

Another cough.

"Victor?"

No answer.

I scrambled toward the sound, climbing over twisted rebar and shattered concrete until I found him half-buried beneath a collapsed wooden support beam.

"Victor!"

He groaned. "...I've..." He coughed hard, dust spraying from his mouth. "...had better Tuesdays."

Relief hit me so hard I almost laughed. "You dumb son of a bitch."

"I get that a lot."

I shoved the beam aside with both hands. It rolled off him with a dull thud.

Victor hissed through his teeth as he sat up.

"Easy," I said, grabbing his arm.

"I'm trying." He looked down at himself. "Well..." He frowned. "...that's unfortunate."

My eyes followed his.

The gunshot in his shoulder had already soaked through his cut, his flannel, and the T-shirt beneath it. Fresh blood ran down his arm in slow, steady streams before dripping from his fingertips onto the rubble below.

"Shit."

Victor looked at it like it belonged to someone else. "...Think that's gonna leave a scar?"

"I swear to God..."

I ripped my shirt over my head in one hard pull, ignoring the way the fabric caught against my cut.

"What are you doing?"

"You planning on bleeding to death?"

"I hadn't scheduled it."

"Funny."

"I try."

I twisted the shirt into a thick strip before looping it beneath his injured arm.

Victor winced. "Oh, that's... less than pleasant."

"I know."

"Pretty sure you dislocated my dignity."

"You never had any."

I carefully pulled the makeshift sling snug against his chest, tying the ends behind his neck.