The Protectors Series Bundle - By Nana Malone Page 0,126

get your ass to the study, Symone is hit. I’m opening the exit in here.”

Symone felt like she was floating in an ocean of pain. She’s been shot with nisulin before, but it had never been anything like this. This was something different. This felt like death. Through a blur, she could see Garrett and Peter engaging in hand-to-hand. Garrett had the upper hand, but Peter had regained his ability to jump. And he was evening things out. When Garrett took another blow to the back of the head, she gasped and wished it could have been different. Wished she’d told him she loved him just once before coming here to die.

Jansen barreled in with a shotgun at the ready and fired without looking. He took a chunk of Peter’s shoulder out and grinned while doing it. “Aren’t you supposed to be dead, fucker?”

Garrett rolled onto his side and bent his knee in an attempt to stand. Their eyes locked as he managed to get to a crouch. Symone reached for him.

“Garrett.”

Alex opened the portal behind them. She could feel the energy buzz vibrating. It was a small opening, just big enough for a body. Alex went through first. With Garrett’s help, he pulled her legs through. Then he kissed her on the lips, smiled at her, and while shoving her back through the portal, said, “I’m right behind you.”

But he wasn’t, once she was through and Alex supported her weight with an arm under her shoulders, she turned back to look for him. Instead, she saw him rushing to a downed Jansen who twitched and bled from his stomach. Weeping, Symone tried to crawl back through the wormhole, but Alex firmly held onto her.

Garrett kneeled gently and picked up the weight of her friend. He stumbled three steps for the open portal. Peter appeared behind them.

“No!” she screamed. Struggling in Alex’s arm’s she tried to go back through for them. Watching in horror, she cried as Peter held a gun to Garrett’s chest and fired, forcing him to loosen his grip on Jansen. As Garrett fell backward through the portal, Jansen remained with Peter.

Peter held a dark metal object in his hands which he turned over as he spoke. “I would follow you, but that wormhole could lead anywhere, and I doubt the first place you’ll stop is home, in case the bad guy—that would be me—follow. So I’ll just stay here and play with my new toy.”

A snarl bubbled up in Symone’s throat, and she lunged for what was left of the closing portal.

“Oh,” Peter said with a smile that lit his pale green eyes. “In case you think about coming after me here…” He tossed a metallic object through the portal, and Symone recognized it for what it was. One of the charges Jansen had set.

Shit. “Fall back. Fall back.”

Before she could even shout instructions, a bloodied Garrett immediately covered her and Alex with his hulking frame and flew them thirty feet from the portal.

As the bomb exploded, and orange flames filled her vision, she wept.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Symone pealed open her gritty eyes. They felt like they’d been covered in sand for days. Her senses gathered the information she needed—it was still dark outside, and the smell of leather in the air told her Garrett was still by her side. The hollow feeling in her chest reminded her that she’d let Jansen down.

She tried to speak, but her throat was so raw she didn’t manage it at first. “Any word?”

Garrett’s voice was gentle. “No. Alex tried going back to the house, but no dice. They were already gone, and our charges had already gone off. There was nothing left.”

“Shit. Peter’s going to kill him.”

Garrett squeezed her hand. “I’m not going to let that happen. You need to rest. Let me worry about Jansen.”

“It’s my fault he went after Peter. I knew what frame of mind he was in. I never should have let him come. I should have had Cassie make him stay.”

“How were you going to manage that? He’s a grown man. You can’t let the guilt beat you up. The only person to blame is Reap—Peter Reeser. I’m not going to give that asshole the satisfaction of using his code name.”

Symone tried to sit up. “How long before we head out again? I’ll be able to help. I’ve seen Peter’s memories. Some of it might be useful. I don’t know. I need to talk to Cassie. I—”

Garrett set his jaw. “Symone, I’m the one going after