Chapter 161: Flesh Against Lead

Micah’s POV

Before Noah and Damon blew those doors open, pure hell was roaring on the floor above us.

The concrete ceiling trembled under the relentless thunder of automatic gunfire. Heavy explosions shook the pipes, raining flakes of rust and dirt over our heads. Every single person in the bunker was curled into a ball, pressing their faces against the damp ground, praying the ceiling wouldn’t cave in and bury us alive.

Sunny was huddled right beside me, clutching my left hand with both of hers. Her knuckles were white, her eyes squeezed shut, her lips moving in frantic, silent prayers.

I stared into the dark room, my chest heaving with every ragged breath.

I knew who was making that noise outside. I knew Noah and Damon had come for me.

Yet, sitting there holding Sunny’s trembling hand, a sharp, bitter knot twisted deep in my stomach.

Sunny had no idea that my adoptive father was the monster who had ripped her away from her family. She didn’t know Bernard was the reason she had spent seven days starving in the dark, shivering in terror every time the clock struck midnight. If she ever found out the truth, would she despise me? Would Phoenix look at me with disgust and throw me out of his club anytime I went to visit? Would Raven hate my guts forever?

No, I told myself, swallowing hard against the lump in my throat. Bernard Miller isn’t my real father. He never was.

He was just a parasite who had stolen me from my real mother and kept me in a cage.

I forced the dark thoughts out of my head, squeezing Sunny’s icy fingers as I whispered under my breath:

"Please be safe... please just stay alive..."

CLANG!

A heavy, metallic bang slammed against the iron blast doors at the end of the bunker.

"Blow it up!" a muffled voice roared from the hallway.

My eyes flew wide open.

Blow it up?!

"Get back!" I screamed at the top of my lungs, scrambling to my feet and dragging Sunny backward. "Everyone get away from the doors right now! Move! Move!"

The terrified students shrieked, clawing across the dirt floor to press themselves against the far concrete wall.

BOOM!

A deafening blast ripped the steel doors straight off their hinges in a blinding cloud of smoke and fire!

Before the debris even hit the ground, rapid gunshots echoed through the opening. Three guards standing near the entrance dropped instantly, their bodies hitting the floor with dull thuds.

Through the drifting grey smoke, armed men dressed in black tactical armor stormed into the bunker, sweeping their rifles across the room with lethal precision.

Leading the squad was David.

"Evacuate the civilians immediately!" David barked to his men. "Medics are waiting at the surface vehicles! Go, go, go!"

The operatives rushed to cut the zip-ties binding the hostages, pulling weeping students to their feet and guiding them toward the clear hallway.

Then, cutting through the shouting and the smoke, a familiar, deep voice called out.

"Micah!"

My heart leaped into my throat.

Tears instantly flooded my eyes, blurring my vision.

Noah was standing in the center of the doorway. His face was smudged with soot, his black tactical vest heavy with magazines, but his cold blue eyes were wild with frantic relief. Behind him, Damon stepped through the threshold, his weapon lowered, letting out a breathless laugh the second he saw me.

"Noah!" I cried, breaking away from Sunny and sprinting across the dirt.

I threw myself violently into his chest.

Noah dropped his rifle, letting it hang against his sling, and caught me with both arms. He pulled me so tight against his body that I could barely breathe, burying his face in my hair, his chest heaving with ragged gasps.

"I’ve got you," Noah whispered, his rough voice shaking with raw emotion. "I’ve got you, Micah."

Damon stepped up beside us, resting his gloved hand against my cheek, wiping my tears with his thumb. "Told you we’d get you out of here, darling."

A broken, tearful laugh escaped my mouth. For the first time in hours, the suffocating terror vanished, replaced by an overwhelming wave of safety.

That relief lasted less than two seconds.

"How incredibly touching."

A cold, mocking voice sliced through the air from the dark corridor behind us.

Every muscle in my body locked rigid.

We turned simultaneously.

Standing in the shadows of the doorway, stepping over the bodies of his own dead guards, was Bernard Miller.

His white mask was gone. His tailored navy suit was stained with dirt, his tie crooked, and his face was twisted into a terrifying, bloodthirsty sneer. In his right hand was a heavy .45 caliber handgun, pointed directly at Noah’s chest.

Noah reacted instantly. He shoved me behind his back, tucking my smaller body behind his broad shoulders while his hand dropped toward the holster on his hip.

Bernard’s finger tightened on the trigger.

"Die!" Bernard roared.

My mind went completely blank.

Noah was going to get shot. The man who had protected me my entire life, the brother who had bled for me, was going to die right in front of my eyes.

Without thinking, without hesitating for a single millisecond, I threw all my weight forward.

I shoved myself violently in front of Noah.

BANG!

A white-hot, blinding fire punched straight through my left shoulder.

The force of the bullet ripped through muscle and bone, the violent impact spinning my body completely around. The bullet had been aimed directly at Noah’s heart, but because I was shorter than him, the heavy lead caught me right in the shoulder joint.

"MICAH!!!"

Noah and Damon screamed my name in a deafening, unified roar of pure horror.

A sharp, breathless gasp tore out of my throat. My knees gave out instantly, my legs turning to liquid.

Before my body could crash onto the hard dirt floor, two strong arms caught me from behind.

Damon dropped to his knees, sliding across the dirt, catching my head and shoulders against his chest.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Deafening, non-stop gunfire erupted right above us.

I couldn’t move my arms. I couldn’t move my legs. My entire left side felt like it had been dipped into molten iron, an agonizing, unbearable fire radiating through every nerve in my body. Warm, thick blood was pouring freely over my sweater, pooling between my fingers as I gasped for air, choking on my own spit.

Damon’s hands were shaking violently as he cupped my face, his dark eyes wide with frantic, terrified fury.

"Are you completely stupid?!" Damon yelled at me, his voice cracking with panicked tears. "How could you jump in front of a gun?! Why the fuck would you take a bullet for your brother?!"

I parted my trembling lips, my vision swimming with dark spots as I looked up into his face.

"I... I don’t want him to die..." I whispered weakly, blood trickling from the corner of my mouth.

"Noah and I are wearing level-four ceramic bulletproof vests, you complete dummy!" Damon screamed, tears spilling over his eyelashes as he pressed his palm desperately over my bleeding shoulder. "The bullet would have bounced right off his chest! We wouldn’t have died!"

My breath hitched.

A bulletproof vest?

They were wearing armor. The whole time, they were wearing heavy body armor.

Damon turned his head away from me, looking toward the far wall, his voice rising into a furious, unhinged shriek.

"Call the fucking ambulance, you psycho!" Damon roared. "If anything happens to Micah, I swear to God I will kill you myself, Noah!"

I rolled my eyes slightly toward the sound.

What I saw made my blood run cold.

Noah had completely lost his mind.

He was standing over Bernard’s body in the dark doorway. Noah’s handgun was empty, the slide locked back, but he hadn’t stopped. Noah had drawn a long combat knife, straddling Bernard’s chest, plunging the blade repeatedly into our father’s throat and chest with savage, psychotic fury. Blood was splattering across Noah’s face, soaking his tactical gear, his eyes completely hollow and dead.

Hearing Damon’s scream, Noah froze mid-strike.

The knife slipped from Noah’s bloody fingers, clattering against the concrete.

Noah slowly turned his head. His eyes locked onto my pale face, onto the puddle of dark blood spreading across the dirt beneath Damon’s knees.

The psychotic rage vanished from Noah’s expression, replaced by a look of sheer, gut-wrenching terror.

Noah scrambled off Bernard’s corpse. He lunged across the bunker like a wounded animal, throwing himself onto the dirt beside us. His hands, dripping with Bernard’s blood, hovered frantically over my torn shoulder.

"Micah..." Noah choked out, his voice reduced to a broken whimper.

Noah shoved Damon’s hands aside, sliding his arms under my back and beneath my knees. He lifted me effortlessly against his chest, pulling me tight against his blood-soaked vest.

"I’ll take care of him myself," Noah rasped out, his jaw trembling.

Noah rose to his feet in one violent surge, turning his back on Damon and sprinting straight toward the blast doors.

"Master!" David’s voice called out from the hallway. "The medical transport is right outside!"

Noah didn’t answer. He just ran, his heavy boots pounding against the concrete stairs as he carried me up toward the surface.

Fuck.

I never knew getting shot could hurt this much.

It wasn’t a dull ache. It was a vicious agony that felt like someone was grinding broken glass deep inside my shoulder. Every single bounce of Noah’s footsteps sent a fresh wave of blinding, nauseating pain pulsing through my brain.

It hurt so much that I was internally praying for death just to make the screaming stop.

"Stay with me, Micah," Noah’s voice cracked right above my ear, trembling with desperate, terrified pleading. "Please... please don’t close your eyes. Look at me, Micah. Keep looking at me!"

A warm, wet drop splashed onto my cold cheek.

Then another.

I forced my heavy eyelids open a sliver, looking up through the blur.

Noah was crying.

The cold, emotionless monster who had never shed a tear in his entire life was sobbing openly, his tears washing lines through the fresh blood splattered across his pale cheeks.

Oh, Noah... I thought, my heart aching with sadness. I’m so sorry...

I wanted to tell him that it was okay. I wanted to tell him that I was glad he was alive. I wanted to reach up and wipe his tears away like he always did for me.

With this unbearable fire tearing through my flesh... I didn’t think I could hold on.

"Noah..." I tried to whisper, but no sound came out.

The cold crept up from my toes, freezing my limbs.

My head fell back limply against his arm.

My fingers slipped from his tactical vest, and my world faded into complete, silent black.