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Atom looks at me, holds out his hand, and I take it as we follow in Gina’s wake.

We make it as far as the front room, where we find Grandfather wheeling himself toward us quickly.

“Get her to the panic room,” he says to Gina, who stiffens immediately.

“What’s going on—” I start to ask, but Grandfather cuts me off with a shake of his head.

“They are here for you.”

Before I can process that, Gina drags me down a hall and into another room. She moves a picture off the wall, punches in a code, then pulls me into a small room that can’t be bigger than a double closet. I glance around for half a second and note there’s a cot between shelves stacked with food and weapons, facing a wall of computer screens.

“Wait. What about them? What about Atom?” I take a step toward the door, but it seals shut.

“We can watch them from here.”

Gina turns on the cameras, and I watch man after man come through the front gate. Vinny’s guys are nowhere to be seen.

But that’s not what scares me. It’s the fact that I can see the guns the men are carrying. The sun is just about to dip below the horizon. Close enough to daylight, yet they don’t seem to care that anyone can see them. Which speaks volumes for what this means.

Oh God.

I sit on the cot as Gina drops onto a bucket in front of the cameras and starts typing on the keyboard. I watch in horror as I see Grandfather position himself by the panic room. The picture from the wall lies neglected beside him.

“Where’s—”I start, but then I see him. See Atom.

He’s lying in wait, ready to pounce on the first man who enters this home. But it’s just him. Him against all of them.

He’s fighting for me. Not to get something for me but to keep me safe. Something no one has ever done before.

And he’s unarmed.

Chapter 28 - Atom

I watch my Sunshine leave the room, and I harden as the darkness consumes me. I don’t spare her grandfather a moment’s notice as I make my way to the front. I walked this entire place when I was on the phone with my boys back home and already noted all entry points. The front gate is the only weak spot I could find in this small fortress.

I take up position behind one of the marble pillars and wait. I’m not close to the main entrance, but if this team has half a brain, they’ll split and search the place. I’m betting on it, and as luck would have it, I’m a winner when I hear someone approaching me.

I watch the shadows from the sun playing off the many windows and doors that lead to the garden to show me where they are before I make my move.

The second they pass, I grab the first one by the head and twist till I hear his neck crack while noting the knife on his hip. I grab it and throw it at the other man within seconds. Two down.

I grab the handgun off the first one and move to the second one to get another weapon when a shot is fired high and misses me. I duck, rolling to the left, then come up and shoot, twice at the first one and three times at the second. The second one goes down, but the first is wearing Kevlar. I throw my gun at him and run toward him, grabbing his semiautomatic and twisting it out of his hands as he fires wide, hitting the ceiling. I rip it from his hands, elbow him in the head, and grab a magazine off his vest. I push the butt end of the gun into his stomach, dislodge the empty clip, and slam in another one before I step back, turn, and shoot.

The hair on the back of my neck rises, and I turn and fire. Another one dead.

I move quickly, keeping low as I go. I see movement across the hall but look outside and choose the other option, going out one of the doors that leads to the gardens and running through it. I double-tap two more I see as I make my way around to the kitchen.

The gun is empty, and I toss it before I enter.

More shadows at play here, and I sink to the side of the pantry as I wait for someone to come in. Two pass by before I grab their barrels and hold them, making them fire at each other as they try to aim for me.

One goes down, and I drop his gun as I hold the other high and reach for the pistol on the man’s vest, shooting him in the head.

Bullets fly around me, and I slide to the floor and roll to the other side of the island. I wait for a lull and then come up quickly, shooting one in the knee and then two in the other’s head. He falls, but the guy I hit in the knee grabs a knife off the counter and comes for me. I drop my gun and grab the kitchen knife in his hand. We fight for control before a stabbing pain pulls a sharp cry from me, and I use what strength I have to jam it into his chest. My ribs are screaming at me, a reminder I don’t want to deal with. Pain is a bitch, but so is this guy.

I grip his vest and throw him behind me. He flies through the doors into the garden. I take a breath and snatch up the gun as I see the man rise outside. I fire at him, and he drops before I take another step.

I grab another magazine off one of the dead guys, check the chamber, and start making my way through the house back to where Gina took my girl.