“The PZs are attacking the Hermitage—in force. Maybe fifty or so. Get the troopers here. The Feds. We need help.” Caz pulled in a breath. “Stay away from here, mamita. The cabrones are all over the road outside. There is no cover out there except for their cars.”

“But—”

“I must go. Be safe, mi corazón”

His heart—he’d called her his heart.

Somehow, she’d parked in front of the municipal building. Her need to head for the Hermitage with lights and sirens blazing couldn’t be allowed. She forced herself to turn off the engine.

Duty first.

She summoned help from the state troopers and the FBI, then the DEA, warning them that the good guys, women, and children were in the Hermitage buildings. And she added another caution that there might be good guys attempting to attack the PZs from the rear.

Because she knew Mako’s sons. They wouldn’t sit quietly when attacked.

When an FBI special agent told her to wait for them to arrive, she hung up on the idiot. As if she’d sit on her hands when her man and her daughter and her friends were in danger?

Never.

But some help would be nice.

She slid out of the police car.

A light showed in the coffee shop across the street. Sarah was at Audrey’s party, and Uriah was probably waiting for her to come home. He might not know what had happened.

As JJ ran across the street, her worries tangled with hope. Last fall, no one in town had trusted her. Since then, they’d taken her in and made her one of them.

Would they follow her now…into war?

Chapter Thirty

If the cost is the loss of a life, then let it be my loss and not that of my brother… ~ Unknown

With relief, Bull spotted Aric and Regan obediently sitting on the tunnel steps and waiting for him. Both were wide-eyed and frightened, something no child should be.

Fucking PZs.

“Let’s go, kids.” He picked Aric up, took Regan’s hand, and headed downstairs into cooler air that smelled of moist dirt. “Follow me, Dante. Ladies.”

Going up, Caz passed them, his arms filled with a load of weaponry to equip the women who’d volunteered to help. Gabe had already set Knox and Chevy up in Hawk’s sniper nest to keep the attackers busy.

Bull could see that Caz had left the armory door closed and concealed.

“Sirius and Gryff are in a storage room.” Caz smiled at Regan. “They hate noise, so they’re safer there, mija.”

“Okay, Papá.”

Caz exchanged glances with Bull, both of them hurt by the girl’s scared little whisper. “Go with Bull now, chiquita.”

“Time to get you tucked away.” Moving quickly, Bull led Regan, Dante, and the non-combatant women past the armory and then past the heavy door to Mako’s amply-weaponed disaster shelter—totally unsuitable for civilians.