Marcus

Chapter Forty Nine

Caroline ~

A loud explosion rumbled in the distance, causing small puffs of dust to escape from the cracks of the small basement.

"Brace for blackout." James muttered over his shoulder.

Hell yes. Tell me what to do fellas, I'm ready to get out of here.

Two of the four armed guards took off running up the stairs to investigate the explosion that Caroline figured was a diversion or a trap of some sort.

Morons.

But unfortunately that left two other guards that stood between them and the door.

Caroline watched as Kincaid shot a hand signal to James who nodded and took a few steps forward. Using his massive tattooed arm, Kincaid wrapped Maira up and swept her behind his back as he eyed the guards and rolled his neck around on his shoulders to loosen up. James' fists were ticking and clenched as he took a hard stance beside Kincaid, taunting the guards with his gaze.

Everyone in the room knew what was about to happen, except for maybe Maira, who had no idea how lucky she was at the moment. It was a waiting game to see who would flinch first and make the first move and the air was thick with anticipation.

Before any of the men could make a move, the entire room went dark, plunging all six of us into pure darkness.

Caroline heard Maira gasp and whimper and she reached out until her hands found Maira, recognizing her small frame and shaking body.

"Get behind me." Caroline whispered.

Two small emergency light bulbs illuminated, running on some kind of weak backup generator that only provided small slivers of light, but it was just enough to reveal that Kincaid and James had used the darkness to their advantage and had eaten up the distance between themselves and the guards.

Before the guards could reach their weapons, Kincaid and James sucker punched them from either side.

The guards struggled to regain themselves and constantly reached for their weapons, knowing fists were no match for bullets.

"Get control of their weapons." Kincaid grunted to James as he landed another punishing blow to the side of one of the guards faces.

James had the other guard pinned against the wall, delivering one punch after another, switching to the occasional body blow as he pummeled the guard into a barely conscious mess. The guard reached for his weapon, but missed, taking one uncoordinated step forward before James grabbed the back of his neck and slammed the guards face against his knee. The sickening crunch of bone and thud of a body hitting the floor put a smile on James' face as he turned his attention toward Caroline.

Kincaid had the second guard leveled on the ground in a matter of seconds, flipping him over after smashing his face against the nearest wall. Kincaid towered over the guard and delivered three final blows to the side of the man's face, sending a spray of blood across the floor before ridding both unconscious guards of their weapons.

James reached Caroline first, cupping her face in his hands as he inspected her in the dim lighting.

"You okay?" James asked.

"I'm okay, just get me a weapon." Caroline said, giving him a reassuring smile.

"You need any help? We can carry you if you need us to, no need to be a hero Red." Kincaid, chimed in over James' shoulder.

"I'm good for now, but I'll keep you posted if that changes. Adrenaline's my friend at the moment." Caroline admitted honestly.

"How does my leg look?" She asked, turning so James could shine a light on the leg that took the lashing on stage.