Hand in hand, they raced up the elevator and onto the main building. Pamela's heart was beating frantically against her rib cage as they went.

Along the way, Devlin stopped to take guns. There was a safe where bullets were kept and Devlin loaded them up. He handed one to her.

"In case you need to protect yourself."

She took it, trying so hard to hide her trembling hands, and nodded with courage, one she was far from feeling. All she wanted was to curl up in a ball and –

Stop!

You're strong. You can do this.

As they got to the main building, Pamela gasped in shock while Devlin stilled.

It was a gruesome sight.

Injured men were lying on the floor. The ones that weren't so injured rushed about trying to help others, wrapping them with gauze bandages. Some were sweeping away debris. Blood was everywhere. The commotion was horrific. Pamela started shaking.

"Are you okay?" He whispered, taking her hand and squeezing it.

She couldn't cower before him. He needed her. "Yes." She said raising her head when all she wanted to do was retch all the contents of her stomach right there.

A large hole gaped in the wall where concrete columns and glass windows had once stood; and the beautiful mansio, was reduced to a debilitated structure. She spotted a plume of smoke coming from the house.

"Come on." Devlin started moving with purposeful strides, his gun no more poised but hanging free in his hands.

"Ivan!" he called out to one of his men who was hunched over an injured. He moved rapidly towards Devlin. "What's the situation?"

"We have the fires under control and we're seeing to the injured but sir, we need medical help." He looked like he would cry. "We need an ambulance. A real hospital."

Devlin raked his hands through his hair and swore. "You know we can't." He said through gritted teeth.

"People will die," Ivan replied solemnly.

More men jogged towards the scene of the blast, fire extinguishers in their hands. The hissing spray of the extinguishers masked the moans of the injured. That jerked Pamela. Why was she watching in fear when she could put herself to good use?

She dropped her gun and started to move toward them but Devlin held her arm and she spun around to face him. An angry retort sprung to the tip of her tongue that she could take care of herself but she didn't get to say it. The look on his face said he wanted her to be careful.

She nodded, reading his thoughts. She turned away. "Where's the medical kit? Somebody?" She yelled and the men handed her several boxes, each for its degree of medical conditions.

"Is everyone alive?" Devlin said to no one in particular, surveying the scene, his anger mounting. He didn't want to think of how good it would feel to put a bullet in the cocksucker's head. Didn't want to let anger control him. Right now, the survival of his boys was a top priority. They had served him faithfully and without complaints and had trusted him to protect them.

He had let them down

Ivan grimaced. "I don't know. We haven't found everyone."

Devlin headed to a spot where the walls and ceiling had caved in. "There could be someone under
there." He balled his fists and clenched his jaw. He took deep breaths, trying to calm the storm that was raging inside him. "Where is the hell is Cody?!" He hollered.

"He-he left sir." Another of his men, Oliver answered. "He left with Bob."

Devlin stiffened. "What?"

Cody left? How convenient of him to have left less than two hours to an attack. Devlin shut his eyes tight and fought the shortness of breath he was feeling.

Was Cody a traitor? Was he the mole? How could Bull have found this place if someone hadn't ratted it out?

Anger seeped through him.

Of course, he trusted Cody with his life, but what was trust when someone you love was involved? He'd done an inhumane thing to Bob and had that made Cody crack? Devlin knew he'd do anything to hurt anyone that did any harm to Peter. Was that what Cody had done too?

A groan escaped from someone, followed by a soothing voice. He looked over there and it was Pamela, trying to bandage an injured man. The way she helped them pulled at his heartstrings. The fact that she'd been exposed to danger made him want to shoot himself in the leg.

He turned sharply when he heard a muffled scream coming from where he stood. He moved towards a heap of concrete and studied it.

"Rod! Someone could be beneath this. I can hear him." Rod and Oliver gathered around the concrete. "Quick, everyone," Devlin called to whoever was within hearing range, "let's dig!"

The heap required equipment to lift it but they had none, so everyone that was not attending to an injured helped in removing it. Pamela joined them not giving a crap about her manicured hand that had not done any hard work since she was born. She gathered up ceiling tiles and tossed them in a heap. Soon the crushed roof was exposed. There was a small pocket of air beneath the ceiling.

And a body.

As the men struggled to lift the body out, Pamela dragged Devlin to the side.

"We need paramedics. An ambulance. A doctor. A hospital."

Devlin shook his head in negation. "We can't."

"Why the hell not? These people have second and third-degree burns. Some have broken bones, some need blood. They need a hospital or they will die!"

"It's dangerous, okay?" He whispered through gritted teeth.

"What do you mean?"

"It's a woman!" Someone called. Pamela and Devlin forgot their argument and rushed back.

Pamela's heart sank as she moved closer. It could be Susan. Poor woman. Tears filled her eyes as she imagined Susan critically injured, or worse, dead. But as they got to the body that had been laid out, Devon held her back.

She scowled at him. "I'm not going to puke." Though she'd felt like doing just that minutes ago, and heavens help her, she still did.

He shook his head. "Don't look."

"Why?" She raised her gloved hands at him in frustration. "Get out of the way."

He had a very pained expression on his face, but he let her go as if realizing it was inevitable. She would see the body anyway.

And as Pamela took a look at the body under the glaring torchlight, she screamed in horror.

"Mother!"

~

Cody jerked awake. His hands moved instinctively to his gun holster but his gun wasn't there. He panicked momentarily. He never went anywhere without his gun. Was he under attack?

But he gave where he was another look and he relaxed. He was in the hospital.

He had brought Bob right after Sir Devlin had left with Lady Pamela. His colleagues hadn't known because if they had, they wouldn't have let him and he couldn't let his brother die. Bob was his only living relative. He couldn't let him die.

He'd disarmed himself before driving Bob to the hospital, hidden in the boot of his car. He'd had to hide Bob from the men at the gate, and because he was the highest-ranking officer – being Sir Devlin's guard, they had let him go without checking the contents of his car. That had been a relief.

He shifted uncomfortably on the seat of the waiting room, studying how busy the hospital was. He hated hospitals. Hated that the phone in the reception kept ringing off the hook and that women and men in blue overalls moved about, others in white coats. Most of all, he detested the smell of antiseptics and drugs. It made him sick.

Pun intended.

Cody sighed and rested his back. He had to try to relax, at least until he got confirmation that his brother was okay.

Cody assessed his life; he was in his early forties, unmarried, working for a mafia, maybe jobless – if Sir Devlin found out he'd escaped – and dead too – if he went back to the safe house. His life was bland.

But he was grateful it was not over.

His parents who had been poor farmers in the 90s had had just two children and had lived from hand to mouth. He and Bob had helped out on the farm, working for hard long hours, under hot blistering, scorching sun, under hard, drumming rain, and in the bitter winter cold. If only the work equaled the gain.

But then, it did. They made quite enough gain but the owner of the land came to harass them every month, threatening to throw them out, so whatever they gathered went with the rent and the little they could garner, which was barely enough, they used to feed themselves.

This made their dad a drunk. Cody didn't blame the poor man, he'd been tired of reality that he'd sought solace in numbness. His father used to beat his mother too. One day, his father went and never came back. Days later, his corpse was brought back. He'd gotten into a nasty fight in a bar and had been shot dead.

Though his father maltreated his mother, his death made her a shadow of herself, until eventually, she died. The landlord, seeing they had no parent and no help, came back and seized the land leaving them homeless. But they'd stuck together, doing menial jobs and sleeping on the streets.

Sir Devlin had found them at the edge of being shot after they had been accused of stealing from a person they had been working for in a pawn shop, an act which had been perpetrated by one of the workers.

Sir Devlin had paid off their debts and had told Cody and Bob that they could put their strength to good use – being his guards. That had been the biggest thing anyone had done for them, hence their loyalty to sir Devlin. Sir Devlin had been good to them, and all his men too. He'd always treated them well but sometimes he loses his temper and does things that hurt others – like almost killing his brother.

Yes, Bob had drunk on duty and yes, he'd lost the lady, but it was no excuse for Sir Devlin to hurt his only living relative that way.

Anger seeped through him for the first time in his life at his boss.

"Sir Devlin thinks he is untouchable, but how untouchable is he?" He muttered angrily to himself.

~

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