The Deadly Nightshade | { BOOK 1 of The Flower series }

[35] Fatherly Advice

Jade took cover behind a stack of crates, bullets ringing out all around her. The group of men that she encountered earlier had chased after her. She rounded a corner and ended up in a random room with crates stacked high. After dealing with the man that had fired first, that got his men pissed.

Jade took off the safety on her built-in gun, taking a slow, deep breath. Her back leaning against a metal crate in the back of the room.

"It looks like everyone is piling up in a room on the south wing," Natasha told the group. "Girls, you have an opening to get out of there."

"Leaving now," Wanda replied, running towards an exit.

"Negative!" Jade said, pressing a finger to her earpiece. "I'm trapped in the room that every person is piling into."

The booming sound of guns going off was deafening that Jade couldn't even tell if anyone even heard her. Jade looked out from behind the crate, trying to find a clear shot. When she saw one, she front-rolled over to the neighboring crate, firing at multiple men and taking cover once again.

She peeked over a crate, seeing a muscular man throwing another crate in her general direction. She dived out of the way as the crate broke through the wall behind her. She took that chance to run through the opening. She stormed along the big cemented area that had multiple catwalks above her. She was getting closer to the exit. Bullets rang next to her feet, and she easily dodged them, running in a zigzag motion. She leaped onto a crate, rolling over it to get to the other side. Jade dropped down and hid behind another set of tall, metal crates.

She noticed a shadow flicker behind her, and she abruptly turned around, hurtling a fist at the armed man's neck. The man stumbled back, and Jade pushed his rifle against the crate, loosening it from his grip. She grabbed him by his neck, shoving him hard against the crate and kicking him in the place that doesn't shine. Jade spotted a row of grenades strapped around his chest.

Jade pressed her back against the crates once again, peeking behind the corner. Three more armed men lurking towards her. Jade jumped out from behind the crates, firing bullets from her built-in gun as she aimed directly at the grenades hooked on their vests.

The explosions erupted as the blast sent the three men flying backward, and smoke and debris circulated between the two stacks of metal crates.

Jade hid behind the crates again, making sure the coast was clear.

"Why do I hear explosions?" Steve questioned, waiting for Wanda to make her exit.

"I may have exploded three men," Jade confessed.

"You okay?" Steve and Wanda asked through comms.

A bullet hit the corner of the crate, and Jade front-rolled over to the other side. Mafia members continued shooting at her as she dived out of the way and crouched behind tall crates.

"Yeah, just a little busy," Jade responded, explosions happening on her end of the comms. She kicked one of the men in the throat before gripping him by the neck and throwing him into a sharp corner of the metal crates.

Jade tackled an armed man to the ground, ripping his gun from his grasp before vigorously punching him in the face. She rolled off of him before she ran up the staircase that lead to a top catwalk. She sprinted across the catwalk, bullets flying off of the metal poles as she ran past them.

Jade leaped over the railing, falling to the lower level. A man approached her, his rifle aimed right at her. Jade threw a dagger at the man's wrist, making him drop his gun.