Gunfire cracked out beside me as Nick opened fire. “The warehouse, Ryth!” I screamed and turned, drew my weapon up, and slipped my finger around the trigger.
She ran…that’s all I cared about.
“Motherfuckers!” T screamed as he took aim and fired at the mammoth black Expedition as it hurtled toward us. Bullets pinged against the grille, sparking in the night.
I leveled my sight and jerked the trigger, sending the spray of bullets wide, peppering the side of the damn car instead. The side mirror shattered, sending the four-wheel drive skidding sideways as it mounted the curb and became airborne. I lunged to the side, almost tripping as the car crashed into the gate with a resounding smash!
Tobias stumbled sideways, his eyes wide as he searched for Nick first, then me. One slow nod, and he turned and ran. “Nice shot, dickhead,” he chided as he tore past.
I wasn’t like Nick or T. Words were my weapons, not guns. Still, I spun and took aim at the gleaming black beast as the engine hissed and spat, shooting plumes of steam into the air, and loosed another spray of bullets before I whirled and raced for the open door.
“You idiot!” Ben snapped at Tobias as he yanked the heavy chain and closed the heavy steel roller door. “You could’ve been killed.”
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t, was I?” T snapped back.
“Only for sheer dumb luck,” Ben growled, cutting a glare at T, then Nick, and finally, to me.
I saw then just how close Tobias had been to the head of the Stidda Mafia and it made me sad for the loss of that with our own father.
“In the back, now.” Ben gave a jerk of his head.
Ping!
Ping!
Bullets hit the steel door in front of us. We turned and jogged to the rear of the warehouse, skirting around forgotten cutting tables and fixed sewing machines that were rusted and ruined.
“They didn’t follow me.” Jack shook his head. “I know that for a fact.”
“Why, because your buddy King made sure of it?” Tobias snapped, giving him a savage glare.
Jack gave him a glare of his own.
“Jack’s right.” Ben twisted the handle on a locked office door. “First, they attacked you tonight at my home, then they followed us here.” He stepped back, dropped his shoulder, and charged.
The lock snapped and the door flew inwards, hitting the wall with a thud. The hammering sound of bullets peppered the garage door, making Ryth flinch and look toward the sound.
“And I’m pretty certain they were watching you before we met.” Ben stepped into the office and moved to a small locked box nailed to the wall. He tried to open it, then stepped backwards, aimed his gun, and fired.
Boom!
Ben moved fast, yanked open the box, and snatched a set of keys from inside. “So, if they tracked you from there to here.” Ben moved past us and back out the door. “Then it has to be one of you.”
“One of us, what?” T snapped, following him.
We all followed him, moving along a corridor to the rear of the building as the sound of gunfire grew louder from the front.
“That’s being tracked,” he finished, glancing at us over his shoulder.
Tracked?
I flinched as panicked thoughts pushed in as I turned my focus internally. I tried to remember what had happened in that place. Did they…did they do something to me? Ben yanked open a lock, reached around, and flicked on a light.
“Thank fuck I kept the damn power connected,” he muttered as he stepped around the chaos of discarded sewing and dyeing machines.
We all followed, leaving Tobias to close and lock the door behind us…until I sensed something and stopped, then turned around.
Ryth…
Ryth stood just inside the door behind us.
Ryth with her gray-blue eyes impossibly wide.
And that darkness in her stare.
The kind of darkness I took care of for her.
The kind of darkness where I kept her safe.
“Princess?” I murmured and stepped toward her.
“It’s me,” she whimpered.
Tobias snapped his head toward her, then so did Nick. Everyone else faded from our thoughts. It didn’t matter about them anymore. Not her dad or the man who was trying to keep us alive. There was only us, only her.
“What are you saying?” T snarled.
She just shook her head. “You know. You all know. It’s me they’re tracking. Me they…branded. They put something inside me.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m the one putting you all in danger.”
The way she spoke sent chills along my spine. Shots cracked out, sounding closer now—sounding like they’d broken through the door. I held out my hand. “We have to kept moving, baby. You need to trust us on this. You have to move.”
“We don’t have time for this,” Ben snapped.
I flinched with anger and wrenched my gaze to his. “Then we goddamn make time.”
Boom.
Boom.
Boom.
I shoved the panic aside, listening to the shots ring out in the warehouse behind us and stepped closer again. “We stay together, right?” I licked my lips, trying desperately to bring her back from that place. I couldn’t do it with sex, not this time. So I had to try any other way I could. “You know what we went through. We’re not doing that again.”
“No,” she whispered, those eyes shifting back into focus. “We’re not.”
“So we stay together,” Tobias added.
“Just as we promised,” Nick finished.
One more step. I held my hand out to her as the echo of boots thundered in the warehouse. “With us, princess.”
She took my hand and it was all I could do not to sag with relief. I pulled her with me as we raced back to a gate that led out to some kind of alley.
Ben never said anything, neither did her father. He just looked at her with a sad fucking stare. He pitied her. She sure as hell didn’t need that.
The hinges of the gate howled as shots rang out, blasting the door behind us. I blocked out the screams of the gunmen, gripped Ryth’s hand instead, and pulled her with me through the exit until we were out the other side.
Cold night air hit me like a slap. I exhaled hard as the door behind us flew open. But T was there, taking aim and firing. Crack! Crack! Crack!
I jerked at the sounds, wrenched her hard against me, and shoved her forward. “Run!” Nick was there, grabbing her hand, pulling her away as Tobias unleashed a savage roar. “FUCK YOU!”
Our movements were a blur of terror. Flashes ignited as we raced along that small alley and out into an empty street.
“Where?” Nick barked at Ben as he spun around, lifted his gun, and took aim.
“Wait!” The deep snarl came from the darkness. “It’s me!”
“Neon?” Ben gasped, then exhaled with relief. “Fuck, I’m glad to see you.”
Three of Rossi’s men ran toward us, coming from an alley next to a building across the street. The one he called Neon scanned us, sucking in hard breaths. All three looked like they’d been sprinting for their damn lives. But as he stepped closer and slapped Ben’s hand with his, I knew it wasn’t his life he was trying to save—it was his boss’.
“There’s more coming,” Neon gasped as a shot rang out with a crack behind him.
The guy next to him opened fire, leaving us to focus on the swarm of men dressed in black that rounded the corner at the end of the empty street.
There was no one out here to help us, no cops to serve and protect. There was just us…and a block of empty buildings to be cornered in. They’d never find the bodies—crack…crack…crack crack crack—maybe that was their plan all along?
Thud.
The faint sound of a car door slammed behind me. I barely caught the sound, spinning to find nothing but the dull wash of streetlights fighting away the dark. But the others missed it. They missed it while they searched for a way out of here.
“The car’s parked on the street behind,” Neon muttered. “It’s all shot to hell, but it’s driveable.”
“We can’t go back for ours,” Ben snarled, flinching as the crack crack crack came louder.
The sound of a car’s engine came behind the gunmen. There were more coming. More from The Order, to close us in like rats. This was bad…this was really bad…
I turned to Nick.
Crack!
“Fuck!” Tobias barked as he stumbled sideways.
There was a tear in the side of his shirt and behind it, blood.
“Oh, shit,” Nick mumbled. “Oh, shit.”
