Everything felt like one big blur as the guy holding me essentially dropped me into a closet. He ripped my helmet off my head, told me to stay put, and closed the door, leaving me in total and complete darkness. I curled my knees to my chest as gunfire rang out around us. Windows cracked and shattered; wood splintered and chipped. And as I buried my face into my knees, all I thought about was how lucky we were that Cheyenne wasn’t here to witness any of this.
I have to get back to my daughter.
When a pause in the firefight came, I eased the closet door open. I crawled on my hands and knees, keeping myself as silent as possible as I felt my way around the room. I slammed my fingers into a couple of rough corners and I felt one of my knuckles bleeding. But when I found the door, I stood to my feet and cracked it open.
And watched while men kept pulling guns and ammunition out of the closet right in front of my room.
“Cole, I’m glad you’re here,” Tanner said.
He tossed the other guy a gun before closing the closet.
“Where do you need me?” he asked.
Tanner didn’t even take in a breath to answer before a thunderous outcry of bullets rained down upon where we were, and the guys scrambled. I dropped to my knees and covered my head, trying my best not to cry out in horror. And once the bullets stopped again, I scrambled out of the room and threw open the door to their gun cabinet.
Before grabbing the only one I was familiar with.
“Bingo,” I whispered.
I checked to make sure the shotgun was loaded, then I picked up some more ammunition and stuffed it into my bra. I walked silently down the hallway, listening as heavy footfalls from the guys gave away their positions. Idiots. At least I had learned a thing or two from my father before he became such a drunk that no one recognized him.
He always talked about his tactical days in the Navy before alcohol became his life.
I paused and pressed myself into a corner as footsteps rushed around the outside of… well, wherever the hell we were. I drew in a deep breath through my nose and cocked the shotgun, ready to aim it at anyone who pissed me off. I had to get to my daughter. I had to get us somewhere safe.
I also had to call the veterinary office and tell them I couldn’t start tomorrow.
And I prayed they didn’t fire me if I placed that phone call.
And while I was scared for my life, it didn’t shock me that Tanner was right in the middle of this bullshit. I hadn’t witnessed the crowd he ran with firsthand while we were in high school, but even then, he was a jacket-wearing bad boy that all of the girls wanted to be around.
Only now, I was smack in the middle of it.
And it didn’t feel like things would ever let up.
“Jesus, there you are,” Tanner whispered as he grabbed my wrist. “Come on. We have to get out of here.”
I wanted to ask him why. I wanted to yell at him for getting me into this mess. I wanted to beat against his forearm and tell him that this was the exact reason why I didn’t want him meeting our daughter, because trouble followed him everywhere and she’d only get caught in the crossfire.
“Stay behind me,” Tanner murmured.
And all I could do was nod as we made our way for the front door
A window shattered to my left and I clapped my hand over my mouth to keep from crying out. Tears of fear sprang to my eyes, but I batted them away like I did back at The Body Shop. I stayed behind Tanner as he pointed his gun out one of the windows and popped off a couple of shots, and I heard two men curse to themselves before something dropped against the porch.
“Gotcha,” Tanner whispered.
From what I could see through the mangled mess of horror, there were men crouched behind their blacked-out bikes with their guns trained right at the front door. I wondered why the hell we couldn’t escape out through the back. But when I trained my shotgun through a window off to my right, I fired a shot that knocked a guy back before he flipped over the railing.
And went plummeting down the hillside.
Ah, there is no back exit.
“Wow,” Tanner said as he reloaded his gun, “nice shot.”
I cocked my gun one more time, readying the last chamber. “Told you I can take care of myself.”
He chuckled. “I never once doubted that. Now, you stay behind me so we can get to my bike. Finn, Archer, and Cole are on crowd control until we can get you out of here. So, once we get to my bike you hang on for dear life.”
I nodded. “Ready when you are.”
“Perfect.”
He slammed his foot into the door and it burst open, causing a rain of fire to beat down upon us. Gunshots rang out so quickly and so heavily that it melded into one massive ringing sound that rattled my ears and rumbled my ribcage. I popped off another shot with my shotgun before I opened the chambers, watching the empty slugs fly.
And after reloading it, I popped the chamber back into place, gave the gun another cock, and pointed it at the first little bitch I saw cowering behind his bike.
“Gotcha,” I whispered.
I fired off both shots at the man who had his hands over his head and he fell onto his side. He cried out in pain before someone ripped the shotgun out of my hands and helped me onto the back of Tanner’s bike. Everything happened so quickly that I couldn’t catch my breath. One minute, I was mowing down people with a shotgun, and the next minute I clung to Tanner while he cranked up his bike.
Then, we sped off toward the road.
Hunks of gravel kicked up and more men yelled behind us. I giggled as I wrapped my arms tightly around Tanner’s body, and for the life of me I couldn’t stop trying to feel him up. He wasn’t the scrawny little kid anymore that I had loved back in high school. He had muscles now. He was a man now.
And the way his muscles undulated beneath his skin set my soul aflame with desire.
“Obviously you remember how to shoot,” Tanner yelled back at me.
I nodded against his leather jacket. “Yeah, I do!”
He moved my hand to his hip before I felt the butt of his gun. “Take it! We’ve got a guy behind us!”
My eyes bulged as I craned my neck over my shoulder, and sure enough there was one lone guy behind us on a fucking blacked-out bike. He donned a shiny leather jacket that looked damn near brand new, and for some reason he sported a very expensive pair of sunglasses on his face when there were nothing but clouds in the sky.
And I couldn’t have ripped that damn gun from Tanner’s holster quickly enough.
“Now, when he sees the gun, he’s gonna start weaving. Watch his weaving pattern and—”
I closed my left eye and trained my gun right on the man. Sure enough, he started weaving, anticipating the bullets that were to come. But little did this asshole know that my father taught me how to shoot before he became a drunk. Before his military service took all that he had and left him with nothing.
And after anticipating his movements, I led my shot before I fired.
Sinking that damn bullet right into his shoulder.
“Got him!” I exclaimed.
Tires screeched and the man cried out while car horns honked around him. I watched him dart down an alleyway before the sound of a crash was heard, and I quickly turned back around before wrapping myself around Tanner. I holstered his gun back against his hip and drew in a deep breath. I closed my eyes, thanking my stars that Cheyenne wasn’t with us.
Then, I heard Tanner chuckling. “I see you remember what I taught you.”
I giggled. “It’s funny that you think you taught me everything about shooting.”
He paused. “Wait, what? I did. Remember, our first few dates were to a firing range?”
I barked with laughter. “You mean shooting my parent’s beer cans and liquor bottles off a tree stump in your backyard?”
“I mean, yeah. You already knew how to shoot back then?”
I nodded. “My sister told me that the way to a boy’s heart is letting him teach her things. Letting the man feel like he’s got something to give her. Something to provide. So, I faked it.”
He snickered. “Well, what else did you fake?”
I grinned. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
We traveled for a couple of miles before the gunfire faded in the distance. Sirens kicked up in front of us, and when I watched a police cruiser whip a sharp U-turn in the middle of traffic, Tanner pulled off onto the side of the road.
Before he pulled out his phone.
“Finn! It’s me. Police are heading your way. The one I just passed is maybe ten minutes out? Get everyone out of there. Set the place on fire, if you have to.”
My eyebrows rose. “On fire? What!?”
He held up his hand, silencing me. “You know what I mean. Get out of there and meet us at our emergency location. Brooks is there now. He arrived a few minutes ago. Uh huh. Yep. See you there soon.”
I leaned up a bit. “Where’s this emergency location?”
He didn’t answer me, though. All he did was rev his engine before we got back out onto the road.
“Will I be able to make phone calls at this emergency place?” I asked.
Tanner shook his head. “No. It’ll require all cell phones being turned off. No technology of any sort that can be tracked will be allowed here.”
I shook my head. “That isn’t okay. I need to keep in contact with Cheyenne. She always calls if she needs me. A-a-and I’m supposed to start a new job tomorrow. As a vet office secretary. I can’t stay with you at this place, wherever it is. I have a life I have to live.”
“It’s a life you won’t have if you don’t listen to me. So, we’ll place our phone calls before we get there.”
“No, I want you to pull over. I’m getting off.”
He chuckled. “Not a fat chance in hell.”
“Let me off your bike, Tanner!”
“No!” he roared.
He pulled off into an alleyway before he put down his kickstand, slid off his bike, and turned to face me with his fiery eyes. “I don’t know what the hell kind of situation you think you’re in, but those assholes know where you live. They know you have a daughter with me. They know we have history. And right now, me and my crew are the only thing standing in between you and Cheyenne being slaughtered. You got that?”
Tears rushed my eyes. “Yeah, okay.”
“And I know you think I’m kidding or blowing things out of proportion, but we almost died back there. That gunfire? That shoot-out? They were coming for you. They want you. And they won’t stop until they get you unless we kill them first. That’s how ruthless they are. Got it?”
I wiped the wetness away from beneath my eyes. “Yeah, got it.”
He nodded. “Good, because I’m not discussing this again. So, shut up and let me get you to safety. All right?”
I curled my lips over my teeth as he hopped back onto his bike, and I steadied myself as much as I could without holding onto him so I wouldn’t have to touch him.
How the hell did I end up in this position?
“How did they know about me?” I asked.
Tanner pulled onto the main road and sped up. “What?”
“How did they know about me? We haven’t so much as talked to one another since you graduated. How would they know to find me?”
He stayed silent for a while before he finally answered. “I was drunk one night and told the wrong person about a girl I loved back in high school. I told this particular person about the matching swan tattoos we got on a whim, and that was apparently all the information they needed to start their hunt for you.”
“Uh huh. And how long ago was that?”
He stiffened. “About five years ago.”
The world went silent at his words. Five years? I’d been hunted down like an animal for five years, and I didn’t even know it? The thought made me sick. The idea made me angrier than I’d ever felt before. And as the city fell behind us, giving way to forests I didn’t know to exist out here in California, my worry for my daughter mounted exponentially.
If they had been watching us for that long, did they already know where she was?
