Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 47606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 159(@300wpm)
“Stop!” someone yelled.
“Okay, so I think you’re probably right,” I said drolly as I ran beside him.
He didn’t even snarl at me, which told me how worried he was.
Taking a right down an alley, I was pleased that it was a full one—lots of restaurants, and the last one on the left was a nightclub because people were coming out the door scantily clad and immediately pulling on coats. It had been a good call to make Janelle change; she would have had her legs freezing off, as one woman we ran by complained.
As soon as we were on the street again, we heard an engine revving, and then Colton was tugging me after him again to the left. Bullets hit a window we ran past, then brick, making small pieces of mortar fly off the walls.
We ducked down a second alley and stopped as Colton leaned out to peer around the corner.
“Let’s split up,” I suggested. “That way—”
“The fuck we will,” he replied angrily.
“I don’t want you to get hurt,” I insisted, trying to pull my hand free of his grip.
“Stop that,” he ordered, scowling, his eyes like molten gold. They changed to the darker, deeper, nearly brown color when he was mad. “We stay together. We always stay together.”
“I—”
“Like I would ever let you leave me,” he grumbled, squeezing my hand for a moment.
What?
What was he saying to me?
Why did he always include the me when I was trying to go? He’d done it the first day we met, and now here it was again. I had to wonder if he even knew when the word tumbled out of his mouth.
His head turned to the right, staring over my shoulder, and I did the same, taking in the large black SUV coming fast down the alley.
We stood at the same time, then veered left, bolting down the snow-covered sidewalk toward the intersection. A van was suddenly so close, too close, and even as Colton changed directions, the door was thrown open.
“Hurry, get in,” the woman there demanded, standing in the door, hunched over, holding out her badge.
Colton shoved me forward, putting me in the van first, then followed quickly. She threw the door closed just as the van was strafed with bullets.
“Oh dear God!” she shouted, sitting down hard across from us as the driver put the van in gear and peeled away from the curb.
“What the hell is going on?” Colton barked at her.
“I’m Special Agent Veda Walker, and we’ve been keeping an eye on Gen Antonov since Sergei Csokas was released from prison two weeks ago.”
“I don’t know who Csokas is, and I would have thought Gen was in jail because—fuck!” I shrieked as the van was hit on the side Colton and I were on, sending us both tumbling onto the floor.
“For fuck’s sake, Gabe!” Walker shouted at the driver.
“Fuck off, Veda,” he roared back. “I have no idea where to go to get us—I thought you said we had goddamn backup!”
Colton crawled on his hands and knees to the driver and unclipped the guy’s seat belt. “Hold the wheel until I have it and then dive over there,” he ordered, pointing at the passenger seat.
“Are you kidding me? You’re gonna get us killed.”
“No, you’re gonna get us killed,” he bellowed. “Now move!”
Gabe did as directed, holding on to the steering wheel until Colton had a grip on it, and then dove toward the passenger side as Colton took his seat.
“Grab something!” he yelled at us as he hit the brakes hard.
Through the front window, I saw the other SUV blow by us through the intersection, other cars barely missing it, and then flip a U-turn farther down the street. Colton immediately backed us up and took a hard left, accelerating fast.
“Speak!” he commanded Walker.
She was taking shaky breaths in and out to try and calm herself, and Gabe clipped himself in as I did the same.
“Give her a second,” I pleaded.
“Fuck that,” he retorted as bullets hit the back of the van. “We’ll be dead before she tells us what the fuck is going on.”
“What was that?” I called up to him.
“That’s an AK-47,” he replied, taking a right that tipped the van a bit before it righted itself. “And we’re gonna die if I can’t lose these assholes.”
“They can’t afford to kill us,” Walker stated. “At least not Paxton. With him dead, Csokas will not be getting any intel about his diamonds.”
“Could you please explain all this?” I asked her.
She took a nervous breath. “Diamonds went missing the day you and nine others escaped from Gen Antonov. We know he made sex slaves out of the ten of you, but you’re the only one anyone can find.”
That made me terribly happy, and there was a warmth in my stomach thinking about everyone else out there free. I hoped they were all happy.