“Fuck!” Callum jerks back hard into the SUV. Blood runs down his arm in rivulets as he lets out a hiss. “They got me in the shoulder.”
My gut lurches. For a second, the world narrows to the sight of my brother gasping and his eyes squeezed shut tightly against the pain. The thin control I keep coiled around myself threatens to snap.He’s hit and she can’t get her ring to work. There’s no way out.
No. I can’t spiral. Not now.
I wrench my head around, forcing my eyes back to the threat at hand. Headlights blaze in the mirrors, three sets now–one closing fast behind, two more flanking us at angles. My hands flex on the grip of my pistol.
Tactical first. Emotions later. That’s the only way we live.
From the driver’s seat Dante snarls, his voice rough with determination. “I’m going to punch through the front gate and try to lose them outside of the compound!”
My stomach clenches as he floors it, the force slamming me against the second row seats. Behind us, headlights whip and flare as the pursuing vehicles adjust, their gunfire turning manic, desperate to bring us down before we reach the exit.
I grit my teeth as steel meets steel with a scream that splits my skull, the SUV lurching violently forward as I’m whipped against the back of the driver’s seat. Briar curses beside me and Callum grunts through his teeth as he clamps his free hand tighter to his bleeding shoulder.
The SUV bursts through in a shower of sparks and twisted hinges. Dante jerks the wheel hard, the tires fishtailing against slick pavement before catching again.
We’re through, but the wail of alarms and the hum of engines behind us say what I already know…We’re not free yet.
Callum drags himself upright with a ragged groan, his left hand still clamped to his shoulder, blood soaking through his shirt. He braces against the opposite door, teeth gritted, and forces his pistol out into the night to return fire.
I twist to lean out my window, my pulse pounding as I see three SUVs still locked on our tail, their beams cutting through the dark night, closing fast. My jaw clenches as I raise my pistol, line up the sight, and squeeze the trigger repeatedly.
The front windshield of the closer SUV bursts in a spiderweb of glass. The driver jerks the wheel, headlights veering sideways. Metal shrieks as he clips the second SUV too close to their side, the impact sending both vehicles swerving until they slam into each other hard and halt their movement.
“Nice shots,” Dante calls out. “One more to go.”
I exhale once, sharp through my nose, but it doesn’t ease the knot in my gut.
Minutes blur together as the open road stretches out before us and we head into the winding countryside. The alarms, the floodlights, and the steel walls all fade away, swallowed by the night. Out here, only the full moon hangs above us, silver and cold.
The engine’s hum is steady, Dante pushing it to stay at a reckless speed, but every time I glance back, the headlights trailing us burn brighter. Blinding white beams flood the rear window until I’m forced to squint through the flare, my eyes aching from the strain. They’re not giving up.
A ragged grunt cuts through the vehicle as Callum slumps against the door.
Before I can snap at him to stop moving, Briar’s voice slices through sharply. “Give me the fucking gun and switch spots with me.”
Her hand is already out, palm up, expecting him to do exactly that. His jaw tightens with pain before he opens his mouth to respond. “I can’t–”
The rest of his words are swallowed by a deafening explosion.
The SUV lurches violently from a blown rear tire, likely from the onslaught of bullets hammering it repeatedly.
“Fuck!” Dante snarls, fighting the wheel, but it’s no use, the momentum’s too much. We swerve at a high speed as metal screams against asphalt.
“Hold on!” I roar to Callum and snake my arm around Briar’s waist, pulling her to me. Her eyes flash wide, lips parting as I drag her against me tightly just as the SUV veers off the road.
We careen down the slope toward the forest and my eyes squeeze shut at the quickly approaching trees. A second later we’re forced to a wrenching stop as metal gives way under the might of nature. The impact is hard enough to steal my breath, but I’m shocked to not feel any pain. At that speed, I should be injured.
My arms are still wrapped around Briar, but I blink back the slight disorientation and find her legs braced hard against the floorboards, and her arms locked like steel with her hands flat against the roof. It takes me a second to register what she did. The strength in her frame kept both of us from being flung through glass and steel. Instead of protecting her, I latched onto the only thing keeping me from being wrecked.
I jerk my gaze across the cab. Callum’s slumped sideways against the door, his head resting at an awful angle on the back of the passenger seat. It’s too dark to see the rise and fall of his chest.
“Callum.”
No response.
Panic claws at my throat, but I shove it down and snap my attention forward. “Dante!”
