Sarah’s boots clapped on each concrete step, no matter how carefully she tried to tiptoe. Instead, she concentrated on speed and accuracy, pumping her knees and trotting down the stairs like double-Dutch jump rope.
How hadtwopeople been holding guns, butneitherof them had gone off?
That was some poor readiness right there. You don’t point a weapon at someone or something unless you intend to destroy it, and those two guys had failed. Sarah didn’t even aim her varmint rifle at a coyote harassing her chickens unless it wouldn’t stop attacking when she tried to drive it off.
Yeah, Logan must be only herhalf-brother. Sarah wouldn’t have been disarmed so dang easily.
Down and around and down she ran, focusing so hard on stepping on each stair as precisely as possible that she almost stumbled when she whirled herself around the handrail and corner and found only a flat track to the last sub-basement door.
Blaze was already at the door, looking out. “Clear.”
Outside the door, oil on hot metal and outgassing tar stung her nose in the warm darkness, the summer night’s shadow only broken by wan stripes of light from the garage’s ceiling.
The parking attendant was just stepping into Blaze’s black sedan. A yellow piece of paper flapped under the windshield wiper.
“Hey!” Blaze yelled. “Hey! We’re leaving.Stop the car.”
The guy saw them and retracted his leg from the driver’s side. “Was Mr. Bell not in?”
Sarah sprinted around the hood of the car as fast as her aching legs could move. That building hada lotof stairs.
Blaze plucked the keys out of the guy’s hand as he dodged past him. “We changed our mind.”
She dove into the passenger seat, twisting like a snake in the seat as she tried to grab the seatbelt buckle.
Blaze slammed his door, and then the back of the car seat smacked into Sarah as she was still struggling with the belt.
The car bolted up the ramp and through the opening in the brick wall, leaping into an empty spot in the late-night traffic.
Sarah looked out the rear window, where the grid-glowing building receded and flowing car headlights took its place. “They’re going to follow us.”
Blaze growled, “Let them goddamn try.”
2
BLASTED AND BURNED
BLAZE
New York City’s skyscrapers loomed over the narrow street like a claustrophobic canyon where every enemy had the high ground.
Blaze pointed the nose of his Aston Martin Vantage through breaks in the block of cars, darting whenever he could to elude any pursuers, whether they were the three men he’d thought were his lifelong best friends or Mary Varvara Bell’s other goons she’d called into the chase.
During his time in the service, Blaze had seen the worst wartime atrocities that humanity had conjured, which was to be expected. That was war.
After his friends’ betrayal, the world felt more dangerous. Logan, Micah, and Tristan had rescued him, literally and when he’d needed someone in his corner, when no one else had. He’d thought they were his family, his chosen family even more solid than his SEAL brothers-in-arms, and he didn’t have anyone else.
Logan, Micah, and Tristan had been a safe harbor of last resort, a hometown now blasted and burned.
He was utterly alone for the first time since he’d been thirteen years old.
But Blaze was an American Navy SEAL. He was at his most dangerous when backed against the wall. He was at his most versatile when improvising.
He had a mission to keep Sarah Nevaeh Bell safe, so the mission was paramount.
A car changed lanes ahead of him on the packed city street in the night. Blaze floored the accelerator and slotted into the opening.
In the passenger seat, Sarah stared out the windshield at the trail of red taillights ahead of them in the darkness, her fingers knotted around the door handle and seatbelt. Her lips were slightly parted, and Blaze didn’t think she’d blinked since they’d gotten in the car.
