She bolted upright, instantly alert. “What’s going on?”
“We’ve got trouble. Get dressed—now.”
She leaped from the bed as if it were on fire and yanked on jeans and a hoodie. He handed her sidearm to her, and she slid it into the holster at her back without a word.
“Specs?” Kawan called, ducking his head out into the hallway.
“I’ve got her,” Jupiter said, ushering Specs out of the adjoining room. She was pulling on sneakers with one hand, clutching her laptop with the other as if it were her weapon. In a way, it was.
“Tell me we’re not walking into another deathtrap,” Specs mumbled.
“We’re walking out of it,” Kawan said grimly.
Thor met them at the bend of the hallway. “Lobby’s compromised. We go down the corridor, out the far door, hit the lot.”
“I’ll take one SUV,” Kawan said. “Me, Jupiter, Specs, and Lark.”
“I’ll drive the other with everyone else. Comms in.” Thor tapped his ear. “Let’s move.”
They crept down the hallway in silence, the air thick with adrenaline.
Lark was behind him, breathing steady, movements smooth. She was in mission mode now—controlled, precise. It was the glue that held her together. The thing that had given her what her childhood had stolen.
Value.
Only, he wanted her to see that there was so much more to life than slinking in and out of danger.
Gunfire cracked just as they hit the exit door.
Kawan shoved it open and pushed Lark through first, followed by Specs and Jupiter. The parking lot exploded into chaos—rounds pinged off concrete, and a car alarm blared.
“Go, go, go!” Thor barked from the other side.
Kawan shifted, his boots hitting the hard blacktop as he limped along, arm raised, returning fire as he dived behind a dumpster, laying cover as Jupiter threw open the SUV door.
Kawan continued to unload a few more rounds.
“Let’s go,” Jupiter called. “I’ve got your six.”
Adrenaline spiking, Kawan raced toward the open driver’s side of the SUV. He jumped in, pulled the door closed, rammed the gear shift into drive, and peeled out, tires screaming as he fishtailed onto the main road.
Through the rearview, he saw the other SUV lurch into motion behind them. Thor, Leif, Sloan, and Moose were locked and loaded. He tapped his earpiece. “Everyone okay back there?”
“Living the dream,” Thor’s voice crackled through the comms.
More gunfire.
Bullets whizzed past the car. A couple hit the metal as Kawan did his best to zig-zag down the road.
A blacked-out sedan tailed them, inching a little too close for comfort, handling both the speed and the road with the kind of practiced ease that made Kawan more than uncomfortable.
“Two miles,” Specs said, fingers flying across her laptop. “We’ve got a turnoff that leads to a back road. If we take it, we can double back and lose them.”
“I’ve got a better idea,” Jupiter said. “Take the turn off, and then I’m gonna light up the sky.”
“Copy that,” Kawan muttered. “Thor, tuck in tight behind me.”
Lark twisted in the seat beside him, watching the road. “They’re gaining.”
