“This sounds like a you problem, it has nothing to do with me.” The rain is plastering my hair to my head, and I pretend to wipe it off my face to look around and see where I am next to the garden. Tall tomato plants are next to me, and on the other side of them are the tall walls of beans.
Another clap of thunder and immediate lightning, and the rain picks up, the big drops getting harder.
He raises his voice. “Do you know what an agent of twenty-five years gets when they retire?” He doesn’t wait for me to respond. “A fucking plaque and just enough to live on for the rest of my life. After a lifetime of putting my life on the line.”
My eyes flick to the house again, the light is still on. “Sounds like you had twenty-five years to plan, but you were too stupid to…”
I swing my crutch at his arm, hitting the gun. It goes off, and a buzzing sound flies past my head as I scream as loud as I can. White-hot pain flashes down one side of my head and neck.
“Goddamn it.” He barks, but I don’t wait to see if he’s dropped the gun.
Dropping my other crutch, I fall to my knees and crawl into the maze of tall tomato cages, zig-zagging through them toward the thick walls of bean vines. The rain is hitting my back, making Rhys’ t-shirt stick to my skin, and my hair is plastered to my face.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Mud squishes between my fingers, and my knees keep slipping in the thick soil, my scrape from the other day stinging in the grit of it, but I’m not stopping for anything. Once I get in between two tall rows of beans, I stop and see if I can hear anything besides the rain pouring onto the ground.
Warmth is blending with the rain running down the side of my head, and pain is throbbing over my ear. Gently, I slide my finger into my hair and feel raw skin. Is this what they call ‘just a scratch’? Because it fucking hurts.
Trying to control my breathing and the panic, fear, and anger coursing through me, I take a few deep breaths. Surely they heard the shot, right?
“Kinley!” I hear Rhys’ voice booming over the rain, and then I hear Mason shouting my name seconds later.
I want to yell to let them know where I am, but I don’t dare move or make any sound. I fold over onto my legs into a fetal position and stay as still as possible to wait for them to find me.
“Stop right there!” I hear Mason yell.
“I’m FBI, I followed Sanders here.” The asshole who just shot me yells at Mason.
The rain is slacking off, and I can hear Mason and Jax talking low. Flashlight beams are moving around the outside of the garden, but I’m afraid that asshole will turn on me if I expose myself.
“Dunn? What are you doing here?” Rhys is on the other side of the garden, but I can hear the suspicion in his voice.
“Kinley!” It’s Jax’s voice this time.
Without moving, I yell back, “I’m here. He shot at me, he’s a dicktwat traitor!”
“I didn’t know who she was, I thought she was Sanders.” Dunn immediately yells.
My head is burning, and I don’t think crouching down likethis is helping the bleeding. Lainey Rai fell out of a tree once and cracked her head open, it bled like a stuck pig. I don’t think I’ve seen so much blood. Gray told me that head wounds bleed the worst, even if they aren’t that bad.
Lifting my head, I yell, “He knew it was me.”
“Kinley, come out, baby.” Rhys shouts.
“No, not until you take his gun away.” The burning and aching are throbbing in a constant wave around my head and shoulders, making my ears ring.
“Drop the gun and put your hands up.” This time it’s Mason who is shouting.
“This is a misunderstanding, I thought she was someone else,” Dunn yells back.
“Drop the fucking gun or I will put a bullet between your goddamn eyes.” Mason orders. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him use that tone before.
I can see a flashlight beam, lighting up the ground, through the wall of leaves and moving around between the tomato cages, but I don’t want to give away my location yet.
“Mason, wait, we need to find out what’s going on,” Rhys calls to him.
The flashlight shines on me, and I see a pair of combat boots on the ground a few yards from me. The light moves to the side, and Jax crouches in front of me. “Kinley.” His soft accent is the best thing I’ve heard all night.
