“I can’t believe you’d help someone like this,” Katrina said, throwing a scathing look in Upton’s direction.
She didn’t expect an honest answer out of her former friend.Her only goal here was to delay Chapman as long as possible so help could arrive.
Contrary to his earlier words, Upton didn’t appear sorry at all.Instead, he shrugged, a smirk tipping up the corner of his lips.“I originally took your mother up on the offer to be part of the wedding party because I thought the two of us might get together again.When you made it clear that wasn’t going to happen, I took the next best offer–from Chapman.Then again, half a million dollars is a pretty good offer all on its own.”
Katrina shook her head.Upton had to be the biggest jerk she’d ever met.
The sound of muffled gunfire echoing from somewhere outside filled the silence.Everyone turned to look toward the sound, including Upton.
Was that the drone?
Was it Darwin?
Was it his Teammates?
Katrina didn’t know.And she didn’t think.She just moved.
Taking a step toward Upton, Katrina kicked out as hard as she could, her shoe slamming into his shin.He let out a curse, but Katrina barely heard it.She was too busy wrestling the gun from his hand.
Backpedaling, she turned the gun around in her hand, pointing it at Upton as Chapman’s goons aimed their own weapons at her.Part of her realized then that there’d been a serious flaw in her poorly conceived plan.
Katrina lifted the gun higher, aimed in the general direction of the three armed men, and pulled the trigger.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
And then once more for good measure.
Katrina had no idea if she’d hit anyone, but they all definitely ducked, diving this way and that to find cover behind the stacks of chairs and tables.That was good enough for her.
“Run!”Katrina shouted, shoving Asher and Seth, pushing them out the door that led to the service hallway.
Heart pounding, Katrina ran after them as fast as she could, gun in one hand, her phone in the other as she frantically texted Darwin for help.
Chapter nineteen
“Thedroneiscatchingup!”Rhett shouted from the backseat of the golf cart.
Darwin risked a glance over his shoulder as he drove, barely making out a blur of movement in the darkness a couple hundred yards behind them.
“I hope you have a good plan,” Jameson added from beside Rhett.“Because that thing is catching up fast, and I don’t think we’re going to outrun it in a damn golf cart!”
“The plan is simple,” Darwin snapped.“Don’t get shot.But if you have a better one in mind, feel free to jump out and run, if you want.”
Jameson grumbled something Darwin didn’t catch.Which was probably for the best since he didn’t have time to argue with the man.Not when the drone was on their butts.
The first bullet slammed through the windshield of the golf cart, barely an inch to the left of Darwin’s head, confirming they were already well within range of the damn drone.He swerved back and forth across the narrow lane they were moving along, trying to make it a little harder to line up a clean shot.
“Hold onto something!”Darwin yelled.
Realizing the swerving wasn’t going to work for long, he jerked the wheel hard to the right, leaving the paved lane behind and bouncing across the soft dirt between the grape trellises.
The move seemed to catch the drone by surprise, and for a little while, the thing fell back.Clearly, it hadn’t expected him to do something so bizarre as to leave the paved route.Unfortunately, the softer dirt of the grape fields ended up slowing the gold cart down enough for the drone to make up lost ground quickly, and soon enough, more bullets were slamming into the cart, making Jameson and Rhett duck for cover.
Darwin gripped the wheel tighter, cursing under his breath.Racing around the vineyard on a golf cart until help arrived wasn’t working.
