“Just N-Neil and Sa-Samuel. Neil said he’d c-call with instructions after he takes care of Valor,” Charlie answers. “Please don —”
I shoot Charlie square between the eyes. His body falls, and aside from my panting breaths, silence fills the space.
Suddenly, my leg starts screaming in pain, drawing my attention. My left leg has a solid bullet hole in it, blood already staining my pants.
“Fuck.” I force myself to draw slow breaths. “What have I done?”
What we needed to to survive.My wolf supplies, refocusing me.
I’m not the one in immediate danger. It didn’t hit an artery, so I’m not going to bleed out by the time it takes to get to civilization. I step back the ten feet that I’d made it away from the van.
Adrenaline keeps my body running, and I move, with a little pain, into the van and dig around under Tommy to find my phone.
Luckily, it’s under an easy-to-move arm rather than his torso.
The phone case is toast, and I pry off the broken metal and tempered glass.
Faster.My wolf urges me.Valor, Kerrianne, Antonella. They need us.
Once I wrestle the phone free, I find that the damage to the case resulted in the screen breaking in inopportune places. I push the emergency dial button, trying to get it to send through a call, but it’s busted and it clicks without making headway.
Try something else!my wolf snarls.
Frustrated, I try the screen again. It turns on this time but is hardly functional. I do what I can with it. Finally I get one app, the phone’s basic call feature, to ring to the outside world.
It rings and then stops.
No service.
No service because, of course, we’re in the middle of nowhere. I move to the driver’s door of the van and yank it open.
The keys aren’t in the ignition.
“Be so fuckin’ for real right now.” I want to scream but clench my fists instead, the shattered glass on my phone screen cutting into my hand.
Focus. Don’t get drawn into the distraction. Find the keys.My wolf levels me out.
It takes slow steps to walk back over to where James lies dead. And every step, I keep trying the call button.
On the sixth step, the call connects. I freeze, holding as still as I can.
“Valor.” He answers.
“Fuckin’ hell. It’s not Antonella. Don’t hurt her. I couldn’t get the damn thing to call out or answer. They shattered the damn screen. It’s not Antonella.” I’m talking so fast that I can’t slow down. I gasp for breath, trying to make sure I’m making sense.
“You’re okay?” Valor doesn’t acknowledge what I’ve told him.
Get moving.The wolf urges, trying to drive me toward James and the keys.
“Neil and fuckin’ Samuel are trying some shit. They’re —” I take a step forward, and the line sounds like it goes dead. “God fuckin’ damn it. What good is a fuckin’ indestructible case if it breaks and destroys the phone?”
“Yes, I can hear you. Can you get here?” Valor is despondent, his voice flat, cut off from his emotions like when something bad is happening.
“Yeah. I’m on my way as soon as I fuckin’ find the goddamn keys.” I go to step forward again, and the phone beeps. I freeze, turning around back toward the van. “Fuck it, faster if I hot-wire it. I’m on my way. Don’t hurt Antonella.”
The call disconnects. It was either Valor hanging up on me or the universe giving me a big middle finger. The screen goes black, and no amount of pressing gets it to light up again. I toss it into the van before looking at Charlie and James.
Don’t panic. Stop the bleeding first.My wolf draws my attention back to the wound in my leg, and focusing on it brings pain into my consciousness.
