He had more creativity in his body than the rest of the Holloway family combined. Our grandmother liked to joke that he got it from her side of the family and I believed it because the rest of us were too analytical of a bunch.
I had decided a long time ago that I could handle the weight of expectations for both me and my brother so long as he was happy and healthy.
“They wouldn’t be bugging you anyways, Carter, they just want to check in with you,” I lied. “All we want is for you to be hap—”
I was cut off by the sudden screech of tires and the crunching of metal as the SUV spun wildly.
Livvy, who had a nasty habit of not wearing her seatbelt, flew from one end of the cab to the other with a scream as my phone slipped out of my hands and the vehicle began to tip over.
It crashed onto its side with a dull thud, causing me to hang limply from my seatbelt. Vaguely, I could hear Carter shouting on my phone that was lying on the window in front of me, but I was too distracted by the sound of loud popping happening outside.
“What’s happening?” I shouted over the noise as I tried to fumble with my seatbelt clip in order to free myself.
Agent Brady had already managed his own, dropping down onto what was now the floor of the vehicle with a grunt and rolling onto his knees as he stood and used his knife to cut mefree. I slid down from my seat and into his arms as the sound grew closer and I realized that it wasn’t popping at all.
A shudder of fear filled my body.
“I’ve got Flicker with me in the overturned SUV, no perceived injuries on her person, but the assistant is hurt,” he said into his earpiece as he set me on my feet.
Glancing behind him I could see Livvy crumpled on the broken glass in an awkward position and she wasn’t moving.
I started to move around Agent Brady to help her but he grabbed my arm and yanked me away from her. “Lennon, you can’t help her right now, we need to evacuate the premises immediately.”
“What?” I asked, sounding stupid as shouts from outside filled my ears followed by more loud noises.
Brady gave me a rough shake. “Lennon, look at me.”
I glanced up at him, seeing how his face was etched into a mask of grim neutrality.
“There are men outside shooting at our men. Do you understand?”
Swallowing hard, I nodded.
This was always a possibility with who I was and who my mother was, I just never thought it wouldactuallyhappen. Attacks like this only happened in crazy action movies… right?
“We’re going to leave the vehicle and make a beeline for the hotel across the street, okay?” Agent Brady asked, his hands gripping my arms firmly. “You just stay behind me and I’ll get you out of here.”
Before I could respond with a yes or a no, Brady was kicking out the shattered sunroof of the car and pulling me out into the surprisingly chilly night.
The scene outside of the SUV was pure chaos.
“Flicker is on the move, cover us,” Agent Brady said into his earpiece as we ducked low to avoid stray bullets.
Our battered vehicle was surrounded by the dark SUVs that the rest of my security detail drove and there were agents ducked behind their windows as they fended off gunfire from the several mismatched cars that were surrounding us in a half-circle.
Glancing over to the overturned car, I saw a red Jeep crunched into the bottom of it and a man that I didn’t recognize was slumped out of the passenger side door with a gunshot wound in his head.
“Don’t look, Lennon,” Agent Brady told me as he dragged me toward the hotel. People were running in all directions, trying to get away from the gunfight and seeing them made the panic I was barely fending off overwhelm me.
“Brady…” I said with a wheeze as I stumbled over my own feet, rolling my ankle in the ridiculous heels that my stylists had insisted I wear earlier that night.
Agent Brady hauled me back up, turning to me with a concerned look.
Then his expression froze as his body jerked forward once and I stared at him in confusion before yelping as he fell into me, knocking me off of my feet and onto the pavement with a rough thud.
“Brady?” I asked, the breath knocked out of my lungs as the mayhem continued around us.
I tried to push his dead weight off of me and failed.
