But, too late, I notice the swing of Paltrow’s arm, and white-hot pain lances through my face as my ears ring and every bone in my body brutally rattles as I hit the ground. For a terrifying second, I can’t feel my legs, and I have to pinch my thighs to reassure myself I still have blood flowing to them.
I suck in a ragged breath as I roll onto my side, clutching my face. My vision swims, but I can see Garrett is still fighting, refusing to go down.
We did this together.
Gave ourselves a fighting chance.
This has to be enough to hold.
I think of Kai and wonder how they’re going to find us. Then, I see our phones, mine and Garrett’s, both switched off in the corner.
I’m torn, wanting to help Garrett fight, or possibly giving a beacon to the Outlaws so they know where we are.
While Garrett rolls in the dirt with Paltrow—who has lost his gun, but I don’t see where—I make the only decision I can.
I force myself to my feet and half-limp and half-run to the phones, both of them, and switch mine on, first, as I hurry to the shaft’s entrance. I don’t know the code for Garrett’s phone. But I’m certain Wren will have been asked to try and track them both.
The ground tears my already injured feet up as I hurry until I’m clear of the old shaft and out in the meadow in front of it. My phone takes an age to turn on, and every painful second could cost us our lives.
When I finally see my home screen, I unlock it and call Kai. While I wait for it to connect, I turn Garrett’s phone on too. Two signals have to be better than one. I manage to turn on the flashlight on Garrett’s phone as I keep my phone to my ear.
“Isla?” Kai says, and I can hear the agony in his voice.
“Come help us, please.”
37
JACKAL
The world narrows to the sound of Isla’s voice and four words I’m desperate to make happen.
Come help us, please.
The words are faint. She sounds exhausted beyond reason but fighting anyway.
Most important, as of right now, she saidus. Not me,us.They are both still alive, and that’s my only thought as I signal to Grudge that I need to pull the bike over.
The weight of all the helpless hours and riding to get here burn away, until all that is left is the desperate need to get to them. Given this was the last known place for them, we’d ridden as a club with a plan to spread out from here.
“I’m here,” I say. My voice is unrecognizable, laden with stress and fear. “Sunshine, I’ve got you. You did good.”
As I put my boot down on the ground, Grudge does the same and looks over at me. “Isla?”
I nod.
He raises his phone to his ear, and I hear him say one word that tells me finding my loves might be possible.
Wren.
But I focus on my woman and the critical task of figuring out where she and Garrett are.
“Isla. Where are you?”
“He took us to an old mine shaft. It’s a bit like a cave at the entrance.”
“Good girl. A mine shaft,” I say out loud as Smoke, our road captain, walks to my bike. He whips out his phone and begins to search.
“I ran out…there’re rocks. And…my feet…they’re shredded.”
