“On the way. They’re three minutesout.”
“We don’t have three minutes,” Colesaid.
“Think you can get the driver?” Clint yelled over the roar of the air rushing in through the open window and the ongoing barrage ofgunfire.
Cole cursed and crawled back to the window. He lifted his head high enough to see that the other car had made some serious gains. “I don’t know.” Cole readied his weapon, stuck his head out, and got one round off before a bullet pinged into the metal right next to his ear. He cursed and fell back into the car, hitting the floorboards with a grunt, and slapped a hand over his now loudly ringingear.
“Shit, brother, you okay?” Clint yelled over his shoulder as he did his best to avoid the steady tat of gunfire. Thank God, they’d managed to get an armored limo with bullet-resistantwindows.
Cole groaned, pressing his right hand to his screaming ear, and fought off a wave of dizziness. “I’m fine,” he managed to getout.
Clint’s worried gaze flicked to him in the rearview mirror. “You’rebleeding.”
Cole pulled his hand away and stared at the red covering his palm. “Must’ve just nickedme.”
“Can youfire?”
“I’m bleeding, not dead.” Cole felt around for his pistol and made his way back to the open window. “On three, slam on your brakes.” Cole neared the window again, the roaring wind outside not nearly as loud as the roaring in his right ear. He focused on the comforting feel of the weapon in his hand, forcing his mind away from the pain in his head. Focus was key. Focus was the only thing that would get them through this. “One.”
“You sure about this?” Clint calledout.
“Two.”
The SUV was only ten feet behind themnow.
“Three!”
Cole held onto the door with one hand for steadiness. Clint slammed on the brakes, sending Tomi and Adam flying. The SUV zipped past them and Cole emptied his pistol intoit.
The driver’s side glass shattered, and the SUV careened off the road and slammed into a tree, the loud screech of metal wrapping around wood blasting through the nightair.
They’d lost their tail for now, but no way Luis would stopthere.
With the wind whipping through the back seat of the limo, Cole fell toward Adam and resumed CPR, his head hammering with eachcompression.
“Come on, Adam. You can’t quit on me now. You can’t leave Tara.” Cole locked out his elbows and pumped, alternating with the breaths. After what seemed like hours but was only seconds, Adamcoughed.
Too scared to feel relief, Cole stared at hischest.
Adam coughed again, the dam holding back Cole’s relief broke, and he dropped his elbows to the cushion beside his friend, offering up a silent thankyou.
Adam groaned and clutched his stomach, still pale and shaky but alive. “Hold on man. Just holdon.”
7
Tomi foughther way out of the darkness, fighting through the groggy haze of numbing fear. Where was she? What the hell had happened? Cool air covered her from head to toe, and her body felt sore, like it did the day after an intenseworkout.
But she didn’t remember workingout.
She was supposed to be in Mexico with her friend, so why was her head full of horrible things. Chains and male laughter and unwanted touchingand…
The auction. Theslaves.
Cole.
Tomi’s eyes flew open. Hot terror wrapped around her chest. She was in a bed, but it wasn’t hers or the one she’d been given in Luis’shouse.
A strip of light sliced through the bedroom. The tiny lamp at her bedside, the only beacon daring enough to brave the darkness, cast a glow across a set of shoulders she immediately recognized. It had been nearly a decade since she’d dug her nails into those same shoulders, crying out in pleasure. Cole Fury’s shoulders had changed—they’d gotten broader and fuller—and so had he. The boy she’d loved was unmistakably aman.
