Yep, I’d recognize that silhouette anywhere.
Fucking hell. Well, I got myself into this mess. Maybe I can get us out of it?
I wasn’t holding my breath. Still, I crawled until I was able to grab Ulysses’s ankle.
He spun and nearly hit me.
Only at the last minute did he pull his punch. “Fucking hell.”
“Did you say something?” Chief. Bellowing.
“Nope. I didn’t say anything.” Ulysses angled himself toward the house—obviously where he thought—or knew—Gerard to be. “Just thinking I’m a damn fool idiot for coming out here. I’d have been better staying home.”
“With O’Sullivan? Don’t worry—he’s next.”
Just in case I hadn’t figured out just how fucked we truly were.
“I’d like to think he’s smarter than you.” Ulysses held my gaze. “But I’m questioning that assertion.”
“Kid’s too damn trusting for his own good.”
Ulysses arched an eyebrow.
I shrugged as I tried to play the odds in my mind. Us getting out of here alive. Whether keeping my presence a surprise was a good idea or not. If I could save Ulysses—even if that meant sacrificing myself. Finally knowing, in my heart of hearts, that kind of thinking wouldpiss him off even more than me showing up unannounced. Nope. Either we were both surviving or we were both dying.
“How, precisely, did we get into this mess?” Ulysses poked his head over our parapet of pallets.
“Jesus, don’t do that.” He might have dark skin, but the light from the fire could easily glint off his head and make us a target.
Make him a target.
“We got into this mess because you came here without me.”We got into this mess because I love you and no way was I letting you confront my chief alone. “We have to do…something.”
Ulysses sighed. “He’s got a gun. I don’t need to remind you that we came unarmed. At least I assume you don’t have a gun in your jacket.”
“I don’t.” Said churlishly.
He yanked his phone out of his back pocket. “I need to call Colton.”
“I’ve already called emergency.”
“Right.”
The heat from the fire was intense. I worried embers would land on the pallets protecting us and catch them on fire. I’d deal with that when it happened. Right now, gun trumped everything. Then I did precisely what I’d admonished Ulysses for doing—I looked.
Gerard got off a shot.
It whizzed past my head.
Ulysses yanked me down. “I know I say you’re naïve, but did you think he wouldn’t shoot at you?”
“We have a bigger problem.”
He snickered. “If he decides to try to shoot through the pallets then I suspect we’re dead.” He held my gaze. His dark-brown eyes were nearly black in this light.
“There’s a propane tank.”
He blinked. Then, his eyes widened. “And you think—”
