"Sorry to be pedantic, Miss Bennet," this voice is new, again, and smooth, deep, rich, articulate. "But when you say machine guns?"
I sigh. "I don't know anything about guns, Mister…?"
"Solomon."
"I know less than nothing about guns, Solomon. They were not rifles in the sense of hunting rifles, or the kind of rifle my new friend Nicolae here used to kill that guy who was about to kill me. They had clips, straps that clipped to their vests, and they shot a lot of bullets very fast."
"Assault rifles," Solomon corrects. “Mags, and body armor. Assault rifles have magazines, and bulletproof vests aren't a thing. Bullet-resistant—"
"Sol, bruh, the lady don't need a terminology lesson, bud. Save it."
"Thank you, whoever you are," I say, humor in my voice.
"Name's Saxon. Sol is my older brother. The twit who thinks I don't appreciate classic films is our other brother, Silas."
"Pardon," Nico says, cutting in. "I hate to break up this very amusing exchange, but our quarry is slowing. We must be attentive, now.”
"Go," Sophia says. "Stay out of sight until we arrive and can formulate a plan to end this shitshow once and for fucking all."
"Hear! Hear!"
"Amen to that!"
"Fuckin' right!"
"Byeseeyousoonnewbestie!" Terra says it all in a rush, too loud, as if she snatched the phone and yelled it into the microphone right before the call ended.
Once the call is over, Nico again removes the battery, tosses the SIM card out the window, and tosses the phone back into the cupholder.
"I have a question," I say.
Nico eyes me with a quirked eyebrow. "Yes?"
"Ifthat," I point at the flip phone, "is what you use to make calls, and you discard the SIM and eject the battery after every call, then what's going onthere?" I point at the smartphone in the holder clipped to the vent next to the steering wheel.
"Oh. Yes." He indicates the glove box. "There is a third-party wireless hotspot in there, providing Wi-Fi for that device. It does not have a SIM card, and thus cannot make or receive cellular calls, and therefore cannot be traced or triangulated."
"Geez. So you're a tech wizard special forces badass who speaks a dozen languages, and, not for nothing, you're pretty damn attractive."
He shrugs. "I do what must be done. I have lived my entire life off-grid, as they call it. I am no tech wizard, but I do know my way around some technology. It isn't so impressive."
“Maybe not that, but the rest is."
"You are very kind, Miss Bennett."
"So, how many of you are there, anyway? I caught a few names, there—Sophia, Solomon, Silas, Saxon, and Terra."
"The full roster is: Rev and Myka, Chance and Annika, Kane and Anjalee, Silas and Naomi, Saxon and Terra, Solomon and Scarlett—Maria, now—myself and Tatiana, and Inez, or I should say Sophia, and Lorenzo."
I blink. "That's a big family."
He nods. "It is. We are very fortunate to have found each other."
"My next question is…what is Terra's deal? She's acting like it's a forgone conclusion that I'm gonna be…like…I dunno. I dunno! It's weird and presumptive, and I don't understand."
"You are part of a pattern. We get in trouble, go on the run, try not to die, meet someone who ends up being drawn into the situation, fall in love, and they then become part of the family."
"And she's assuming I'm next? Like me and Jakob are…?”
