So I can focus on the battle ahead.
This may not end well for me but I’ll go down fighting.
For her, for me, for us.
The first two guys go down instantly—I’m a good shot in general and this close there’s no question. Allora surprises me, firing off two shots that take out the guy trying to reach in through the windshield. Right in the face.
That’s my brave, beautiful girl.
I kill two more of the masked men but they realize I’m lethal so now they’re breaking the back window and someone is climbing in behind me. I don’t have the luxury of taking any more precision shots because they’re all over us, so I fire until my clips are empty, taking out two more guys.
And yet there are still a bunch of them.
Unfortunately, someone has reached for Allora. She screams and fires wildly, one bullet catching the guy in the arm. He yelps and falls back but now there’s a guy behind me and he’s wrapped some kind of coil around my neck. I use one hand to keep him from choking me and the other to grab the gun from Allora.
“Fight!” I yell. “Don’t stop!”
And she does.
Even as they close in, punching out windows and trying to choke me, she kicks and swings with everything she has.
It’s just not enough.
She’s so small compared to the men.
It’s only going to take a few more seconds to overpower her—and kill me.
Fuck but I didn’t want it to end this way. This soon.
I see the taser and brace myself because this is going to hurt. But we trained for this in Special Forces. I’ve probably been tased more times than I can count, and I can push past the sting. I breathe through the pain and manage to yank the coiled rope from my neck. With two hands I grab the guy with the taser, pull him in through the window and slam his head against the steering wheel repeatedly, until blood spurts everywhere.
“Fucking end this!” someone yells.
“Don’t kill her, but I don’t give a fuck about him.” That’s someone else, and the voice is vaguely familiar. Why do I know that voice?
“No! We don’t need the feds involved. He’s a fucking war hero—this will make national news. Just use the fucking taser!”
Another jolt and this one hurts more than the last. I stiffen, momentarily losing my grip on the guy I was pounding into my steering wheel. That’s okay, though, because he drops like a rock, sliding back out the window.
“Again!” someone yells. “As many times as necessary until he goes down. If he has a heart attack, so be it. And she’s a buck ten—fucking pull her out the window and let’s get out of here!”
“No! Landon!” She kicks at the hand in front of her but someone puts a gun against her temple and she freezes.
“Fight!” I hiss.
They already made it clear they don’t want her dead but her hesitation was all it took. Someone yanks her out throughthe jagged windshield, glass scraping against her skin as she screams and tries to wiggle free.
“Motherfucker!” I elbow the guy closest to me, but someone else opens my door and then they fire two more tasers, pulling me out. I drop to my knees, trying to catch my breath, but I know my body can’t take much more.
I grab the leg of the man closest to me and somehow find the strength to yank him down, but the next guy puts a gun to my head.
“Try me,” he growls.
“Do it,” I hiss. “Because I won’t stop until you’re dead.”
He just laughs.
Then there’s a blinding pain in the back of my head and I go the rest of the way down.
