“Fuck you, Caldwell,” Nash bit out, stepping forward.“She walks first.”
Ollie shook his head, still moving.“No.I get to the shed.Then she walks.”
“You ain’t makin’ it out that door with her.You let her go now, you might.”
Ollie let out a short laugh.“You think I’m stupid?Hell, half your boys are out there waitin’, ain’t they?”
When Nash didn’t answer, Ollie ground the muzzle of the gun into Cassie’s temple hard enough to make her cry out.
Hard enough that Nash felt his teeth lock.
“Ain’t they, Walker!”
“Yeah,” Nash said, his voice a low growl.“They fuckin’ are.”
“Then you’re gonna tell them to back off and let us walk.”
Nash kept his eyes on Cassie.
She held herself still despite the tremor in her hands, her wide, watery gaze fixed on Nash like she might never see him again.
Fuck.
Nash lowered his gun a fraction.Not enough to change what he’d do if he had to—just enough.
“Sarge,” he said.“Tell ’em to hold.”
There was movement at his side—Sarge pulling out his phone, thumb passing quickly over the screen before the device disappeared again.
“Everybody move real slow now.”Ollie started for the door again.“And you keep your goddamn distance, Walker.”
Nash matched Ollie’s pace without closing the space between them, keeping his hands where they could be seen.It wasn’t a position that came naturally to him, but he kept himself in check, giving Ollie nothing that might set him off.
Outside, the yard opened up around them—a shed off to the right, the tree line thick beyond it.The Kings were already stepping out from where they’d been positioned along the edges.Guns up, no one fired.
There was no shot to take—not without risking Cassie.
Nash followed, watching Ollie back toward the shed with Cassie held tight against him.
“Unlock it.The brass one.”Ollie shoved her at the door.
With shaking hands, Cassie fumbled the keys toward the padlock.Metal clinked against metal, the lock twisting free.
Tossing the padlock aside, Ollie shoved Cassie through the doorway and disappeared in behind her.
Cursing, Nash broke into a run, gun up, nearly to the shed when an engine roared to life and a four-wheeler tore out of the structure, Ollie already firing his gun as he cleared the doorway.
Nash dropped and rolled, coming back up and diving toward the shed while his men scattered and shouted behind him, answering with their own fire.
He found Cassie just past the threshold, one hand braced against the wall.
“Nash—”
She tried to step toward him.Her hand slipped off the wood, her weight shifting, her legs giving out before she’d taken half a step.
He caught her before she hit the floor, dragging her into him.“Cas—look at me.What’s wrong—where you hurt?”
Roughly pulling her face toward his, her eyes lifted, finding his—
