“Ideas?” I asked. The men headed our way, about to corner us. If we ran toward Alina and Marley, we’d be exposed. If we stayed here, we’d be dead. Heart pumping hard in my chest, I stared in the direction of where the other two women should be, but couldn’t see anything through the trees.
Jolyn stared too, scanned the area with her night vision goggles. I hadn’t been able to see anything, and I doubted she would either. She turned back to the factory. “The devil you know,” she said under her breath, then reached up and took out her earpiece. “Turn off your comm. We don’t know who’s listening.”
I followed the order, putting it in my pocket, when she added, “I’m giving you cover and we’re taking one of their vehicles. Follow me.”
Before I could tell her how unhinged the plan sounded with only the two of us, she stood, her gun held in front of her like she meant to fuck shit up.
And she did. Her first shots made the men coming in our direction dodge for cover. Jolyn let out a few more, then she was running through the bushes parallel to the bottling plant. I kept close behind her.
As soon as the building blocked our view of the men, she veered left, cutting across the yard toward the back. We circled it and kept sprinting toward the front on the other side.
If there had been more than those four guys, this never would have worked.
We stopped at the corner of the building. I could hear the men’s voices close by—it didn’t sound far enough. On the plus side, I could also hear a motor. They’d left one of their vehicles running in their hurry to find us.
Her weapon pointed ahead of her, Jolyn signaled me, holding up three fingers. She curled them down.Three, two, one.
She stepped around the corner of the building.Ratatat.Bullets blazed out of her gun. Clued in to our location, the men scrambled, trying to get out of the killing field while returning fire.
I ran toward the truck. The door nearly came off its hinges in my haste to open it. I jumped inside. More gunshots echoed—Jolyn aiming at the tires of the van—then she vaulted in beside me.
“Nice of them to leave it running for us,” I said, putting it into reverse after securing my seatbelt. The engine roared as I stepped on the gas.
Her door banged shut. “Yes, yes.” She buckled up. “No time for jokes. Just show me your driving skills.”
Slamming the brakes, I shifted into first gear, and gravel sprayed behind us.Tack tack tack.We ducked. Bullets cracked the back window. It fragmented, pieces falling into the rear seat. Jolyn opened her window and returned fire before ducking down again.
My heart leaped into my throat every time she stuck out her neck to fire. If I got shot, I could shift and heal. She couldn’t. I gritted my teeth instead of telling her to stay the hell down, but my bear roared, ready to protect. My skin itched with the need to shift and rip apart all who threatened her.
Another van turned onto the property ahead of us, then stopped, blocking the narrow gap of the gate.
“Keep driving,” Jolyn shouted. Aiming forward, she fired out her window. The vehicle rocked, the people inside ducking. She might have hit a tire.
There was no way to get through without colliding into their van and slowing down or stopping completely, probably hurting Jolyn in the process. At the last second, I swerved, aiming for the next section of chain-link. The truck jerked and jolted. The airbags blew. I was blinded. The sound of scraping metal filled the cab, and in the next second, a puffing noise. Jolyn stabbed my airbag with her knife.
“Don’t stop,” she said, turning to fire at the other vehicle.
Tires squealed as I took a left onto the highway.Twing twing twang.More bullets hit the side of the truck.
I shifted my eyes and glimpsed the men scrambling around their vehicle in the rearview mirror. She definitely hit at least one tire.
“Nice shooting,” I murmured, my heart racing with adrenaline and relief we’d gotten out of there alive.
“Nice driving.” She shut the window and settled herself in her seat. “We need to find Marley and Alina.”
I nodded, flooring it and keeping my concentration on the road ahead. The asphalt sucked any light from the surrounding area, making it impossible to see without my eyes shifted.
Jolyn reinserted her earpiece and I reached into my pocket to do the same. “Marley. You there?” Her voice was strained with worry above the roar of the wind coming in through the broken back window. “Alina?”
Tension crawled up my spine at the silence on the other end of the comm, my hands tightening on the wheel.
She turned, looking behind us. The road remained dark. Pieces of safety glass fell every few seconds. “Circle to where we parked. We need to find out what happened to them.”
I didn’t want to do it, just wanted to get Jolyn out of here and as far away from the guys with guns as possible. I also knew she wouldn’t leave her friends behind. But what if more people waited for us? What if it was a trap?
The comm crackled, and I jumped from surprise.
“We’re here. We’re good.” Alina’s voice came over the line, and I breathed out a sigh of relief at the same time as Jolyn. “Two assholes were waiting for us at the van. We introduced ourselves.”
