“Le Sauvage,”I hear one of them say in a choked voice. Good. I want the memory of every shred of violence I’ve ever committed replaying in their minds. I want them to imagine their own faces on the bodies of my dead enemies.
Savannah leaps to her feet, an array of emotions written across her face.
“Thayer.”
The book on her lap falls to the ground, the pages fluttering like a bird’s wings.
I don’t care who’s here. I don’t care about their reinforcements. An army won’t keep me from her.
“Come out,” I say loud and clear while I hold her eyes. “All of you. You know who I am. You know what I’ve done. And you know what I’ll do if you touch a goddamn hair on her head.”
Anything and everything I fucking have to.
Anything.
“Thayer,” she repeats.
I sling my arm around her shoulders and face them. I hear footsteps scurrying in the bushes, hushed voices.
I pull out my gun and hold Savannah against me. I draw my weapon and brandish it. “Let’s go. You’ll have to get through me to get to her.”
“That’s one of them,” she says, pointing to the two men in the front. They stare at me for long seconds. The one she identified turns tail and runs but I shoot, and I don’t miss. I hit his leg and he sprawls on the ground. Fabien materializes and takes him.
It was too easy. Too simple. The threat of our attack when we’re outnumbered isn’t enough to make them run.
A gunshot rings out and Lyam curses, running after someone who’s taken off.
“Did they get him?”
“Nicked his shoulder,” Fabien says. “He’s fine.”
“Where’s the other one?”
Savannah shakes her head. “I didn’t see him. He didn’t come.”
“Coward.”
Fabien and Lyam return, Fabien with one of the murderers in custody and Lyam bleeding, but it’s a shallow wound.
“We’ll use this one to take us to his friend,” Lyam says through gritted teeth.
“I’m going,” Savannah says.
“No fucking way.” I don’t want her hurt.
“There’s no time,” she says. “I’ll stay safe, Thayer, but if we don’t get him now, we’ll never have peace.”
Returning to the car, Lyam slides into the driver’s seat and I get in the back with Savannah. He turns the key.
The world around me erupts in smoke.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Savannah
We’re alive.Am I alive? How are we alive?
Smoke billows around us. Was it a smoke bomb? Meant to distract and not to kill?
