I drive an elbow backward and hear someone grunt. My fist connects with something solid before rough hands seize my jacket and drag me sideways. Beside me, Finn is fighting just as hard, refusing to give them anything. Every movement is calculated. Every strike buys us another second.
“Get the fucking cuffs on them!”
The driver shouts from the front as the SUV jerks again. My shoulder crashes into the door again and pain tears through my arm. I ignore it.
I won’t stop.
I can’t.
I have to get back to CJ.
For a few frantic seconds, no one is winning. The back of the SUV becomes a blur of limbs, shouting, and desperate resistance.
Then numbers win.
A body crashes onto my back, forcing the breath from my lungs. My arms are wrenched behind me before I can pull free. Plastic restraints bite into my wrists so tightly my hands immediately begin to tingle.
“Get off me!”
I buck beneath them, twisting, kicking, trying to break loose.
Across from me, Finn is still fighting. Still refusing and still making every one of them earn it. It takes two men to hold him.
One catches a punch square across the face and falls backward, blood running from his mouth.
“You little bastard!”
My heart lurches.
“Finn!”
He tears one arm free for the briefest second and turns his head toward me.
Our eyes meet, just for a heartbeat.
Then another man reaches for the handgun at his waist.
My blood turns to ice.
“No!”
The weapon swings, and the heavy impact echoes through the vehicle. I watch as Finn’s body crumples to the floor.
He doesn’t move.
For one endless second… nothing.
No sound.
No movement.
Just blood beginning to trail down the side of his face, and everything inside me stops.
“Finn!”
Panic consumes me so completely it steals every coherent thought. I fight with everything I have left, throwing my weight against the men holding me, desperate to get to him.
A fist drives into my ribs, forcing the air from my lungs while another hand shoves my face against the floor, the carpet scratching my skin.
