He hit the gravel and I didn’t wait to see if he stayed there. I ran to Travis.
“Sera.” His voice was rough, strained. “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same question.”
“We need to go. Right now.”
He pushed off his vehicle and was making his way toward my SUV with the careful, measured steps of a man holding himself together through sheer stubbornness. Each step deliberate. Each breath costing him something. The second man was on the ground near the tree line. Travis had handled him before I’d even gotten out of the SUV.
I put his arm around my shoulder and took his weight on my right side, and we covered the last ten feet to the SUV together. He was heavier than I expected. Hotter, too, his body radiating heat through his jacket in a way that felt wrong, feverish, an engine running too hard. His left side was wet. I looked down and my hand came away red.
Shit.
“Travis. You’ve been shot.”
“Grazed. It looks worse than it is. Give me the keys.”
“You can barely walk, and you’re bleeding.”
“I can drive.”
“Get in the passenger side, Travis.”
“Sera—”
“Get in or I will leave you here.” I was relatively certain I meant it.
He got in.
I handed him the gun, then started the engine and pulled out. Gravel sprayed behind us and then we were on the highway heading south.
“Maude,” Travis said before we’d gone a quarter mile. His voice was operational. “Initiate vehicle wipe for my vehicle. Kill the GPS, comms, everything. I want it dark in sixty seconds.”
“Vehicle wipe initiated. All systems will be scrubbed in forty-five seconds. Travis, your biometric sensors are still transmitting.”
“Kill those too. After you confirm the wipe.” He had his hand pressed against his left side and his eyes on the mirrors, checking the road behind us. “Did anyone leave the site?”
“No vehicles have departed. However, the mission was conducted in daylight on an unvetted route with multiple tangos who are still alive. Your face was uncovered. Sera’s vehicle was visible at the site. I’m unable to determine what identification may have occurred.”
“Plates?”
“Sera’s plates were exposed for approximately four minutes. I have no way to confirm whether they were recorded.”
Travis swore under his breath. His eyes were still on the mirrors. “Make sure the plates lead to somewhere in Florida.”
The adrenaline was draining out of me in real time, leaving my arms weak and my knuckles throbbing where I’d hit a man in the head with a fist I’d barely been taught to throw.
My lungs chose that moment to weigh in. I reached for the inhaler in the cupholder without looking, brought it to mymouth, and took two puffs while keeping my eyes on the road and one hand on the wheel.
“Vehicle wipe complete,” Maude said. “All systems offline.”
“How badly are you hurt?” I asked.
“It’s a graze. Bullet caught the skin along my side. It needs to be cleaned and closed but nothing vital got hit.”
“You’re sure?” Was he a damned doctor now?
“I’ve had worse.” He shifted in the seat, and something crossed his face that contradicted every word he’d just said. “You shouldn’t have come.”
