Page 77 of Saving Wyatt

“Testing, testing.” The speakers placed on my dashboard buzzed to life, and Nino came through.

“All clear,” answered King on the walkie-talkie.

For the next few minutes, we heard nothing but the car engine, then boots on the ground. At some point Nino asked one of his men for the time, and the man wearing the bug answered him. King clicked the walkie-talkie a couple of times to confirm we could still hear them, and the bodyguard gave him the wrong time before correcting himself.

So far so good. Everything was going like clockwork. For a moment I felt like I was back in the field, back on a perfectly planned mission to take down another serious threat. But then I looked out into the endless slumbering fields and the starry sky above it and I shook myself back to reality. The threat wasn’t in a foreign land anymore, but in our very own territory. My own turf, making it so much more dangerous.

“Here we go,” Nino said, and we heard another engine approach.

Every second until it came to a stop felt like an eternity. The second hand on my watch slowed down to a halt. Wheels screeched as the car braked, and I held my breath, waiting, bracing.

Could it really be this easy? Was it going to end so anticlimactically after what he’d put us through?

I started biting my lip and turned to look at King. He pressed the record button on the tape, and we waited to hear his voice.

If things went south, we could at least use a tape of him involved in illegal dealings. The question was whether he’d turn up at all or whether he’d hold up his end of the bargain.

“My father told me you were always on tim—” Nino started.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

The thunderous sound emitted through the radio and thrummed through my very veins. My heart pounded louder in my chest with each shot, kicking my body into action as King jolted and tried to get out of the car.

I wrapped my hands around him and held him into place. He was strong, but I was stronger, and I wasn’t going to let him put himself in danger too. Not when he had a daughter to think of. A whole family that needed him.

What a fucking mess.

I shouldn’t have listened to Nino. I shouldn’t have trusted that he alone could take care of someone a whole fucking team couldn’t. I’d sent him out to the wolves to be eaten alive.

“Let me go.” King jolted from side to side, trying to break free. “Let me…go.”

I didn’t.

I looked at the radio where only static came through, a silence deadlier than most.

I closed my eyes, tightened my hold, and waited. And waited and waited. I didn’t even know what I was waiting for, but instinct had taken over, and I knew King running into the thick of it was going to be even more disastrous.

We were well hidden, and him coming out of the car and our hiding spot and onto the road—a road they may drive down on—was dangerous. And I’d already screwed up enough.

After a while, King realized I was stronger than him, and instead of struggling in my arms, he started crying. His tears broke something in me. If there was anything left that wasn’t broken.

Why couldn’t I stop making bad decision after bad decision? What was wrong with me? How on earth did I think a simple meeting would solve all our problems.

Minutes passed like hours, but when enough time had passed, I pulled away from King and started the engine. The closer to the meeting location we got, the harder my heart pounded until it was physically hurting me, and I had to place my hand on my chest to help ease the pain.

It didn’t do shit when I turned a corner and found four bloody bodies slumped on the ground. Salieri, or let’s not fool ourselves, his men—because he wouldn’t be caught dead in the middle of a shootout—were long gone, the only sign of their presence here the tire tracks and the dead bodies.

King jumped out of the car before I even braked, and he dropped over his brother’s body, letting out an inhuman wail that chilled me to the bone.

I brought the car to a stop, and as I ran to him, to them both, he was holding his brother’s head with one hand and opening his jacket with the other.

The tear-stricken face turned serious, and he shouted at me. “He’s alive. He’s still alive. Help me out,” he said.

I closed the distance between us and dropped to my knees to find a barely conscious Nino doing his best to smile.

“See?” he croaked. “Told you…be easy.”

King shushed him, but Nino’s words thrummed in my head, making me feel light all of a sudden.