Page 26 of Ignited

Karisma’s heart was in her throat, expecting any time to hear a shout or a gunshot, but the strike team was still in chaos.

She didn’t need as much help on the way back—between the part of the potion she’d managed to take and the sheer exhilarating terror of being almost blown up, she was able to walk on her own.

Boomer’s brother pulled the camouflage blanket from the truck and Karisma crawled inside. He slid her Barbie box in after her, along with the wadded-up blanket. “Where’s Boomer?” she asked, realizing he’d disappeared.

“Discouraging pursuit.”

Karisma found out what that meant when the enemy troop transport vehicle blocking the lane between them and the clearing exploded into a fireball. Boomer’s brother started up the truck and crashed out of the forest, with the tailgate still down. Seconds later, Boomer ran up behind the truck, dove into the bed while it was moving, and landed up beside her.

He scrambled around to his hands and knees and closed up the back of the truck. His brother punched the accelerator and took off.

“I hope there weren’t any people in that truck you blew up,” Karisma said.

“I don’t think so,” Boomer said. “Although, to be honest, I didn’t look very hard. They were trying to kill us.”

“Mostly you,” she said. “They want me alive.”

“Yeah,” his brother said, through the window. “That was a lot of firepower coming for one little tiger.”

“I’m a formidable enemy.” Despite the fact that she was white as a sheet and shaking.

Boomer grinned, and slung his arm around her shoulders. “We all are.”

She could feel the exhilarated adrenalin buzzing through him. A man who thrived on danger. And explosions, apparently.

Boomer’s brother was on the comms to their friends. “Made it out,” he said. “So far, no pursuit.”

“Sending meetup coordinates,” Cisco said. “In case you’re not as good as you think you are.”

“Fuck off,” Boomer’s brother said. But that seemed to be rhetorical, because he added, “See you there. And keep this all on the downlow, would you?”

“Sure,” Cisco said. “Make that two cases of beer.”

“Whatever.”

After they’d driven several miles with no sign of pursuit, Karisma focused on the next question. Which was, “Where exactly are you taking me? And do I get a vote?”

Although, she didn’t even know what she would vote for. Her base had been destroyed, and she still needed to figure out a way to find Thanatos.

Boomer echoed her thoughts. “Do you have a safe place to go?”

“You just blew it up.”

“Yeah. That was cool.” Easy for him to say. Although it had been kind of cool. He added, “Then I guess we’re taking you home with us.”

Home? To where? She was getting the feeling they were some kind of rogue militia. People like that usually were hostile to outsiders.

Boomer’s brother gave a tiny, disgusted shake of his head. “This is a bad, bad idea,” he muttered.

Boomer said, “Do you have a better one?”

“Drop her off at the side of the road and say goodbye?”

Boomer sighed. “You know we can’t do that.”

“Excuse me?” Karisma said. “I’m sitting right here. Don’t I get a say?”

“You’re still not in charge,” Boomer’s brother said.