A man with a half-smoked cigarette hanging from his mouth grips Maya’s shoulders, stopping her endeavor to reach a group of all-terrain vehicles in the far back corner. They’re grouped behind half a dozen tents.
“Why are you in such a hurry? Anyone would swear you’re outrunning a ghost.”
When his eyes stray in the direction Maya just came from, I take a step back. A thousand belligerent rants run through my head when a tree limb snaps under my boot. In a normal setting, the crack of a branch wouldn’t be a concern. But here, surrounded by members of the crew we’ve just taken down, it is the equivalent of a death sentence.
“What was that?” The same man holding Maya hostage wiggles his fingers at two men slouched in lawn chairs who have seen better days.
“It’s probably a squirrel,” Maya suggests, her tone panicked. “You know how rampant they are around these parts.”
Her reply reveals that they’ve been camped out here for a while. I don’t know if that is a good or bad thing.
The man’s lips purse. “Probably, but there’s no harm checking. We don’t want your toes getting nibbled while you’re sleeping.” He taps Maya’s nose with his index finger. It isn’t a flirty gesture, but it isn’t how a captor would treat a hostage either.
Panic sets in when he releases Maya from his hold before nudging his head my way. “Sweep the area.”
“If we find anything?”
The man asking the question smiles a slick grin when the commander replies, “Kill it, skin it, then bring it back here for me to marvel at.”
A dark-haired man cleans a butcher knife on his jeans while muttering, “It’ll be my pleasure.”
Even with a thick layer of bush between us, Maya’s eyes lock with mine. She gives me a warning look, one that advises they’ll follow through with their threat if they catch me. It has my feet moving faster than my heart, concern about snapping branches the last thing on my mind.
Hearing my brisk departure, more than a dozen men chase me down on foot while another three fire up their all-terrain vehicles. The gun I tucked into the back of my pants feels heavy, but I can’t summon the courage to pull it out and fire it. I need to keep running, to reach Trey and Nikolai’s men before they’re ambushed without notice.
“Trey!” I scream at the top of my lungs, his short name coming out as if it is ten times longer. “They’re coming!”
My last word is sliced in half when I’m suddenly clutched from the side. I’m thrown against a tree trunk so forcefully, any air left in my lungs evacuates in a sharp breath.
Pop. Pop.
The man about to grab me falls to the ground with blood trickling between his eyes.
I’m grabbed, dropped to the ground, then squished by a firm body before another three bangs sets my hearing back a decade.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
My heart rate skyrockets when the man lying on top of me snarls, “Ubey ikh vsekh, no sokhrani yeye.”
He rolls us three times, our tumble looking like a couple rolling down a meadow field on a cloudless, romantic day.
Pop. Pop.Roll.Pop. Pop.
And so the pattern continues until the man’s raging heart is replaced with the panicked shrill of my brother calling my name.
“I’m over here. I’m okay.”Although I’m on the verge of being squashed to death.
As if he heard my private thoughts, the man sheltering me with his body tilts back. My brows furrow when I take in his features. His shaggy dark hair, icy eyes, and chiseled jawline aren’t registering as familiar, but I swear I’ve seen him before.
“Are you okay?”
I grimace, hating that his deep timbre was felt on a region of my body that shouldn’t be attached to his.
Worry we look intimate flies out the window when I shift my head to the side. There is a deceased body directly beside us. How do I know the man is dead if his green eyes are open? The perfect circle singed between his blond brows.
“Not a bad shot for a limp-dicked balding bastard, hey?”
My eyes snap forward as my heart stops beating. “Asher?”
