When floodlights burst through the night with the blinding intensity of the sun emerging from the clouds, Logan threw one hand up to protect his eyes but didn’t slow. Elena finally stopped digging into the hole for a few seconds, only to resume battering his back as her feet kicked in the air.
The sound of a roaring engine caught Elena’s attention, and she stopped beating on the vamp to lift her head. As she did so, a car shot out from in between two of the homes. Its ass end slid out as it skidded across the road.
The dirt shooting out from the tires created a dust storm that trailed the vehicle. Hope surged inside her, and, deciding beating on him wasn’t working, she gripped the waistband of the vampire’s jeans and ripped upward.
The vamp grunted as he took a hitching step from the wedgy that had to have squished his balls, but it didn’t slow him as much as she’d hoped. Sliding her hand beneath the waistband of his jeans, she found the edge of his underwear and yanked them up.
“Son of a bitch!” Logan shouted and nearly went down as his underwear firmly lodged itself in his colon.
“What is it?” Asher asked.
“Just keep going,” he grated through his teeth.
Despite being extremely uncomfortable, he kept running. The hot air was like sand in his lungs, making breathing difficult. Sweat dripped off his forehead and plastered his clothes to his body.
He had no idea how to get both himself and Asher over the top of the wall with a car coming after them or what they would do once they were over. Because then, the gate would open and hunters would spill out to hunt them into the desert surrounding the compound.
And there wasn’t anything out there to keep the hunters from killing them. The compound was a sprawling eight-hundred-acre estate the hunters had walled off, irrigated, and turned into homes and farmland for their livestock.
Outside the wall was nothing but endless desert, with the closest town being five miles away. They could easily run there under normal conditions, but they weren’t outrunning vehicles, guns, and a whole lot of pissed-off hunters.
They had to get over that wallandget a vehicle, but he didn’t know how they would do either of those things.
As they neared the wall, Logan fell back to run behind Asher so he could protect his friend as more gunfire erupted. Sand kicked up all around him as the bullets struck the earth, but none hit him. While the hunter remained slung over his back, they would be safe.
“Jump!” Logan shouted as Asher neared the wall.
Asher leapt into the air, and his fingers caught the top edge of the brick before his body crashed into the stone façade. He grunted, and one of his hands fell free, but he scrambled to regain purchase on the wall.
Before he completely lost his grip, Logan grasped his legs and heaved Asher up. He almost pushed too hard and shoved Asher over, but his friend managed to stay on the wall and straddled it with his legs.
“Give me your hand!” Asher commanded as he reached for Logan.
Logan had no intention of doing that. Asher was a target on top of the wall. Wooden bullets would kill him if they struck him in the heart, but they would do far more damage to Asher. Shifting his hold on Elena, Logan held her up as a barrage of bullets peppered the wall.
“What are you doing?” Asher hissed as he flattened himself against the top of it.
“Take her,” Logan commanded. “They won’t shoot you if you have her.”
Asher flinched as a bullet struck the wall centimeters below his face. Bits of brick shot up to hit his cheeks; more shots fired as he recoiled. Asher jerked his hand up, and blood sprayed across the wall as one of those bullets struck him.
No!Logan inwardly shouted, but Asher didn’t tumble from the wall. His face contorted with pain as he stretched a hand toward Logan again.
“Are you okay?” Logan inquired.
“Yes,” Asher said in a strained voice.
“Take her!”
As he handed Elena up to his friend, she started kicking and swinging. One of the blows caught Logan under his chin and snapped his head back, but he didn’t let her go. He couldn’t see Asher anymore, but Elena’s weight eased from his arms.
Asher cursed, and something scratched at the wall, but Logan didn’t take the time to see what the hellion was doing to his friend. Instead, he backed up a few feet and ran at the wall. He leapt onto the top of the wall, where another bullet struck him in the calf.
Jumping off the wall, he landed on the other side with his hand resting on the ground as he surveyed the scene. At some point, Elena must have gotten away from Asher as they were sprinting along the wall.
Asher tackled her into the sand. Logan buried the unexpected anger that hit him when Asher dragged her down. He wanted to help his friend, but the gate was already swinging open, and he’d only have one chance to get them out of here.
That opportunity was upon him.
