Moving fast.
Too close to where Taryn was.
Max had it pinned halfway, body low, teeth bared, snapping in controlled bursts as if he were trying to keep it off her without fully committing.
Smart.
I didn’t slow down. My knife flashed up and down so fast it blurred. Metal struck bone, and the creature jerked. I stabbed it again so deeply that my fist, on the knife's handle, sank into its flesh, and it dropped.
I wiped the nasty blood off my hand on a greasy rag lying on the floor.
Max didn’t trust that the creature was dead and circled tightly, hackles raised, growl rumbling as if he was ready for it to get back up.
I grabbed his collar and pulled him back. “It’s done.”
He didn’t take my word for it and kept watching.
“Good, boy,” I scratched behind his ear.
I checked on Taryn and was relieved to find her exactly as I’d left her—cheeks pink from fever, with her pulse quick.
“Time to go, Fox.” I lifted her into my arms, right where she belonged.
“How are we getting this truck out?” Stain said from behind me.
I didn’t answer right away. My eyes tracked the layout.
Front showroom—the glass was blown out in places, but not enough clearance for something this big.
The main service bay door?—
I looked toward it.
The frame was bent inward, and one of the support tracks was warped where something had slammed into it.
“Shit,” I murmured.
We’d get stuck halfway through and be dead before we could back out.
I shifted my attention to the interior opening between the bay and showroom, which wasn’t an option either—cars had been shoved sideways through it, metal crumpled and jammed tight like someone had tried to barricade it… or escape through it.
Either way, it wasn’t happening.
My gaze moved further down the service line.
There.
A wide roll-up door. The chain was still looped through the handle.
“That one,” I nodded toward it.
Stain followed my line of sight. “That should work.”
He grabbed a crowbar off a nearby cart.
I glanced at him. “Why not use the one you’ve been killing infected with?”
It was still hooked through his belt loop. He patted it as if it were something personal. “I don’t want to damage her.”
