Page 181 of Mile High Ruin

“What the hell are you doing?” I ask.

“Keeping you from getting yourself killed.”

“You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

“I didn’t exactly have time to introduce myself.”

Another series of shots comes from somewhere behind us.

Daniel looks toward the sound. “Come with me.”

“What?”

“We have to move.”

“Where?”

“Sloane, please.”

The urgency in his face makes me hesitate.

I know him. At least, I think I do.

Tonight, I’m beginning to understand how little that means.

“Why are you here?”

“I’ll explain in the car,” he says.

“What car?”

He catches my hand. “This way.”

I should refuse. But another gunshot breaks through the night, followed by men shouting somewhere much closer than before, and fear makes the decision for me.

Daniel leads me away from the gate rather than toward it. There’s a narrow section of wall behind the hedge where the landscaping becomes dense enough that I would never have noticed the small service opening concealed between two trees. Daniel moves through it without hesitation.

“You knew this was here?” I ask.

“Yes.”

That answer creates several more questions, none of which I have the breath to ask while following him down a steep strip of ground behind the property. Branches catch at my dress. The soles of my bare feet hurt with every step, but stopping feels worse.

The sounds from the compound begin to fade behind us. We reach a narrow road running along the outer wall, little more than a strip of pavement between trees, and Daniel looks both directions before pulling me across.

A car waits farther down with the lights off.

I stop. “Daniel.”

“We have to go.”

“I’m not getting into some random car with you until you tell me what’s happening.”

He turns toward me. For the first time, I notice how frightened he looks. “If they find us before we leave, none of this matters.”

“None of what?”

He looks past me again. Then a figure steps out from behind the parked car.