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Oh shit.
Smoke, the stench of burned rubber, and bullets come at me all at once.
Seventeen
Asena
Ibump and grind onto the two-lane road. I can’t count how many are peeling out behind me for sure but I know at least two sets of high beams are blinding me in the rearview.
I fumble in my back pocket for the burner phone and punch in Avery’s cell number. Thank God she thought to give it to me before I left the boutique. She promised she would be okay getting back to the compound. I can’t imagine how many questions they’ll have for her when they see her arrive in a taxi and not the truck.
But one problem at a time.
After scribbling her number on a paper and making me memorize it she promised to not tell Hark my plans unless she didn’t hear from me by nine tonight. I thought it a fair deal at the time, but right now I kind of wish she ratted me out the second I hit the door. Because by all accounts it seems I might be dead by eight.
I drop the phone, swerve left, and fall right trying not to cremate a little bug of a car going grandma speed on the dark two-lane road.
Bullets ping off metal but it’s the one that shatters the back window that has me shrilling into the night.
“Shit. Shit. Shit!”
I punch the gas and grip the wheel. Sometimes I have to wonder if I was a real asshole in a past life or something to have so much go so freaking wrong.
At this speed, the fat drops of rain might as well be water bombs. I can’t see through the fast-falling bursts of wetness and the wipers can only do so much.
I feel like I am stuck in some time warp because I am right back where I was two days ago—dodging and weaving bullets. Only this time no Hark and the bullets are aimed at just me.
I fumble around for the phone and this time I grip the damn thing and don’t let go.
“Avery, you there? It might be time to tell Hark everything.”
“Asena? Is that—?”
“Asena, where the hell are you?” Hark’s pissed-off voice cuts off Avery’s. There’s worry in his tone too. I can practically see his scrunched expression and dark eyes ready to commit murder. “And why has Avery been pacing this damn kitchen like she’s expecting bad news at any minute?”
“Ever the cop, Hark.”
“Answer me!”
“I’m doing what I have to do to take back what is mine.” This man puts me in defense mode faster than anyone else and given who I lived with that is saying a lot.
Metal pings off the side-view mirror to my left and I flinch nearly dropping the phone again.
“What the hell was that?” Hark sounds like he’s about to lose his shit.
I look in my other side-view and can’t help but wonder where a cop is when you need one? Right now, I’d take a set of handcuffs over a coffin.
“Bullets. I’ve got a lot of heat on my ass.”
Another ping—this one closer than the last.
“And that?”
“That would be the source of yet more heat. I’m sorry. I’ve done something stupid.”
I hear Avery take that moment to fill him on my B&E plans.
There’s a string of curses and muttered F-bombs every other word. I don’t interrupt. I’m too busy making sure I stay ahead of the pack of armed wolves out for my blood.
