AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Now here was a man high enough on the totem pole to make my plans of sabotage a reality. You were only as strong as your weakest link.
“Hazel and I will stay at the back door. I’ll unlock the computer for you, and then we will leave.”
The lumbering man laughed so loudly his whole body shook with movement. “Fine, if that is your request, I agree. I’ll shoot you in the back as you run.”
It was good enough for me. I undid the Velcro on the laptop section of my bag and slid the device from its safety hatch. I opened the top and balanced it in one hand while I grabbed Hazel’s with the other. Together we stood up and walked toward the door inch by inch.
Bernard kept his gun trained on Hazel, his beady eyes watching every step we took. When we approached the door, I handed the now-booting laptop up to Hulk, who held it out for me to type in the password when the unlock screen opened.
I peeked out the door and saw our freedom. With Hazel distracted, I pushed her behind me down the steps of the church. The login box popped up on my laptop and I typed in my eight-digit password.
Incorrectly.
As expected, the logon box disappeared, and the computer booted up as it would if I typed the password in properly. In three minutes, the machine would wipe itself, destroying any documentation saved on the hard drive.
Bernard took control of the computer. “We’re in,” he said, walking away with the laptop.
In the few seconds of their faulty congratulations, I took one more step backward and jumped to the left, avoiding the church steps altogether. A gun shot rang out, the blow hitting the doorway as pieces of wood blew out from the church.
CHAPTER23
HAZEL
Adrenaline pumped in my system, and although I already had a hand over my mouth to cover the sound of my breathing, I squeaked when the gunshot exploded and what looked like half of the church blew up, seconds after Corbin jumped out of the way.
I freaked but didn’t scream. Someone owed me a trophy. Life sure had changed since I first came to Pelican Bay.
I’d survived another attempted murder and didn’t scream, cry, or roll on the ground in a frightened ball. My coping skills were epic. That or I had seconds until a full-blown meltdown ensued.
Basically, in the grand scheme of things, I’d become pretty kick ass at the whole running for my life thing. I didn’t plan to become an international spy or anything, but the last week really showed that it had future job prospects written on it.
A second shot shattered through the night, disrupting my congratulations as Drake ran at us firing at the church.
On second thought, international spies had to fit into leather outfits, and I enjoyed too many double fudge cookies for that to be an option. I’d have to leave the dream career in the past.
Another shot rang out followed by another. I hovered on the side of the church, covering my ears. With a smile, I imagined myself as Cat Woman.
Everything happened super-fast as the two men standing on either side of me looked like I’d lost my mind. It was probably the smile.
I dropped it, going for serious instead.
They had a point. I didn’t get to become a superspy just because I hadn’t screamed at a few bullets. The mental breakdown edged closer as I came back to reality.
Plus wasn’t Cat Woman a bad guy in the movies? It had been a while, and they were before my generation.
“Let’s go,” Drake said, grabbing on to my upper arm and pulling me back toward the woods before passing me off to Corbin once he had his footing. “Run for the woods and I’ll cover you.”
“Wait,” I asked, stopping Drake. “Was Cat Woman a good or bad guy?”
Drake’s eyes widened and his face hardened. “What?”
“Cat Woman, you know? Was she good or bad?”
“It varies,” Corbin said, twisting my fingers between his. The two of us took off as quickly as possible toward the trees.
Drake was right behind us. He ran backward a few seconds with his gun pointed out at the church, but he didn’t fire a bullet.
“It took you long enough,” Corbin said to Drake once we hit far enough into the tree line we’d be hard to see from the church.
