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“Enjoy her,” he calls out as Maddoc resumes walking too. “Up to you whether you want to take those cuffs off her or not. If it were me, I’d probably choose… not.”
None of my men react, and my heart is pounding so loudly that it’s easy to ignore Austin’s parting taunt. I can’t believe this is actually happening. Pain pulses through my veins, filling every part of me. Not from the beating, but for Maddoc.
He meets my eyes as we approach each other, and for a moment, nothing else exists. With anyone else, I’d try to hide my fear and anguish behind anger, but I’ve got no armor with this man. I don’t want it. I let him see everything I’m feeling. If it’s the last chance I get, I want him to know how much I fucking hate this.
I want him to know how much he matters to me.
Maddoc’s face is set in stone, but there’s something intense churning behind his eyes. When they flicker to one side, the tiny, almost imperceptible motion catches my attention. He does it again, and my pulse jumps, hope slamming into me so hard that I can’t breathe for a moment.
He’s giving me a signal.
That must mean they have some sort of plan.
Oh god, please let them have a plan.
I tense as we cross past each other, half expecting Maddoc to reach for me. But he doesn’t.
Instead, he shifts his body directly behind me, shielding me from West Point as a deafening crack breaks the tense silence.
8
RILEY
Adrenaline slams through my body,my heart lurching into my throat. I’ve got no idea what that sound was, but it bounces off the abandoned buildings around us, echoing like a gunshot.
Maddoc hurls himself at me before I can react.
“Now!” he bellows, taking me down to the ground and covering me with his body as a couple of low-slung cars screech into the parking lot behind the SUV he arrived in, armed Reapers pouring out of them.
Gunfire erupts from both ends of the parking lot, bullets flying over our prone bodies. I’ve got no idea if the Reapers fired first or if West Point did, but when Maddoc hauls me back up to my feet, all the Reapers are in controlled firing stances, and McKenna’s are in chaos.
A fierce satisfaction rips through me at that, because it means the Reapers must’ve been the ones who started shooting first. Whatever that flash bang was, they must have set it up as a distraction.
They did have a plan.
“Go,” Maddoc says, shielding me with his body as he pushes me ahead of him. He keeps one hand on my lower back and the other on the back of my head, keeping it down as we sprint away from West Point.
My instinct is to race straight for the Reapers’ SUV, but Maddoc keeps us moving in a zig zag pattern, making us harder to hit.
I don’t question it. I trust him completely.
I do look back, though. Just once. Just in time to see one of my former guards shift his aim to track us, his grin just as sadistic as his boss’s ever was.
“Shit,” I gasp, stumbling.
Then he fires.
Maddoc’s arm whips around my body as he spins into the path of the bullet, shielding me yet again.
The bullet slams into his torso, the force of it driving a grunt out of him as his body flies into mine, and my world erupts in a hot mix of rage and fear unlike anything I’ve ever known.
“Maddoc,” I scream, twisting to try to face him.
“Keep… going,” he wheezes, still on his feet somehow. Still moving us toward the Reapers.
“But—” I start, my heart in my throat as he bodily turns me toward the SUV again and urges me into a sprint.
“Vest,” he grunts, pushing my head down again and all but tucking me underneath him as he continues to barrel forward. “Stay low.”
