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“Oh, thank God,” Lucy said, almost as if she’d been holding her breath.
Aside from braking for a few animals, we hadn’t been met with any real obstacles so far, which almost had me worried. It was a bit too anticlimactic, and while that was exactly what I wanted, nothing ever went that smoothly in our line of work. So, I kept my head on a swivel, clocking every inch of jungle from left to right, as we drove.
“And it looks like we’ll be turning onto an open road and leaving the jungle, too,” Gray added, studying the map.
Fucking finally. I was more than done with this jungle and ready for paved roads. These situations wouldn’t normally bother me, but . . . Charley was there, so.
“Once we’re out, will the cartel risk coming after us on open roads?” Lucy asked. “Is the million-dollar bounty Brant offered worth it to them to risk exposure?”
Gray twisted in his seat to peer back at her. “At this point, they’ll be more inclined to seek revenge for the fact we killed so many of their men.” He shook his head and stole a look at me before facing the women again. “I’m still trying to wrap my head around Brant’s involvement in all of this, though. As well as his obsession with your mother. I don’t get it.”
Looking in the mirror, I noticed Charley’s eyes on Lucy. I knew those were details she didn’t want to reveal to her quite yet, but they’d need to come out eventually. “I thought you wanted to wait until the group is together to discuss everything,” I reminded him, unsure why the sudden inquiry.
“That was before I found out that Brant Luther’s involved,” Gray said matter-of-factly, a slight edge to his typical no-nonsense voice. I was about to cut through the tension and defend Charley, but then he added, “Nothing pisses me off more than people who parade around as saviors when they’re secretly the devil.”
Fuck, okay, good. We’re on the same page.
“The FBI report I read said your mother was part of a heist crew. Did she ever mention what they were stealing?” Gray asked next.
Like the IP that made Brant uber wealthy?
“I honestly don’t know anything about the heists my mom was involved in, or what I was forced to help him steal by driving the getaway car that night everything went down,” Charley murmured, her tone hesitant. “He said if I didn’t drive, he’d kill Lucy.” Her voice broke at the mention of her sister, and damn, I knew how hard that had to be on her to face her demons and share the past with her sister and in front of us. “I have a feeling the bank heist was to cover up what they were really after, though, because I doubt it was money.”
“What makes you say that?” I asked, catching Charley’s eyes in the mirror.
“I overheard someone mention one specific vault they needed to hit,” she answered as I reset my focus on the road, hitting another major bump.
“Maybe the other heists our mom, um, was involved in were similar?” Lucy sounded so hopeful, but she was probably much more clueless about her mom’s secret life than Charley. “Mom never should have gone to Brant Luther for help when Dad died,” she added when no one spoke up. “I still don’t get how Mom ever got involved with someone like him in the first place.”
After another turn and a quick cut to the left so we didn’t wind up off road in the jungle, I rasped, “Sometimes people do things they wouldn’t normally do to protect those they love.” I knew nothing about Charley’s mom, but I understood the kind of love a mother could have for her children. My mom may have been a library director, but she morphed into a badass when anyone so much as bothered me.
“Mom had a rough life before she met Dad, you know that. Fell into the wrong crowd. Began boosting cars before she was even sixteen,” Charley said, her tone soft but still defensive. “When she met Dad, she gave up that life to start a family. But he didn’t want her to work.”
“And when she went to get a job after he died, she had nothing to put on her job application other than car thief,” Lucy picked up the story, a sigh falling from her lips. “I know. But still. She went from being one of Brant Luther’s personal drivers to joining a heist crew. It’s crazy.”
“That’s how she got into bed with him?” Gray shot out, turning in his seat again. “Sorry, I mean, metaphorically.”
I checked the mirror again, worried about Charley.
Her shoulders collapsed as she said, “Brant was in love with her, but she didn’t love him back. And Brant was a disaster the night of the heist. Bloodshot eyes as if crying. Totally unhinged thinking Mom died in the accident. And then . . .”
“And what?” Lucy reached for her arm and squeezed just before I peered at the road again.
“I was only able to get out of the garage that night because Brant had been distracted by Mom,” Charley whispered so low I nearly didn’t hear her. “She . . . showed up . . . and jumped in front of a bullet meant for me.”
Before Lucy had a chance to react, I spotted something from the corner of my eye. It was dark out, but was that another road? One not on the map. And was the movement I caught just my hypervigilant imagination, or . . .? I lifted my foot from the gas for a second, squinting to try and get a better look. “You see something on your side?”
“Fuck,” Gray snapped out, dropping the phone and shooting both hands to the ceiling a moment later. “Brace for impact. We’re about to get hit.”
What the hell just happened? Why’d I feel like I was in Afghanistan? The day an IED had flipped my Humvee. We’d been ambushed, and that night, death had only been an acceptable option if it was my own, not the men I’d been leading.
Groaning, I tried to fight off the memory of almost losing my team that day and slowly opened my eyes. It took me a minute to take in my surroundings. Smoke, burnt rubber, and the metallic scent of blood filled the air. Was I in an active war zone? No, that didn’t seem right. I was—
Shit. In the jungle. “Everyone okay?” I rasped in alarm, our current situation coming screaming back at me. The sounds of gunfire weren’t from the Taliban, but the cartel outside our Bronco. And we were being rammed again.
I was jammed up in an awkward position with my belt still strapped, digging into me.
“Everyone okay?” I called again just as gunfire echoed all around us, ricocheting off the Bronco.
