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“Could they have taken a wrong turn?” My stomach flips at my own naivete as I take in the look of alarm in Liam’s green eyes. He’s trying to hide it, but I don’t miss the way his grip on the steering wheel tightens.
“Maybe,” Liam says, his voice tight.
Swallowing hard, I dare to steal a peek over the back of the passenger’s seat. The car behind us is a dark sedan, nondescript, with tinted windows. It’s impossible to make out the driver, but that’s not what makes my pulse quicken and adrenaline course through my veins.
It’s close to midnight, and it’s pitch dark outside, but they’ve got their headlights turned off.
A surge of panic goes through me. The idea of getting hunted down at Tristan’s place has always been in the back of my mind. That’s one thing. But a car full of Lucas’s goons shows up in the middle of the night on a back road outside the safe house? I might as well just save them the trouble and put the gun to my chest right now.
“Shit,” I mutter, whipping my head back around. “Shit, shit, shit. Fuck.”
“Stay calm,” Liam tells me, his tone level. “I’m going to detour.”
He veers a hard right at the next intersection, and, like clockwork, the car follows. It’s giving us a wide berth, moving at a leisurely pace, but there’s nothing leisurely about the way it matches every turn, swerve, and lane change. “They’re still there,” I say, my heart hammering in my chest, panic creeping into my voice.
“Easy, Vivi,” Liam says, still somehow managing to stay calm. “Breathe. Remember what we talked about, yeah?”
“Right,” I say, swallowing. Stay alert. Keep your muscles relaxed. Most importantly, don’t lose your shit.
Which is exactly what I’m on the verge of doing.
I let out a small cry when the car behind us suddenly speeds up, and Liam jerks the wheel. The tires let out a shriek as he flips a full U-turn, speeding back up the hill. “Hate to say this, Vivi,” Liam says, “but it looks like tonight’s training is canceled.”
“We’re going back to the safe house?” We race past the sedan, but I don’t catch a glimpse of the person behind the wheel.
Liam shakes his head. “Can’t. We’d be leading them straight there. Just going to take a spin around the block—see if we can’t lose them. I told Tristan this would fucking happen if he made me drive.”
I glance behind us, but the car is nowhere to be seen, and as we start back up the hill into more familiar territory, I dare to relax a little. “You think they already—” I begin.
That’s all I have time to say, because the next thing I know, the car is speeding off a connecting road, driving straight over the double line to cut across both lanes. Liam’s car swerves to the right, and we nearly careen off the road, my window coming within inches of smashing into a nearby tree. I scream, clutching the handle above the door as he narrowly regains control of the car, screeching to a halt at the base of the tree.
“Get out,” Liam says, undoing his seatbelt and scrambling out of the car as he whips his gun out of its holster.
I don’t need to be told twice, adrenaline roaring as I launch myself out the passenger side just in time to see the men in the sedan getting out. I have enough time to register two things: Lucas isn’t with them, and they’re packing heat.
The next second they’re shooting, and it’s all I can do to drop my knees and cover my head. Liam moves like water, pulling me behind the side door and shielding me. “Stay back,” he says, his eyes flashing.
I realize I’m shaking too hard to move as the men unload another volley of bullets. My chest is tight, my breath coming in shallow bursts as they strike the glass over our heads. Liam pops up long enough to return fire, but the door is obstructing his aim. “Fuck,” he curses, dropping back down to reload his magazine. I keep my head down, my body pressed against his, flashbacks to being shot filling my head. I can hear glass shattering, splintering wood as the bullets tear up the side of the car.
Terrified, I dare to look up. They’ve stopped shooting at Liam’s car and are advancing on us. Some part of my terrified mind is examining them, trying to find anything identifiable that I can feed back to Theo, but I’ve got nothing. Whoever these guys are, they’re not my dad’s, which means they’re either Lucas’s, or…
Someone else’s?
That’s all I can process before one of them stumbles, and I see the blood pouring from his thigh. Liam must have hit him. The other guy stops his advance as another of Liam’s shots narrowly misses him, but he doesn’t cease his barrage of shots at us. Liam doesn’t let up this time, firing again, and finally, a bullet strikes the man in the ribs. He drops to the ground next to his friend.
Silence fills the air again, and I stare in disbelief at the carnage in front of us. “Is... Are they dead?” I stammer.
“Probably,” Liam says, straightening up. “You okay?” he asks, glancing down at me.
I’m still in shock, and I struggle to formulate words. “Uh huh,” I manage.
“Hey,” Liam says, stooping down to get an arm under mine, “you’re all right, Vivi. You’re okay.”
I swallow hard, my mouth dry. Liam helps me to my feet, his eyes wide as he looks me quickly over, his hand lingering briefly on my shoulder, my side, and on the place on my chest where Lucas’s bullet pierced my flesh. “You did great,” he says, and just like that, the mob enforcer is gone and the charming Irishman returns. “Way to duck and cover there.”
I give a weak laugh, but my shoulders slump forward. “You... you killed them,” I say, still reeling from what I just witnessed.
“They would’ve killed you, Vivi,” Liam says, holstering his gun. “I wasn’t about to let that happen.”
