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And our vests give another beep that makes my heart stop.
“Move.” Gunner skids down beside us and knocks Mac’s bolt cutters out of the way in the same breath that the cuffs come free. He tosses them at me without looking, hitting my thigh hard enough that my eyes cross, but he remains oblivious as he helps Evie out of the vest, and Mac crawls out from his space. “Go.” He lays the vest on the floor with feather light movements, then he grabs Evie’s hips and flings her to her feet. “Run straight through the front door. Your dad is waiting right outside.”
“He didn’t come in?” She’s hysterical, fighting Mac’s hands as he tries to lead her away. “He didn’t come for me?”
“He couldn’t fit in the crawl space!” Mac grabs her hand with a punishing grip and tugs her away. “They couldn’t fit. Let’s go!”
“Get her out,” Gunner shouts. “Jay! I need you. Mac, have everyone outside get back. This is gonna blow big in…” He checks the watch and lets out a string of cussing. “Four minutes. Go to Alex and tell him to push everyone back at least six blocks.”
“Six?” Mac screeches.
“Six! Push them back. Jay!”
“I’m here.” Jay skids to the floor and slams his knee against mine as he slides. “What do you need?”
“Bolt cutters,” Gunner murmurs. He takes a set of tools from his pocket and opens them on the floor beside the vest. “Get her out of that thing, then go. Run.”
I spin to Jay and lift my arm to give him room to move. The sour-sisters continue to scream, but one cuts off with a squeak at the same time a bullet zings across the room from Spence’s gun on the second level.
“She was armed and coming for you, Bish.”
“Thanks.” Kane slams Olly against the bar with shoves much more violent than anything I ever gave to the punk at the gas station. Blood explodes around Olly’s head, but Kane goes hard and slams a second time as he secures cuffs around bloody wrists.
“Get them out,” Gunner murmurs. He studies the vest and works on the wires, but when no one acknowledges his words, he looks up and around. “Get out! You have three minutes to move six blocks. Go!”
“One lock,” Jay grunts when he finally gets one loose. “Two more.”
“Go.” Kane shoves a weeping Olly at Alex when he rushes through the door. “Get everyone back. Griffin says six blocks.”
“Yeah, Mac just said. Everyone, evacuatenow!” He looks to the mezzanine level and waves Romeo and Spence down. “Let’s go. Everyone out. We can’t clear the space until you’re all out.”
“Go, go, go, go.” I try to hurry Jay on. “Come on, Bishop.”
“I’m trying.” His muscles flex and strain as he tries to close the cutters. “Hold on, Tate. I’m not letting you go.”
“Got it.” Gunner’s voice is like celebration and dread in one. “Disarmed.”
He literally picks Evie’s vest up and tosses it onto the stage, then he turns to me and begins pulling cords away to get a look. He takes the watch from the pocket, and in this moment, in this very second, my life flashes when his face pales.
“She had longer.” He looks to the useless vest as though in mourning. “She had three minutes.”
“How long does mine have? Gunner?” I grab his face. “How long?”
“One minute, twelve. Run.” He grabs the cutters from Jay’s hands and shoves him so hard he slams to the floor on his back. “Get up and run. You have one minute. Kane! Go.”
“Not going without Jay.” The oldest Bishop sprints to our group and grabs his little brother by the collar, only to literally lift him from the ground in one swoop. More than two hundred pounds, and he lifts him like it’s easy. “Cut it off her, Griffin. Get up. Let’s go.”
“There’s not enough time. We don’t have time to cut and run and escape the blast zone. Go!” He pushes me to my back so hard that the back of my head raps against the floor. Straddling my hips, he tears wires from my chest and goes to work. “Go! Fuck. Just go.”
“I can’t…” Kane’s eyes flicker between me and Gunner. “I don’t… I can’t–”
“If you stay, you will die! You will both die.”
“But if we run,youdie.”
“Forty-nine seconds.” Gunner carefully, so very gently, cuts a wire with a set of what looks like mini pliers. “You already don’t have time. Blast is gonna knock you on your asses. Fuckin’ run!”
“Gunner…” Kane’s eyes almost spill over with tears. “That’s not how… we can’t leave you. Brotherhood, remember?”
