I nodded and put my legs through the small trap door until my foot found a rung of the ladder, slowly climbing down until I reached the ground. Scanning the area, I realized I stood in the pantry with canned goods, jars, and a lot of really organized spices.
I heard Thomas maneuver furniture above, then drop down beside me. When I caught a glimpse of his face, he grinned. “Ready to fuck some shit up?”
“Hell yeah.”
He pulled open the pantry door and looked left and then right, while I stood beside him and readied my weapon.
“I’ll go left,” he whispered and stepped out.
I was right behind him, covering us on the right.
A shot rang out from somewhere, and we both squatted down, aiming our guns and firing until a lump fell to the ground. I went to the lump because I needed to know who the fuck thought it was a smart idea to come after Sadie Ashby.
“Sadie, no,” Thomas whispered, his frustration growing when I ignored him.
I squatted down, gun still aimed at the body on the floor, and pulled off the night vision goggles with my free hand.
“It’s a kid. A fucking kid.” He wasn’t dead, not yet. Soon. “Who the fuck are you?”
His eyes fluttered open, and a sneer crossed his face. “Your worst fucking nightmare.”
I let out a low laugh. “That’s the problem with you fucking kids. You’d rather be clever instead of smart. One last chance. Who are you?”
His smile grew wider, and his arm twitched with the effort of trying to lift it even though the gun was a few feet away. “You’re going down, bitch.”
“Maybe, but not tonight, sweetheart.” I stood and squeezed the trigger, putting a bullet in his head before I turned to Thomas. “Now, I’m ready.”
“Good thing, since that shot just gave us away. C’mon.”
Thomas grabbed my hand and tugged me through the kitchen door. It meant a longer path to the car parked in front, but it was our only choice with the sound of booted feet behind us.
“Where are we going?”
“This way.” He tugged me in the opposite direction, practically dragging me to a small metal structure that looked like a barn, but not quite. Thomas pressed a thumb to the scanner beside the door as more gunshots rang out, and when the door clicked open, he shoved me through it, turned and fired back.
I looked around, but it was too dark to see anything.
“Thomas,” I whispered. “What the fuck is this?”
“This is a garage.” He flicked on the light on his phone and lit up a matte black hummer. “And this is our escape vehicle. Get in.”
Thomas guided me to the passenger seat, one hand low on my back, and lifted me inside the jacked-up ride before he set the leather bag on my lap. “Hang tight.”
I watched as he jogged around the front of the Hummer, moving like a man fifteen years younger. Thomas easily pulled himself up into the driver’s seat and started the car. He made some adjustments and reached across me into the glove compartment, retrieving a phone that he handed to me. “Make the call, Sadie.”
I accepted the phone and nodded, dialing one of the few numbers I didn’t need to look up.
“Jasper.”
“Ma. Is everything all right? Where are you?”
I smiled at the worry in his voice.
“Yes and no. We’re at Thomas’ cabin, and some assholes have found us. Some young assholes with an arsenal. I don’t know who the fuck they are, but we need backup.”
Thomas turned to me and said, “Tell him we’ll be headed south on 95.”
“Did you hear that?”
“Yeah, I heard him. I’ll send reinforcements. Be safe until we get there.”
“Will do.” I ended the call and reloaded my piece. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
“My sentiments exactly,” Thomas said, pressing the button that engaged the sliding door. Five men stood on the other side of the door and unleashed a shower of bullets. I ducked instinctively.
“Bulletproof,” he offered with a grin and stomped on the gas.
“You could have lead with that.” I sat up taller, lining up one of the shooters a beat before he was hit by the car.
“Fuck! How many are there?” Five down outside the garage, at least four inside, but more and more bullets rang out in the night air.
“Too goddamn many. I’ll get us out of here.”
Under normal circumstances, I might have said some shit about him being so familiar with me outside the bedroom, but this was a side of Thomas I hadn’t seen before, and it threw me off my game.
“There’s a car behind us.”
“He’ll regret it soon enough.”
Thomas kept his eyes straight ahead, all the more treacherous by the unpaved road that was sometimes dirt and sometimes gravel. The goons behind us kept shooting, and I jumped. But the bullets were no match for Thomas’ Hummer.