“We’ve got more company up ahead!” the driver bellows.
“Fuck! They have us pinned in!” the guy beside me curses.
“What the fuck is that? Is that a fucking RPG?!” Logan yells in dismay.
A second later there’s a loud whoosh then our car is rocking and shuddering violently as something behind us explodes.
“Stay down! Stay down!” the man beside me yells repeatedly.
“Omega car has been destroyed! We have to engage, sir!” Logan says, sounding more and more agitated by the second.
Our car screeches to a stop and I rock forward so hard against my seat belt I want to puke.
“Get down!” the man beside me yells again and I scream back, “I am down, asshole!”
Someone, I’m assuming him, fumbles with the buckle at my waist then releases it. Untangling me from the belt, he pushes me down to the floor.
I tumble to my knees and glance up.
He immediately shoves my head back down.
Fucker!
“Stay there,” he orders. “Don’t move!”
Panting heavily, I stare down at the black carpet of the floorboards and my ears strain as I try to figure out what the hell is going on around me.
Doors pop open. The smell of burnt rubber and smoke drifts in.
“Targets at twelve o’clock, three o’clock, and nine o’clock,” the asshole who shoved me down barks.
“Don’t forget six o’clock! We’re completely surrounded!” Logan roars and the doors slam shut.
Gunfire immediately erupts. To my untrained ears it sounds as if hundreds of shots are being fired off.
Screams pierce the air, and multiple pings ring off the body of the car.
I press my cheek hard against the floor and start to pray that no bullets pierce through the armor. I’m not a devout woman, and I’ve committed many sins over the duration of my life, but I’m not ready to die yet…
God, please, I’m not ready to die yet.
Not when I just found Simon.
The door behind me is ripped open and a pair of strong hands grab me by the waist, dragging me kicking and screaming out of the car.
I claw at the carpet, at the seat, at the door. My nails catching and bending. But I’m no match for the strength behind my attacker’s arms.
I’m twisted around and the world spins as I struggle to free myself from the tight band wrapped around my waist.
“Let me go, you stupid fuck!” I screech, half in anger, half in terror.
Throwing my head back in an act of pure desperation, pain explodes behind my eyes as the back of my skull connects with my attacker’s nose.
The man holding me curses angrily and drops me to the ground.
My knees hit the pavement first and the pain that lances up my legs is so strong I’m stunned for a moment.
Then I remember if I want to live I have to fucking move.
Pushing myself up with my hands, I jerk my head back and squint up into the harsh sunlight to see a dark figure looming over me.
A rough, unfamiliar voice yells, “I’ve got the whore!”
Then something cracks against my head and the world goes dark.
19
Simon
A small stronghold in a town an hour outside of Garden City has caused me to lose Meredith. How the fuck does a small fucking rolling army lose out to these Saudi Arabian fucking bastards?
I knew I shouldn’t have left her alone. I knew I should have left her in the house where there was a chance the house’s security could’ve slowed down the attack until some of the inner circle could get there.
Pushing the disconnect button on the phone, I want to slam it into the console until it’s broken into a million pieces. But I restrain myself. It’s not Logan’s fault that all the men are dead, including him.
All I can do now is to keep us moving.
I push the button for the CEO’s number of Twin Star Security.
Marcus comes on the phone line quickly, but doesn’t even let me speak.
“What the fuck’s going on, Simon… We’ve lost contact with all our point leads… Shit, hold on,” Marcus shouts into the phone.
“How fucking dare he put me on hold!” I scream as I slam the pistol in my other hand against the center console.
“See what’s going on first, brother,” Johnathan says in a calming voice. “We can castrate him later. We need his help right now.”
He called me brother, is that what I am now to him? A brother in arms? Does he know the ache that slams into my heart thinking of what losing Meredith would do to me?
Looking over at the bearded man, I want to slam a bullet through his neanderthal fucking skull, but he’s fucking right. “Fucking go faster. They are headed for the airstrip, I know it in my gut.”
“You got it,” he says as he pushes the gas pedal down hard to the floor.
To lose her now, it’s unthinkable. Unconscionable.