A ruckus of noise echoed near the edge of the trees. Lights flipped on in the house and a dog barked. Finn bolted out of the front seat, pushed her into the vehicle and hopped back in, forcing her to slide across to the passenger side.
Shouts and voices erupted from everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. Finn shoved the car into reverse, backed out of the drive and tore down the gravel road.
“Holy crap.” Lauren braced her hand against the dash. “We just committed grand theft auto.” Her gaze swung his way. “You just stole a car!”
“That’s what you’re worried about?”
“That’s a major felony! I’ve never committed a crime in my life! I don’t even talk on my cell phone when I’m driving !”
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” he mumbled, glancing in the rearview mirror, his fea
tures tense and focused in the light from the dashboard. He made a quick turn, then another, which jolted Lauren in her seat. “We didn’t steal it, Slim, we borrowed it. And in case you weren’t paying attention, it was either that or get chummy with your friends back there in the club.”
“I don’t know them! I don’t know what the hell is going on or what they want from me!” The scene in the club flashed in front of her eyes, and her stomach rolled when she remembered Javier lying motionless on the dance floor. Her hand darted to her stomach. “Oh, God.”
Finn glanced her way, made another turn. “Stay with me here.”
She was trying. God knew she was trying, but . . .
Finn shifted, pulled the fancy satellite phone that his boss made them all carry from his pants pocket and flipped it open. He pushed a button, shoved the phone to his ear and muttered, “Come on, Hedley. Pick up.”
Dark houses, trees, shapes and lights Lauren could barely focus on whizzed by her window. Javier. They’d killed Javier. Right there in the club. He hadn’t done a single thing to them. All he’d done was shout—
“Mick,” Finn said in a frantic voice from across the car. “We had an incident. No, wait. What?”
The alarm in Finn’s voice brought Lauren’s atention around. She gripped the door with one hand, the dashboard with the other, trying like hell to keep the contents of her stomach from lurching up her throat.
“Fuck,” Finn muttered after listening for a second. “No, shit, we can’t. How the hell—”
Lauren didn’t like the sound of this. The hair on her neck stood up.
“Mick, no, listen—”
A loud pop echoed from Finn’s phone. He yanked it away from his ear, stared at the cell in his hand and pressed it back to his ear with more urgency. “Hedley? Hedley!” Another series of popping sounds echoed across the line before it went silent.
“Fuck,” Finn yelled, slamming the phone against the steering wheel. “Fuck!”
Lauren’s anxiety went through the roof. “What happened?”
His jaw clenched with controlled fury. He glanced in the rearview again and made a sharp turn. “We gotta get off this damn road.”
He wasn’t answering her. That was an even worse sign. Fear mixed with the anxiety to send heat prickling her skin. “Tierney, what the hell happened?”
“I don’t know. Hedley told me not to come back to the hotel. Said the cops were there, looking for you.”
“For me?” Lauren’s brows drew together. “Why?”
“I don’t know. Before I could ask him . . .”
“Before you could ask him, what?”
Finn’s jaw clenched like he didn’t want to answer. “Someone fired.”
Lauren’s heart lurched into her throat. The popping sound had been gunfire. “Oh, God.” She sat back in her seat, breathing slowly as she tried to make sense of everything in her head. Javier was dead. Mick was probably dead as well. Her staff . . . Oh, God, Moira. Her stomach churned again. All those people in the club . . .
Dear God, what the hell is going on?
“I don’t know,” Finn said, taking twists and turns in a road Lauren barely saw. She didn’t even realize she’d voiced her question out loud until he added, “But I’m going to find out.”