“What the fuck, Cyrus? Is someoneshootingat us?”
“Yes.” Shifting to his side, he pulled his phone from his pocket and hit the button to dial a now all-too-familiar number.
“Brennan.”
“Someone just shot into my fucking living room. Twice. Get us the hell out of here, Cole.”
A string of swear words came through the phone, followed by the roar of an engine coming to life. “I’ll meet you out back. Stay as close to the ground as you can. I’m almost there. Don’t hang up, Cy.”
Switching the phone to his opposite hand, he reached for Mina, pulling her out from under the table. “Come on, baby. We need to go.”
“Right behind you,” she said, and they began their agonizingly slow crawl to the kitchen.
“Turning down the alley behind your place,” Cole updated them, his voice small and tinny. “You almost there?”
“Just a few more feet.” The cool tile of the kitchen floor nearly made him weep with relief. He glanced behind him to check that Mina was still with him and sent up a silent prayer of thanks when he found her practically glued to his side.
“I’m here. When you get to the back door, I want you to get on your feet but stay kind of crouched. As soon as you can, just run straight for the fence. Don’t zig zag, you’ll just waste time.”
“Got it. Putting you back in my pocket.” As they reached the back door, he shoved the phone into his pants pocket and looked back at Mina. “Ready, Ace?”
“Am I ready to go running out of your house half naked while a sniper shoots at us?” She snorted out a laugh, but he could hear the fear beneath the bravado. “Sure. Let’s do it.”
Per Cole’s instructions, they pushed to their feet, but remained hunched over below the line of sight offered by the giant kitchen windows.
Grabbing Mina’s hand, he reached for the knob on the back door with his free hand. “On three?”
“Yeah. Okay.”
“One. Two.” On “Three!” he wrenched the knob sideways and yanked open the door. With Mina’s hand clasped firmly in his, they raced for the back gate, which was already hanging wide open. Cole stood beside a black SUV, a rifle in his hands as he scanned their surroundings.
Heat and pain exploded across the skin of his shoulder, but he didn’t stop. Didn’t so much as pause until they had dived into the open back seat of Cole’s vehicle. Mina slammed the door shut behind them and then Cole was in the driver’s seat and they were racing down the back alley.
“Fuck, fuck,fuck!”Throwing her arms around his neck, Mina let out a sob.
“Shh, baby. We’re safe. Daddy’s right here.”
Glancing forward, he met Cole’s gaze in the rearview mirror. The other man raised an eyebrow but didn’t comment.
“You two okay back there? Nobody got shot?”
“Ah, well.”
Before he could explain, Mina jumped back from him, holding her hands out in front of her, horror spreading across her face. “You’re bleeding! What the fuck, Cyrus? Take off your shirt, let me look.”
“It’s fine, Ace. It just grazed me, I promise.”
“Cyrus Banks, if you don’t take off your shirt right now, I swear I—”
“You’ll what?” With the adrenaline wearing off, he felt almost giddy, but he still managed to pin her with stern glare. “You should think twice before you finish that threat, little girl.”
Now it was Mina’s gaze that flicked forward, checking to see if their guest had noticed her being scolded. “Fine. Will youpleasebe so kind as to remove your shirt so I can see to your injuries,Sir.”
Because he could sense she needed to be doing something, he ignored the sarcasm and unbuttoned his shirt, carefully peeling it from his skin. As he’d expected, it was little more than a scratch that just happened to be bleeding rather profusely, but Mina fussed over him like he’d been mortally wounded. Cole directed her to the first-aid kit in the back of the vehicle, and she went to work cleaning and bandaging the wound.
Meeting Cole’s gaze in the mirror again, Cyrus shrugged. If it helped her not panic about what had just happened, he was happy to oblige.
“Where are we going?” he eventually asked as the bright lights of the city faded and the traffic lightened around them.