I know something is wrong.
“What’s happened?” I ask, my voice dry and brittle.
I’ve never seen this mountain of a man so shaken.
“St. Anne’s. Now.” Shouting behind him at the driver, he grabs his gun from inside his dinner jacket and while his fury is still evident, he softens as he helps Rosalind from her seat to the floor of the car. When she’s tucked between the seats, he strokes her hair. “Don’t move, all right?”
“What the fuck is going on, Wayne?” Leo demands.
“Get on the floor,” he replies, handing his weapon to Leo before pulling another from under one of the seats. “You don’t get up no matter what. Do you understand?”
We’ve been through this a thousand times, what to do if we’re attacked, but still, my mind blanks. I can’t breathe as memories of a gun pressed to my head surface. The feeling of being so close to death chokes me.
“You’re okay, Cass. They’ll have to get through me to get to you, beautiful.”
My dress is one big tulle meringue as Leo helps me onto the floor and God, how I wish I had chosen the sleeker number Fleur had suggested.
The bodice is too tight. The skirt too big and impractical. The choker around my neck feels like another vice constricting me.
“What’s going on?” I ask, my lungs setting like concrete in my chest.
“There’s been an attack.” Wayne focuses on the rear window, his weapon at the ready.
He’s in the zone. I don’t know what zone it is, but it’s the one that makes him look mean and at least a hundred times bigger.
The car jostles at the same time as four loud cracks sound in the distance. Wayne dives over Rosalind at the same time as the car comes to a jarring stop.
It’s so quiet. So dark.
My blood is rushing in my ears with Leo’s rapid breaths. I can’t see anything, absolutely nothing.
“STAY DOWN!” Wayne starts to get up, but all of a sudden, the car fills with blinding light and he topples.
Tumbling and rolling like suddenly gravity has gone and everything is spinning. Except it isn’t. There’s so much grating noise. Leo’s shouting and I can’t make sense of any of it. I have no idea what he’s saying because everything except the loud crashing and my whooshing blood is muted.
His arms wrap tightly around me as one side of the car folds on itself. Glass shatters in on us. Metal crunches and shots go off in every possible direction.
I can’t breathe.
There’s only darkness. Pitch black lit up by sparks. So many sparks that I begin to warm from my head to my toes and all I can do is close my eyes.
It’s so quiet.
So warm.
Chapter 35
Leo
My ears are ringing; I can’t tell if we’ve finally stopped or whether it’s my wishful thinking. The only thing I’m sure of is that we’re in trouble.
Trapped in the mangled limo with gunfire spattering the bulletproof metal and glass that hasn’t already been wrecked.
I have no idea how muc
h longer this scrap is going to hold. Cassie is huddled beneath me, trembling. I can only see Wayne’s bloodied hand stretched beside us. His Glock loosely clutched in it.
It’s obvious from his grip that he’s out. He’s too still when he would normally be jumping into action.