Think. Find better ground.
I round the Lexus and clamber behind a group of moss-covered rocks.
Your intention is never to hide. Not unless you’re hurt and that is the only way you’ll make it out alive.
Feet drag closer.
Face your fears, Fleur.
I breathe through the pain that’s slowly ebbing away.
Stand your ground.
I look through the small crack in the stone. There’s two of them and one of me. I’m outnumbered, but I have sixteen rounds left…
You’re a killer.
Killers don’t have fears, they have bullets.
Bullets kill.
A shot fires behind my stalkers, followed by another and another. They’re turning when I push myself up onto my knees. The Glock in my hand the lightest it has ever been.
Take. Your. Shot.
I do.
I squeeze, the recoil punching through my outstretched arms. I squeeze again and again until my limbs can’t contain the pressure from the shots anymore. They’re trembling uncontrollably. Useless jelly, but I got one of them. He’s prone on the ground, endlessly staring up at the sky.
One final shot across the space between me and the Lexus hits the last man. He falls, dropping his weapon at his side, and before he can reach for it, another shot goes straight through the side of his head.
Silence drowns me. The birds have taken flight. They’re flying from the storm. But not me. Not again. Not ever.
You are the storm, Trouble. You do not run.
Lucian buckles me in. I’m exhausted. My body aches while my insides vibrate with relief and victory. Adrenaline rushes through me in a way it never has before. My breaths burn in my lungs. With my heart beating and thrumming like it used to for Casper.
I hope I made him proud. I stood my ground. I protected our daughter.
“Are you sure you’re okay to keep going?” Ryan asks from the back seat.
The Jeep became the casualty of our ambush.
“Yes.”
“We have another three hours ahead of us. If you need to stop and rest…”
“I need to get out of here.” I wipe at my face and hands with the wipes Lucian keeps handing me. “I need to get her to safety.”
“Somewhere, your mother might just be laughing at all this.”
“Why’s that?”
Crouching beside me, he pours a bottle of water over his head. The same way Ryan did before he got in the car.
He ruffles the water off his salt-and-pepper hair. More pepper than salt.
“Because you did everything she always wanted to do.”