Ignite (Unbreakable Bonds 7)

Braced against a pillar, Noah stopped long enough to fire a couple of rounds into the SUV’s front passenger tire before racing after Rowe and JB to the Jeep. He could hear the other men shouting to hurry, and Noah could only hope that they were looking to make a quick escape from the law as well. The men had attacked, relying on the element of surprise to take down Rowe, JB, and himself, but three former Rangers weren’t that easy to kill. At least, not with a sloppy frontal assault.

The truck engine roared to life as Noah jumped into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut behind him.

“Slow ass,” Rowe muttered as he shoved the car into drive.

From the back seat, JB chuckled between pants. Noah glanced over at his friend and except for a few scrapes and cuts on his face, he looked fine. He’d even managed to grab his own bugout bag in the chaos. There wasn’t any blood on Rowe either, so the man appeared to be fine as well.

“Get us the fuck out of here,” Noah said, flopping back against his seat.

His heart was hammering so hard in his chest, he was sure it was going to give out at any second. It had been a while since he’d been in an insane situation like that. There was a little voice screaming in his head for him to reach over to Rowe and run his hands along his man, checking to make sure that he was truly safe and well. Touching him was the only way he was going to be positive Rowe was unharmed.

“Is that your phone?” JB asked.

Noah looked around at him, brow furrowed. He wanted to ask what he was talking about when the muffled theme song to the 1970s TV show, Wonder Woman finally reached his ears.

“Gidget!” he shouted before scrambling to pull his phone from his pocket. He’d assigned that ring tone to her cell phone number.

“Thank God,” Rowe sighed as he raced out into the quiet street and away from the police sirens. “Maybe she can finally give us some useful info.”

“Gidget! Tell me something good!” Noah said into the phone.

“What’s going on, Noah?” growled a cold, hard voice that had Noah wincing.

“Lucas! Heeeyyyy…” Noah drawled out. “What are you doing on Gidget’s phone?”

“I told you! I fucking told you! He’s like Candyman!” Rowe shouted beside him, pointing with his right hand at Noah’s phone. “He can sense when you say his name. Now he’s going to claw your face off with his hook and eat your soul!”

Noah smacked his hand away. “Shut up, you lunatic!”

“Guys, we’ve got a tail,” JB announced the moment Rowe grew quiet again.

Noah swung around to look out the rear window, his mouth hanging open. “Are you shitting me?” It took only a second to spot the car that hurried away from the side of the road and was quickly closing the distance between them. It looked to be the same dark sedan that had followed them earlier in the day.

“Noah!” Lucas snapped. “Where are you? What’s going on?”

“A friend from the Army passed away. Me, Rowe, and another Army friend popped out to Alexandria to pay our respects.” Which was totally not a lie.

“I stopped by the office with Andrei after our date so he could pick up a contract. We ran into Gidget, who told us you two were in Virginia stirring up trouble with another security company.”

“We did not start this. They started shoot—no! Stay on the side streets! The side streets!” Noah directed when it looked like Rowe was about to get on the highway. “It’ll be easier to lose them on the side streets.”

“I’m calling my pilot. Andrei and I can be there in three hours,” Lucas announced.

“No! We’re fine. It was just a little shooting. Daciana—”

“Andrei’s parents are in town still. They can keep her.”

This time Noah growled at Lucas. “We’re fine. We’ve got this under control, bossy asshole!”

Rowe cackled, slapping his hand on the steering wheel, while it sounded like JB snorted behind him. Noah was accustomed to watching Lucas get high-handed with Snow and Ian, but he’d never had it directed at him. No wonder Rowe wanted to strangle the man most of the time.

Taking a deep breath, he said more calmly, “We’re still doing some digging, trying to get to the bottom of why two Army friends were murdered and why JB and I might be next on that list.” He grabbed the handle on the door as Rowe took a hard left into traffic, causing the tires to squeal while other cars blasted their horns. “We’ll call if we get in over our heads.”

Lucas was silent for several seconds, and Noah checked to make sure the line hadn’t gone dead.

“Call before it gets to that point,” Lucas grumbled.