Sweet Obsession (Ruthless Games 1)

“That’s good. If we—”

A loud crack cuts him off, and the windshield fractures in a spiderweb pattern.

“Shit!”

Ryland jerks the wheel, but more bullets hit the windshield.

Crack crack crack!

The glass doesn’t break, but it’s so damaged that it’s nothing but a network of white cracks, nearly impossible to see through. He jerks the wheel again, and the car veers the other direction.

Then my whole body jolts forward as someone rams us from behind.

Chapter 24

“Motherfucker!”

Ryland speeds up, and the car fishtails wildly as he careens down the road. I turn to look behind us a split second before we’re rammed again. My body jerks from the force of it, and before I can even recover, another car slams into us from the side, its passenger door scraping against ours.

“Shit. It’s Carson and fucking Dominic!” Theo shoves me down onto the seat as he speaks, drawing his gun with his other hand. “Ry! Get us the fuck out of here!”

“Working on it!”

Ryland punches the gas, and the car lurches forward as the engine roars. I’m bent nearly double, my head between my knees and Theo’s heavy hand on the back of my neck, but when I crane my neck to peer up toward the front, I see Ryland hunched over the wheel, peering through the small sections of undamaged glass in the windshield.

Air rushes into the car as the front window is rolled down, and Marcus fires out the window before letting out an angry curse.

We’re speeding down the road so fast that even though I can’t see the scenery whizzing by, I can feel it.

Then more gunshots pepper the car—from the back this time, not the front. I hear a loud noise as the back window cracks, and then suddenly, the car tilts to one side, as if the ground has suddenly dropped out from under us.

Ryland grunts, gripping the wheel, but the vehicle spins out, tires and metal screeching as it rotates wildly.

The tires. They shot out the tires.

It’s the last clear thought I have before the passenger side slams into something hard, whipping me across the seat like a rag doll.

The sudden stillness is jarring in the aftermath of the crash.

My ears are ringing and my body feels bruised all over. I don’t want to move, don’t want to think, but Theo’s hands are on me, hauling me up and unclipping my seatbelt. He and the other men are yelling, and my body switches into some kind of autopilot mode as shock narrows my focus.

The door. We have to get out of the car.

Theo is pushing me toward the door on the driver’s side, and I reach for it, yanking the handle and shoving it open. As soon as I’m out of the car, I crouch low, taking cover behind the ruined vehicle.

Ryland and Marcus spill out of the front, leaving the driver’s door open as extra cover and pressing their backs to the side of the car, crouched down just like we are. Marcus has a bruise near his temple, and Ryland has a split lip, but neither of them look like they’ve been hurt worse than that.

“It’s Dom and Carson,” Marcus mutters, pulling his gun from the waistband of his pants and craning his head a little to peer through the windows of Ryland’s car. “I don’t know how the fuck they found us.”

“We need to split up.” Ryland’s voice is hard, and his gaze flicks to me. “I’ll try to draw their fire. Get her out of here.”

Something in his expression makes my heart clench as remembered words rush through my head.

None of us expect to live long.

“I’ll go with you. You’re not fucking going alone.” Theo nods at Ryland.

All four of us duck when a bullet pings off the car, and adrenaline floods my veins. I think we managed to put some distance between us and our pursuers when Ryland floored it, basically driving blind. But they’ve caught up to us now. They’re here.