“Cora.” I shook her hard. “Look at me. I’m going to get you through this. Do you understand?”
“They’re trying to kill us.”
“I’m going to get you through this, goddamn it. Now you need to get ready to run, do you hear me?”
She nodded, eyes still wide, but they were focused on me at least.
“All right. When I say, you run as fast as you can toward the end of the block. Stay low behind the cars. Do you hear me?”
“Run. Cars. I got it.”
I grunted and looked down the line of parked cars. There were a couple gaps between our position and the end of the block, but not too many.
The rifle fire paused and I jumped up. I squeezed off two bullets as the guy in the passenger seat jumped out of the truck. I didn’t know where the second remaining guy was, but he was somewhere nearby. I fired the rest of my clip, reloaded, then grabbed Cora’s arm and started running.
Bullets riddled the cars around us but we kept going. I returned fire, shooting wildly, not trying to hit anyone but trying to keep them pinned down. If they flanked us then this would be over. Cora kept on her feet and moved as fast as she could, but she let loose wild screams of terror as the bullets flew around us.
I shoved her down behind the last car in the row and turned as the second man appeared in the street.
He raised his rifle toward me and for a moment the chaos stilled and my heart became a thudding beast in my chest.
I knew him. Fucking hell, I knew him.
He shot first. I ducked down as his rifle bucked and screamed. I cursed and Cora screamed.
A siren wailed nearby and the rifle fire stopped.
Cora crawled toward me and I put an arm around her, pulling her against my chest. She wasn’t hurt as far as I could tell, which was a minor miracle. My car sat on the sidewalk, half wrecked and riddled with bullets, smoke curling from the engine. I watched as the passenger side guy shoved the driver’s dead body from the truck and got behind the wheel.
The man in the street still stood there, his red hair shining in the sunlight.
“You got lucky,” he shouted. “But I won’t miss next time, Reid.”
I came up and took a shot. He laughed as it missed him by inches and fell back, running toward the truck. I fired again and again, narrowly missing him each time until he dove into the bed of the truck. He stared at me with a wild grin as the sirens got louder and the truck drove away.
I stood and took Cora’s hand. “Come on.”
“We can’t. The police… they’re coming.” She looked around in a panic.
I took her by the shoulders. “We have to go. Are you ready?”
She took a deep breath and shook her head. “Reid.”
“Cora. My wife. Trust me.” I pulled her against me and kissed her.
For one insane minute, the taste of her delicious lips mingled with the iron tang of the blood that dripped from my forehead. We kissed for half a second until she realized what was happening—and pulled away.
Fire flashed in her eyes. “What the hell are you doing?”
I grinned and took her hand. “There you are. Now come on, we have to run.”
She didn’t have time to argue. I yanked her along, getting away from the scene of the attack as fast as I could. The sirens got closer, but we kept moving, until the car was left behind, and it was safe to make a few calls.
6
Cora
I sat in the bathtub and watched the water turn pink from blood. I had a long, nasty cut on my arm from a piece of metal that snapped off the car from all the gunfire. My ears rang and I felt sick, like I might throw up, but I kept telling myself that if I didn’t move then I’d be okay.
Reid was downstairs on the phone. He’d been on the phone since we got home, arguing with people, shouting at them, explaining what happened over and over. I barely heard anything, barely felt anything—like the world had broken around me, and I broke with it.
I closed my eyes and thought about Alex’s face the last time I saw him. We stood outside of the deli, leaning back against the wall. Ten feet away, a group of made men were talking in loud voices, gesturing at each other, laughing loudly. I remembered Alex staring at them like he wanted so desperately to be a part of their group.
I hated him for it a little bit. Maybe that wasn’t the right word—I hated that men like that made guys like Alex jealous, that anyone would give a damn what a made man thought or wanted. Alex thought they were special, they were strong, they had money and power and girls—and that attracted him, but I knew that made men were a bunch of animals, a bunch of bastards, and I wished he believed me when I told him that they’d bring him nothing but trouble.
I was right, of course, but I never imagined how fast trouble would find him.
A knock at the door pulled me out of my daydream. I sat up straight and squeezed water from my hair—although I was still in the tub.
“What?” I said, heart racing.
“It’s me.” Reid’s voice through the door.
“What do you want?”
“We should talk.”
“Get out of my room. I’m in the bath.”
“I know that.” He cleared his throat. “Let me come in.”
My mouth fell open. “Are you kidding me? Go away. We can talk later.”
He turned the knob and came inside.
I sat up straight and wrapped my arms around my chest. Anger flared through me. That arrogant piece of shit thought he could barge in here whenever he wanted, even if I was naked and in the tub. He had no sense of personal space or boundaries, even though we’d discussed this and made a deal—he was already breaking the damn rules.
He glanced away, although I saw his original look, his eyes moving to my breasts under the water, down my skin—and liking what he saw.
“I know I shouldn’t be in here.”
“Damn right you shouldn’t, now get the hell out, you psycho.”
He turned his back and took a deep breath. “I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”
“I’m fine. Now get out.”
He didn’t move. I saw the tension in his body. Blood still covered parts of his jacket and his hands flexed like he’d broken the fingers.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
I stared at his back, body curled up to cover myself. “What was supposed to happen then?”
He grunted and shook his head. I could see the anger even from behind. “I’ve done that run a thousand times over the years, you know? I have a good relationship with those guys.”
“Who attacked us?”
He took a breath and leaned his head back. “You really want to know?”
“Of course I want to know. Someone tried to kill me today, Reid.”
He turned and leaned back against the sink. His arms crossed over his chest and blood matted his hair. I wanted to splash him, or scream at him, or hit him—or anything but sit there naked in lukewarm water, but I knew that if I moved then he’d see me naked again, and I couldn’t decide if the thought scared me, pissed me off, or excited me.
“The man’s name was Jarvis Lowry.”
“Jarvis?”