She’d spent the day curled up in bed, begging for someone to bring her a doctor. No one listened, not even the father of the child she carried.
If she hadn’t already known Lorenzo was a monster, today would have proven that beyond a doubt. Then again, after the things she’d done, she deserved whatever she got.
Countless doors and alcoves slid by her peripheral vision. Sophie kept her eyes on the ground so she wouldn’t trip over anything, and a tight grip on the thick strap on Riley’s back. He pulled her along easily, as if he didn’t notice the added weight of her sluggish body.
Sophie had so many questions she wanted to ask him, but she clamped her lips shut, staying quiet as he’d asked.
He stopped suddenly and she ran into his broad back. He reached his left hand back to steady her, his grip warm and firm on her arm. Once she was solidly on her own feet, he put a finger to his lips for silence and pressed her back against the wall.
He leaned close and whispered, “Stay here.” Then he left her there, shaking in the hall as he slipped around the corner.
Sophie stood completely still except for the uncontrollable tremors vibrating through her limbs. Her breathing was too fast and she was scared to death.
What if he didn’t come back? What if Lorenzo found her trying to escape? What would he do to her and the baby?
She refused to think about that. It wasn’t going to happen. Riley was coming back for her any second. All she had to do was stay here like he’d asked so he’d know where to find her.
The seconds dragged by. The sound of sirens and shouting were quieter here in this part of the house—quiet enough she could hear the frantic pounding of her heart in her ears.
What was he doing? What was taking so long? Surely if things had gone well he’d be back by now, wouldn’t he?
Sophie had nearly convinced herself to go after him when he came back around the corner. A few drops of blood were splattered across his forehead, a few more on the hilt of a wicked-looking knife strapped to his thigh.
She didn’t dare ask what he’d done. She didn’t want to know.
Riley held out his hand, crooking his fingers for her to come to him. It took her a minute to get her feet moving again, but she made it across the few feet separating them.
“You okay?” he asked. “You’re pale.”
She wasn’t sure she was ever going to be okay again, but she gave him a shaky nod. “Let’s just get out of here.”
He turned his back, waiting for her to curl her fingers around the strap again, before moving forward. She wobbled around behind him like a balloon on a string as he moved down a long hall.
A flash of movement ahead caught her eye. Before she could figure out what it was, Riley moved and a deafening hail of gunfire blasted out from his body. Instincts forced Sophie to cover her ears and fall to a crouch.
More explosions shook the walls, reverberating in her bones as hot metal bullet casings tinkled to the floor at her feet.
The world went quiet except for the ringing in her ears. The smell of gunpowder assaulted her nose, choking the air from her lungs.
She felt hot, hard hands moving over her body as if looking for something, but she didn’t dare open her eyes.
Riley’s harsh voice cut through the tinny buzz in her ears. “Are you hit?”
Sophie didn’t understand the question at first. How could anyone have hit her when he was the only one close enough to do it? And why would he hit her if he was going to all the trouble to save her?
She looked at his face. Beneath the smeared black and green paint his forehead was wrinkled with concern, but he wasn’t looking in her eyes, he was scanning her body.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, his tone more demanding.
Sophie shook her head.
His wide shoulders sagged a bit before he wrapped his hands around her forearms and pulled her to her feet. “We have to move. I need you to stay strong for me, okay?”
Words were beyond her. She didn’t have enough room around all the fear in her chest to speak, so instead, she grabbed her strap to let him know she was with him.
He gave her a brief, fierce smile. “That’s my girl.”
Sloane saw about ten armed men pouring out of the villa. If she, Lucas, and Gina kept running, they’d be torn to shreds before they reached the jungle.
A large cement fountain was a few yards to their north and she shouted at Lucas, “Fountain!”
He still had a grip on Gina’s arm, so when he went, so did she.
They piled behind the barrier just as the shooters opened up.
“We’re not going to make it to the trees,” she panted.
“We need another exit strategy,” said Lucas.
Sloane peeked over the low ledge. Those men were getting closer. Their shots were going to be way too accurate any second. “We can’t wait.”
“I see two Jeeps,” said Bella. “Take one.”
Victor’s voice came over the headset. “The gate is closed. I’ll secure your exit.”
Lucas pointed at a gap in some bushes. “There. I’ll hot-wire it.”
“I’ll cover you,” said Bella.
“Me, too,” said Justin.
“Ready?” Lucas asked Sloane.
She glanced at Gina, who was wide-eyed, but holding it together. “On three, Gina.”
“Right,” said Gina. “I can do this.”
“All you have to do is run. As fast and hard as you can, okay?”
Gina nodded and pushed herself onto the balls of her feet, crouching behind the fountain.
Sloane snapped a fresh magazine into her weapon. “One. Two. Three!”
The first heavy boom of a sniper rifle split the air. Then another. Sloane pulled Gina to her feet and they all three sprinted for the Jeep.
A second later, Gina jerked away from Sloane’s grip, falling hard.
Sloane skidded to a halt and looked behind her. A hole had been ripped through Gina’s sleeve, just above her elbow. Blood soaked the fabric, spreading fast.
Gina lay still, unmoving.
Sloane stopped breathing and stared down at her friend, too shocked to do anything. “Gina?” Her voice was quiet, but Lucas must have heard it over the headset.
In an instant, he was back at her side. He gave her a little shake. “I’ve got her. Run!”
Lucas picked up Gina’s limp body and settled her over his shoulder.
“Run, Sloane!” came Bella’s sharp order, loud in her ear.
Finally, Sloane snapped out of it and fired a continuous burst into the growing crowd of guards flowing out of the villa. She was not going to let Gina take another bullet.
Lucas made it to the Jeep and dumped Gina in back. Sloane hopped in, keeping up a steady stream of covering fire to augment that coming from Bella and the others.
Lucas ducked under the wheel—hopefully hot-wiring it with some really speedy skill.
She picked off another three of the guards by the time the Jeep rumbled to life and they lurched into a fast start.
“Hold on,” said Lucas. “This is going to be a rough ride.”
Sloane turned backward in the seat, firing shots over the back to slow down Soma’s men. Chances of her hitting anything were next to zero, but if she bought them a couple of extra seconds, that could make all the difference.
A bullet pinged off the back of the Jeep. Ahead loomed an iron gate. It was closed.
“Can we plow through?” she asked, reaching into the back to fasten a seat belt around Gina’s body.
She couldn’t think about what was wrong with her friend right now. That would have to wait until they’d stopped taking fire.
“Victor, how’s the gate coming?” asked Lucas.
“Ten seconds.”
“That’s cutting it close,” said Lucas. “Buckle up.”
Right. She helped Lucas snap his buckle closed, then did her own.
The gate was ten feet of metal topped with razor wire. Strong. Solid.
; “Now would be good, Victor.”
A flash of light lit the sky and surrounding landscape. A hot boom followed and bits of metal shrieked and banged as they blasted out into the night.
Sloane ducked and covered her head with her arms.
Very little of the metal flew their way. Victor must have rigged it to explode in his direction.
Lucas accelerated. The Jeep slammed into the broken remains of the gate. The windshield was ripped off until it hung, dragging the ground on Lucas’s side.
But they were through.
Behind them was a line of vehicles headed right for them, each one full of armed men.
Sloane pulled one of the grenades from her belt and tossed it at the oncoming vehicles.
“Go faster,” she told Lucas. “I’ll stop them.”
“I’m going as fast as I can on two shredded tires.”
The engine growled as he tried to accelerate.
She had only two grenades left, but that would have to be enough. The one she’d thrown exploded in the distance. They were too far away for her to see if it worked, and they’d rounded a corner, cutting off her line of sight with the bad guys.
“You’re handy to have in a fight. Anyone ever told you that before?” asked Lucas.
“Once or twice.” She tossed another grenade for good measure, saving the last one just in case things got ugly.
Another boom sounded in the distance.
“Any sign of company?” he asked.
“No. Can’t see past the turn.”
Sloane glanced down at Gina. She hadn’t moved. The bloodstain on her shirt had blossomed until it was now as large as her head. She couldn’t see if Gina was breathing. The ride was too rough.
Fear gripped Sloane hard, squeezing the breath from her lungs. A cold chill shuddered through her that had nothing to do with her fever.
Please, God. Don’t let her die.
Sloane consciously shoved her thoughts of worst-case scenarios out of her mind and looked for other options to get all of them the hell out of here in one piece.
There was a metal toolbox on the floorboards behind Lucas’s seat. She hefted it into her lap, opened it, but all that was there was standard handyman gear.
“Fling it out the back,” said Lucas. “Makeshift caltrops.”
Good idea.
Sloane pitched the metal tools onto the road, including a handful of nails she found in the base of the toolbox. Once it was empty, she tossed the box, too.
Lucas was tense as he drove. The muscles in his forearms bulged and his knuckles were white. Blood seeped from a cut on his elbow, dripping onto his lap. His gaze flipped between the road ahead and the road behind. “I don’t see anything.”
“How close are we to the Rover?”
“We’ll see it any second.”
“Stop here. Torch the Jeep. Turn it into a roadblock.”
“I like the way you think.” He came to a skidding halt and hopped out.
Sloane reached back and took Gina’s hand in hers. She was warm and limp.
“We need to stop her bleeding.”
“It’s not bad. She’s going to make it,” said Lucas, sparing her a quick glance as he unfastened Gina’s seat belt and picked her up.
“I hope you’re right. If she doesn’t ...”
“Don’t think like that. It won’t do either of you any good. Stay focused. We’re not out of this yet. She needs you to be sharp.”
He was right. She needed to stay positive. Will Gina to live.
“You go ahead,” she told him. “I’ll take care of the Jeep.”
Lucas moved away with Gina over his shoulder. He was limping, but he didn’t let it slow him down.
Sloane waited for Lucas to reach a safe distance. She could hear engines getting closer, but she couldn’t risk either of them getting hurt. She waited until she saw the beam of oncoming headlights before she pitched the grenade into the Jeep—right next to the spare tank of gas—and ran.
Chapter 20
Riley was doing his best to rid himself of the sickly panic that gripped him. For a second there, he thought Sophie had been hit. She’d fallen to the ground so fast he was sure a bullet had ripped through her slender body.
He’d never been so thankful for a plain white nightgown on a woman as he was tonight. The fact that he’d seen no spots of blood on her clothes had been the only thing that kept him from losing it.
If a woman had been killed on his watch, he knew he’d never forgive himself.
As they neared the stairwell, Riley slowed. He did not want a repeat of that last ambush. One of those bullets had come so close to his head he was sure it had left a shiny patch on his ear.
As he slowed, Sophie pressed closer to his back. He could feel the hem of her nightgown dragging against the fabric of his pants.
He needed to check the stairwell without her and make sure it was clear, but he hated leaving her alone, even for a second. He pulled her fingers from his vest. They were cold and she’d been holding on so tight, her fingers resisted straightening in his palm.
He pushed her into the shallow recess of a closed doorway. “Stay here.”
The security lights through the window caught a shiny ribbon of tears flowing down her cheek. Her chin wobbled and her mouth was pulled tight, but she did as he asked.
Riley hated it that he had to put her through this, but it was the only way to save her. Rather than dwell on what he couldn’t change, he went to do his job.
Lucas wasn’t sure how much longer his knee was going to hold up to this kind of abuse. Gina didn’t weigh much, but he felt every pound of the added weight grinding in the joint, sending pain streaking up his leg.
“Where are you, Victor? We need to get out of here. Now.”
Headlights bobbed in the distance. “I see you,” said Victor. “I’m almost there.”
Lucas moved off to the side of the road just as Sloane caught up with him. A second later, Victor slid to a halt and they piled in the back of the vehicle. Gina flopped onto Sloane’s lap, leaving a smear of blood on her sleeve.
“Where is the med kit?” asked Lucas.
Victor tossed it into the backseat, then turned the Land Rover around in a nauseatingly fast three-point turn. “Nice roadblock.”
“It won’t hold them long,” said Sloane, her voice tight with worry. “Let’s get the others and get the hell out of here.”
Through the headset, Lucas heard Bella’s calm voice. “Justin and I are almost to the pickup point.”
Riley came on a second later. “We’re still in the villa. We’re not going to make it out in time. You go on. We’ll cut through the jungle and meet at the secondary location.” The bunker, where they’d left the second vehicle.
Lucas swallowed a curse. The plan was falling apart fast. Sure, they had contingencies in place, but needing them was not a good thing. “Do you need any more support to get out?” he asked Riley.
“I’ll cover Riley,” said Gage.
“Thanks, man.”
Lucas glanced at Gina. Sloane had torn her shirtsleeve off to inspect the wound. It was bleeding, but not badly. “How’s her head?”
“Head?” asked Sloane as she ripped open a pack of gauze with her teeth.
“She hit it when she fell.” Lucas slid his fingers through her hair, gently searching for a lump. Instead, he found a sticky, wet spot. He pulled his fingers away and they were red. Blood.
Sloane closed her eyes for a second. When she opened them again, they were filled with determination. “She’s still breathing. We’ll get her out of this mess. Get her medical help.”
“Of course we will,” he told her, hoping it would help to hear the words from someone else.
“Sloane, honey, I’m almost there,” panted Bella.
Victor slowed the vehicle at the pickup point. Lucas lifted Gina onto his lap and scooted over to make room. It was going to be a tight squeeze getting everyone in, considering the back was still full of gear.
&nbs
p; He pushed the door open and Bella jumped in. Justin rode shotgun, and as soon as the doors slammed shut, Victor took off, the wheels spewing dirt behind them.
Victor glanced in the rearview mirror. “We’ve got company.”
With Gina on his lap, Lucas had a hard time seeing behind them. “How many?”
“Two vehicles closing in fast,” said Bella. “Anyone have a grenade handy?”
Lucas shifted Gina, lifting her limp arm to reveal the two grenades he had left. “Here.”
Bella rolled down the window, grabbed both, pulled the pins, held them for a few nerve-racking seconds, and then lobbed them out the window.
The explosions were so close together they felt like one. Light and noise blasted the back end of their vehicle, giving them a good shake. Victor kept them on the road, but the muscles in his arms were straining to do the job.
“Well, hell,” muttered Bella. “Only got one of them.”
She put her weapon out through the window to fire, and then a hail of bullets slammed into them from behind.
Sloane was working hard not to throw up with all the fear running through her system. As hard as she tried to stay detached, it just wasn’t working. This was Gina, the one person who had stood by her through every disappointment her childhood had offered.
Not only was Gina wounded; she was also unconscious with a bloody head wound. And now they were being shot at. The armor plating would hold, but if the tires were blown out, there’d be no way to outrun Soma’s men.
“Constance is in the back,” she told Lucas. Sloane needed her hands free to keep pressure on Gina’s wounds. The way they were bouncing around the rutted road, she worried the bleeding could get worse.
If Gina bled out before they could get her help ...
Lucas’s warm hand settled on her knee. “We’re going to get her out of this mess.”
Sloane nodded, swallowing back tears she refused to let fall.
“I’m going to need the window,” he said.
They shifted so Sloane was in the middle crammed next to Gina. Lucas reached into the storage area and pulled out the grenade launcher and several rockets. He loaded the ammunition, then rolled down the side window.
Living on the Edge Page 23
