Love and Lead

by Coralee June

  "So, what’s it going to be?” I asked.

  A few more ticks of the clock passed. I could practically feel Santobello’s eyes on me, and it felt eerily similar to Paul Bright’s grey-eyed stare. "Say your goodbyes and head out," Gavriel finally said, coughing a bit before heading to the sink. He turned on the faucet then bent over to take a sip. I fleetingly wondered if it was safe for us to be driving such a far distance with him. Sitting for long periods really hurt him, and the climate change might mess with his skin grafts. Not to mention, we wouldn't have his staff of nurses and doctors to check on him.

  Nix squeezed me tightly for a moment, and Gavriel headed back towards the table, wiping drops of water off his chin with the back of his hand. Gav then handed Nix a small wad of cash and a burner phone. "Keep in touch. Let me know if Santobello makes any changes. Don't do anything stupid, and take care of my sister. I might not be what I used to, but I'm still a great shot," Gavriel growled, wincing a bit when Grace wrapped her arms around his chest and hugged him, dulling his scary threats. I almost told her to let go, that touching him there hurt him, but he gave me a look that made me think I should keep my mouth shut.

  "Wow, Moretti. You kind of sounded like my boss for a second there. Good thing you aren't," Nix teased before holding his hand out to shake his. Gavriel took a long moment to roll his eyes before returning the gesture. "See you soon."

  Grace let go of Gav’s waist, then tucked a stray strand of red hair behind her ear before heading towards the garage. She didn’t bother to say goodbye to us, and I kind of liked that she didn’t pretend to be familiar with me. Nix gave me a brief but meaningful kiss on the forehead before whispering, "See you soon, Sweets. Be safe."

  The moment we settled in the SUV, I looked over the various forms of identification in the briefcase as Ryker adjusted the steering wheel and pulled out of the driveway. “Where to, boss?” he asked with zero enthusiasm.

  “We’re going to Indianapolis,” I said while mentally calculating how long of a drive it would be and how much gas we had. We’d have to sleep in the car or find ways to get more cash along the way. Hope the guys were okay with cheap gas station food.

  “Why?” Blaise asked.

  “Because Indianapolis is a busy place, we’ll blend in. Rural areas are okay, but new faces bring new questions. At least in Indy, no one will give us a second glance. And it’s only a fifteen-hour drive so we won’t spend all our funds on gas.”

  “It makes sense,” Callum said, “but cities have traffic cams, and that’s how I found you, remember?”

  “We’ll be careful,” I assured him. I doubted that Nix would have the time or resources to do facial recognition sweeps for me, but there were other ways around that.

  I pulled the burner phone out and inspected it, noticing that it had GPS and was still trackable. We were slowly coasting down a winding mountain road as I threw it out the window.

  “Hey, that was our only burner phone. How are we going to get in touch with Grace?” Gavriel asked.

  “I can promise you that Nix has already gotten rid of the one you’ve given him, too. It’s traceable. We’re going to get out of Vermont then switch cars. I hope you’re still proficient at hotwiring, Blaise. I can do it in a pinch, but you look hot when you get all rebellious,” I teased.

  “You know I love making you hot,” he joked while rubbing his hands together.

  I looked at Ryker, who kept glancing at me from the corner of his eye. “This is my expertise,” I assured them. “We need to disappear for a bit before we can go visit Mr. Moretti Sr., and disappearing is what I do.”

  The car went silent for a moment, and I knew they were all thinking about just how good I was at going off the radar. Despite knowing that this was stirring up unresolved issues between the five of us, I felt giddy as adrenaline coursed through me and traveled up my spine. I loved a good, complex problem. I loved finding out where to go. I enjoyed looking for my next hiding spot. It was an exhausting life, a lonely life, but it was exhilarating and fun.

  “Well, guess we’re going to Indianapolis,” Gavriel said before leaning his forehead against the window. I twisted in my seat to look at him, momentarily wondering how I could make him feel in charge again, but also loving this switch in dynamic. Maybe it was time for all of us to step up in the areas we were most reliable in.

  In the far backseat, Callum was staring at Gavriel with unease. I couldn’t help but wonder if this road trip was what we needed. There was nothing that bonded people more than forcing them to be in a confined place together for fifteen hours.

  Chapter Twelve

  Riding in the SUV with the guys brought out a sense of nostalgia within me. I was reminded of all the times I sat in the front seat of Blaise’s Mustang, driving around town and laughing in the face of my curfew. We’d always pushed it a little too close, barely making it up the drive to my front porch just seconds before my curfew.

  Most the time, we did nothing but holding hands and dancing along the lines of our feelings for one another. Sometimes, we would go get ice cream or catch a movie. But the semantics never mattered, as long as I was with them.

  Looking back, it seemed silly now how hard we pushed against a relationship. Things that seemed so big then felt far away. How much better would it have been just to give in?

  “Remember that night your car broke down two hours away from my house? Curfew was in three hours, and you were the only one with a car,” I mused to Blaise who had taken over the driving when we stopped for gas an hour ago. He drove much faster through the snowy twists and curves of the mountain than Ryker. He was confident behind the wheel, always had been.

  “Oh gosh, yes. It was torture. You were wearing these tiny little denim shorts, and I had just gotten the old ’Stang. I had no idea how to fix it and stupidly drove it into the middle of nowhere,” Blaise said, a large smile on his face. “Then you got scared,” he added. I distinctly remembered the branch of a tree scraping against the passenger window. I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling embarrassed. “I made you crawl in the backseat with me and hold me until Ryker could show up with the Jamesons’ SUV.”

  “I didn’t even have a license yet,” Ryker interjected with the hint of a playful grin on his beautiful face.

  “And I had an unbearable hard on the entire ride home. It was rare that you wore clothes that actually showed off your assets. I was thinking about those tiny shorts for weeks. Imagining you shimmying out of them...”

  Gavriel cursed, and Callum grumbled from the backseat. “Why didn’t you call me?” Gavriel asked. He would ask that, wouldn’t he? Leave it to Gavriel to take a funny story and want to know why I didn’t want him coming to my rescue.

  “We would have called you,” I said to Gav with a smirk, “but you had a rule about me being on your motorcycle.”

  I was twisted in my seat to stare at him, the afternoon sun casting a warm glow on his tan skin and highlighting the scar on his face. I guess things definitely weren’t the same, but there were happy moments, like this, where I could see hints of the boy he once was, of the friend I was irrevocably in love with.

  “Last I remember, you rather enjoyed the one time I let you on my bike,” he purred in a low voice I felt in my gut.

  I blushed like the girl I once was, earning one of his rare smiles. “That bike gave me my first orgasm,” I joked, feeling brave for admitting that out loud. Then the car nearly went off the road as all my men started talking at once.

  “I thought we all agreed not to do anything!” Blaise yelled.

  “You all agreed, I never agreed to anything,” Callum interrupted, and I looked back at him, blue eyes burning hot as he looked me up and down.

  “And yet you never made a move, why is that?” Blaise asked sarcastically. I looked back at Callum just in time to see him flush.

  How could we explain that the things holding us back seemed significant at the time? That was back when I thought that age and distance mattered. I thought leaving for college
would have severed his feelings for me. I thought that age was too much of a problem. I thought his loyalty to the force and my father would be too much.

  And yet, Callum never gave up on me. Not after five years of separation. Not after meeting the Bullets. Not after learning that my father killed his parents. Everything else was so fucking trivial.

  “Everyone was breaking the rules but me,” Blaise said with a frown, pulling me out of my thoughts of Callum and all the wasted moments between us.

  “I never understood the rules. Sucks knowing we had so much wasted...time,” I finally said. Outside, the wind was starting to pick up, bare branches were dancing from the invisible force of it, and loose powdered snow that hadn’t stuck to the icy ground was blowing around too.

  “I’m not necessarily mad about how things turned out,” Ryker interrupted before leaning over my seat to kiss my bare shoulder. The oversized sweater I had changed into after stopping at a convenience store had fallen down, revealing my pale skin and the tattoo I had there.

  “Of course you aren’t, you took her fucking virginity,” Callum mumbled under his breath like it was something he never got to be properly angry about.

  Ryker leaned back in his seat with a satisfied smile, likely revisiting the memory of our first time. Damn, it really was terrific. I wouldn’t change a single thing about it.

  “That’s not what I meant.” Ryker looked around at us before responding. “We couldn’t have handled this...arrangement any other way,” Ryker began. “We could have tried as stupid kids, but it wouldn’t have worked. It still might not work now. But losing Sunshine was the worst thing to ever happen to me, so I know for damn sure I’ll do anything in my power to make sure I never feel that...loss...again.”

  Aside from the low music playing on the radio and the sounds of the chains wrapped around our tires rumbling against the pavement, there was no noise. We were all silent, contemplating the truth of Ryker’s statement. He was right, we couldn't have possibly handled this as teens and would have inevitably fucked things up.

  “Do you all think we’re going to fuck this up now?” I asked. In the grand scheme of things, we hadn’t had time to feel settled, everything from our survival to the nature of our relationship was still up in the air. There was no way we would be able to figure it out until we found some sort of normalcy, whatever version of that we could put our roots into.

  “I think we’re all determined enough to try and make this work. I think that we all would prefer a really complicated dynamic to not having you at all. And I’m okay with being the one to say it,” Ryker replied.

  Blaise perked up in the driver’s seat before squeezing my hand in reassurance. “I second that,” he added. I knew it wasn’t Ryker and Blaise that would have a problem saying their intentions.

  Ryker had a lot of anger to work through, but he was upfront about his feelings and motivations, he always had been. It was Callum and Gavriel that struggled to admit what they wanted. It’s why Gavriel hid behind his control and Callum behind justice.

  “Well, she is my wife,” Gavriel finally said, a small smile hiding behind the way he was chomping down on his lip.

  “Fuck!” Blaise screamed just as something crashed into us from behind, forcing me forward against the restraints of my seatbelt. I thrust my hands out against the dash to stop my forehead from hitting against it. A stream of curses sounded throughout the car, and Blaise practically growled.

  “Rookie move, motherfucker.”

  I looked behind us and gasped when I saw a black Escalade speeding up to collide with us again. There were no other cars around, and one strong push could send us over the edge of the mountain. The roads were icy, each curve down the mountain was dangerous enough without the added pressure of being run off the road.

  “What’s happening?” I asked before they connected with our bumper once more, it was less intense this time but still forced me forward again. A shrill, short scream burst from my lips, and I held back the hysteria, knowing that the guys needed to focus.

  One. Don’t scream.

  Two. Don’t scream.

  Three. Don’t fucking lose your shit, Sunshine.

  “They’re trying to run us off the road. Too bad I can outdrive them,” Blaise said through gritted teeth before accelerating. I glanced back at Gavriel, who was bracing himself against his seat, clasping the door handle like it was a lifeline. Ryker was twisted in his seat, keeping an eye on the car behind us to relay its moves to Blaise.

  “Left,” Ryker screamed as I squeezed my knees with my hands, digging my nails into my skin just as Blaise maneuvered out of the Escalade’s reach. They missed us, but we hugged the curve of the mountain just a little too closely, knocking off the driver’s side mirror.

  In the far back row, Callum was loading bullets in his magazine, cursing every time the car jolted, knocking a stray bullet from his fingers. All the while, we barely escaped going off the road.

  “Must be one of Santobello’s men,” Blaise cursed while hugging the side of the mountain with a graceful turn. I was thankful that he was driving. I knew that if anyone could get us out of here, it would be him. “Once we’re out, we’ll need to switch cars.”

  The passenger side mirror then exploded as a bullet sliced through the air and connected with it. Shattered glass littered the road, and I nearly bit through my lip to stop the screams. One. Two. Three. Fuck.

  “They’re shooting at us, and we’re about three miles from a mountain town,” Blaise yelled before speeding up to dodge another hit from the rear. We were flying down the mountain, Blaise navigating the large SUV we were in with surprising ease. “Callum, if we don’t want any innocent casualties I suggest you start shooting, and for the love of Dolly Parton, sweetheart, duck your fucking head,” he added to me before placing a hand on the back of my neck and shoving me down.

  “Right!” Ryker screamed, and although I couldn’t see anymore, I felt the SUV jolt to the left, nearly going up on two wheels before righting itself. Then I heard the sound of the power window sliding down, and freezing wind started whipping within the interior of the car as more bullets sounded.

  “Shit, their windows are bulletproof,” Callum said. I lifted up just in time to see him slip back inside the car as a bullet whizzed by his cheek. Gavriel twisted slightly in his seat.

  “Give me the damn gun,” he ordered. Listening to his gravelly voice take command of the situation made my knees weak. I peered up from the floor of the SUV just as Gav held out his palm for the weapon. Callum flashed an intense look around the car as if wordlessly asking the others if Gav could handle it.

  It was Ryker who spoke up. “You heard the man. RIGHT!” Blaise shifted the wheel for a sharp turn, and Callum handed it over.

  “One mile from the mountain town,” Blaise urged. I sat up a little more and looked at the curve coming up, gasping when I saw the drop-off. If one of us went over, we’d surely die.

  Gavriel moaned in pain as he twisted in his seat, then he leaned out and started firing as we hugged the interior of the curve. My fingers were practically white from gripping the oh shit handle above my window. More bullets clipped by, and I watched as the Escalade trailing behind us tried to clip the rear corner of our car and fishtail us.

  Blaise accelerated to a dangerous speed as we turned, and I just knew this was it, this was how we died. Gavriel let two shots go, and the sound of screeching brakes ricocheted in my eardrums. I sat up to look back just as the Escalade behind us lost control, swerving and bumping the back of our car before spinning over the edge of the mountain. Despite the giant trees, we had a clear view of them falling. The drop off was substantial, and after what felt like three slow exhales, it nosedived into the dirt, crumpling on impact.

  Gavriel calmly removed a remaining bullet from the chamber of the pistol before releasing the magazine and tossing both parts to Callum. “Their tires weren’t bulletproof,” he said in an ominous tone before shifting forward in his seat to address Blaise. We w
ent silent for a moment, each of us calming our breaths as we tried to process what had just happened. “We need a new car—something with tinted windows that’s inconspicuous. Now,” Gavriel finally choked out.

  Blaise ran a shaky hand through his rust-colored hair, adrenaline coursing through him as he barreled through the remaining curves, arriving in a quaint mountain town with slow speed limits and a single grocery store. “One minivan, coming up.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  When we arrived at the tiny town at the bottom of the mountain, Blaise hotwired a minivan we found in the parking lot of a grocery store. Gavriel wrote down the license plate so he could send money to the owners, since it obviously belonged to a family, given the two car seats as well as enough crackers and sippy cups littering the floor to feed a third world country.

  I felt somewhat bad for stealing it, but one look at our SUV with bullet holes littering the sides eased my guilt. Then we were back on the road and ended up stopping at a motel outside of Harriman State Park in New York.

  It was a small, run-down sort of place. The only thing special about it was the woman who owned it. She took one look at our group and nearly fainted, her tiny frame barely standing five feet tall, she practically quivered at the sight of my four men and me, each of us wearing the oversized clothes we found at the safe house and looking worse for wear, Gavriel especially.

  His shoulders were slumped as I spoke with the owner, tossing her extra cash in a wordless agreement to not say anything about us being here. We didn’t use credit cards, knowing that it could be traced.

  I was surprised at how easily I slipped into a groove. Hiding was second nature to me, and I found myself instinctually going into protective mode, watching over my shoulders, counting the grooves in my knife but taking in each detail around me.

  I requested the room closest to the highway with a clear view of the parking lot, so we’d be able to see if anyone was coming for us. I told Blaise to back into the spot and leave it unlocked so we could escape quickly if necessary.