41

Joshua

Something was very wrong. I felt it in my loins, my blood boiling. I could almost smell it in the air, my fingers itching to make contact with Selena. While we’d agreed that contacting her via phone was easily traceable and wasn’t in either of our best interests, my instinct was screaming the woman I already adored was in danger.

“What is going on, boss?” Mikey huffed.

“I can’t reach Zephyr. I need to find Selena, Mike. She’s in danger. I feel it in my bones.”

“I’ll be right there, boss. Only ten miles out.”

“Head to the Fourth Street parking lot.”

“Will do. I told you I didn’t like this shit,” Mikey hissed.

“Neither do I. Just hurry. I have a bad feeling we’re running out of time.” I ended the call, immediately dialing Zephyr again. As it rang and rang like the last time, I was ready to pitch the fuckingphone. “Come on. Answer it.” When the voicemail picked up after the sixth ring just as it had done before, I stormed through the bar and out the door. As I started to pace the area in front of the restaurant, I risked calling Selena. At this point, I felt like I had no other choice.

When she didn’t answer by the third ring, I hung up. What in the fuck was going on?

I scanned the street then headed toward the parking lot, which was four blocks down from the selected restaurant, convenient to the cruise I’d wanted to take. That wasn’t going to happen. We had to get to the goddamn plane. My instinct told me whatever was going on had just been escalated. Whatever the reason, I didn’t give a shit.

As I raced down the sidewalk, pushing my way through groups of people, I constantly searched to ensure she wasn’t heading in my direction. Shit. It was becoming impossible to see a damn thing. I was full out running, knocking into more than one person.

People cursed at me but I didn’t care. A flash of something caught my attention and I stopped, craning my neck to try to figure out what I was seeing. Oh, dear God. It was her. A smile crossed my face, a sense of relief. She was hurrying toward the restaurant, constantly looking over her shoulder. Where the hell was my soldier? As soon as I started to jog in her direction again, I heard squealing tires as a vehicle spun around the corner, coming toward me. Then they pulled to a full braking stop, other cars following behind forced to swerve to keep from ramming into the back of it.

What the fuck?

When two men jumped out, heading in her direction, I yanked out my weapon. “Selena!”

She stopped short, jerking up her head, her entire body swaying. Oh, dear God. I had to get to her.

“Run!” I bellowed, racing toward her, determined to protect her at all costs.

The two men raced forward as I closed the distance. She was doing her best, kicking off her heels and running toward me at full speed. I didn’t want to cause chaos, so I kept my weapon low.

Until one of the motherfuckers took aim, and I didn’t hesitate, yanking my gun into both hands and firing off a single shot.

She screamed along with two dozen other people who were desperately trying to get out of the way. I hopped through the panicked people, fighting to get to her, ready to kill the second guy when he decided it was in his best interest not to push me.

Backing away, the dude immediately turned around, heading back to the dark sedan. I didn’t waste any time, running toward her, scooping her into my arms, ready to fire a shot if necessary.

“Oh, God. Oh, God.” Her voice was full of terror. “She’s dead. It’s crazy. And Zephyr. My God. They know about us.”

Hissing, I shielded her body, scanning the perimeter. While she wasn’t making a lot of sense, it didn’t matter. The only thing that did was getting us both the fuck out of here.

“Hold on tight, baby. You gotta trust me.” I headed away from the road, zigzagging my way through the patio of a restaurant, coming out the other side. As I constantly checked to see if we were followed, she clung to me, still gasping for breath. As weneared the parking lot, another car raced into the lot and she screamed.

“It’s okay,” I reassured her. I lifted my gun, ready to fire until I realized it was Mikey. Fuck.

“Christ. Come on, baby. We’re getting out of here.” I didn’t stop to see if the fuckers were right behind him, yanking open the back door and pushing her inside, climbing in beside her. “Get us the fuck out of here.”

“What in God’s name is going on?” Mikey demanded, immediately rolling to the exit, narrowly missing hitting bystanders who were racing to get out of harm’s way.

“He’s dead. They killed him. They killed him. I was right there. His eyes were haunted. I just… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. They killed her. What is happening?”

“Slow down. What are you talking about?”

She raked her shaking hand through her hair. “The medical examiner is a friend of mine. She had evidence on the other murders that the detectives claimed weren’t the same MO as the killer. She was helping me and someone ran her over.”

“Fuck. What about my soldier?”

As she lifted her head slowly, seeing the tears in her eyes drove me into another moment of rage. “They shot him outside my office. Whoever it was followed me down the stairs, laughing. He was fucking laughing.”

I wrapped my arm around her, noticing Mikey was staring into the rearview mirror. “It’s okay. Just try and calm down.” After taking a deep breath, I directed my attention toward Mikey. “There’s a black sedan involved with attempting to abductSelena. Make certain we’re not followed. Cross the river and get us the hell out of this fucking state.”

“Understood, boss. I’ll lose the bastards.”

“What are you doing?” she asked, jerking up her head as she wrapped her fist around my shirt.

“We don’t have any choice, baby. We’re leaving the country together.”

“We can’t do that. We just…” She looked away, closing her eyes. “This is my life. This is all I’ve known and… Oh, God. Why did it come to this?”

“Because you are insistent on doing the right thing. So am I. I’m not going to let you get shot or worse. We have a better chance surrounded by my soldiers.”

“You know they’ll hunt you down. They’ll hunt us both down.”

“Yeah? Let them try. They won’t have the manpower. As I said before, you need to trust me.”

She was shaking so badly I wasn’t certain I’d ever be able to get her warm. “I do.”

“Good girl.”

The traffic was bad, preventing Mikey from leaving the parking lot for almost two full minutes. When he finally did, I shifted in my seat, studying the cars behind us. There were too many headlights, preventing me from seeing a damn thing. At least Mikey was making some headway, the fuckers not likely to use firepower in the dense traffic.

“Okay, baby. Now, tell me what happened with someone following you.”

She nodded, wiping her face with her hands before speaking, keeping her voice as even as possible. “I stayed as late as I knew it was safe to risk, gathEricag everything I could on a jump drive then breaking into some files in Christine’s office. I found another drive taped to the inside of one of her drawers, which I managed to grab. Before I could get out of her office, someone turned out the lights and chased me out of the building. There was no doubt the fucker was right behind me. He was laughing as if this is nothing but a terrible game.”

“Damien?”