Chapter 18

Samson

We were outnumbered and outgunned, they knew we'd escaped and were somewhere in the forest, and Ari was injured. The situation was looking incredibly grim.

The situation was looking like it had moments before everything had gone to hell with Josiah's failed rescue. And this time I was completely on my own.

Every odd was stacked against us. The one thing Ari and I had going for us was the fact that I sure as hell wasn't going to live a single moment of the rest of my life, whether that lasted another fifteen minutes or over fifty years, without Ari. I didn't care what it took, we were going to die together or we were going to live together forever.

And one of those wasn't an option.

"Don't move!" the suited alpha shouted, pointing his gun at Ari.

Like hell I was going to listen to that shit.

I charged forward, throwing myself between the guard and Ari and lowering my shoulder so I could plow straight into him.

The bastard's gun went off, but the bullet didn't hit me. I didn't feel a sudden jolt of pain or fear from Ari, so I assumed it didn't hit him either.

Good for us, really bad for the suit.

I had guns, but I didn't want to add to the noise that had probably already given away our position by firing one. We'd just seen what happened when one of the goons fired without thinking. All the other goons had zoomed to the spot like iron filings to a magnet. I couldn't assume that wouldn't happen a second time, right now.

That left me struggling with the suit, who was a lot more muscular and agile than he looked at first glance.

The first thing I did was to smash the butt of the pistol I carried over his hand, hopefully breaking so fingers, so he'd let go of his gun. That worked. But the next thing I had to do was much harder.

"Give up," I growled at him, kneeling on his gut and throwing a punch down into his face.

Unlike the goon earlier, my blow didn't knock the suit out, it just pissed him off.

"You're dead meat," he hissed at me, fighting to get out from under me.

I could tell he was going to succeed. He was strong and trained. More than that, I could feel body armor under my knees as I tried to hold him down. Strong, trained, and well-equipped. There was only one way to deal with that, even though it turned my stomach to think of it.

I grimaced, hoping Ari would forgive me someday, and pressed my pistol to the base of the suit's skull before pulling the trigger. Immediately, the suit stopped struggling.

"Did you just kill him?" Ari gasped, flinging himself to his knees by my side.

"Yeah," I said distastefully, rocking back.

I hated it. I absolutely hated taking a life. I'd had to do it a couple of times before in the line of duty. It came with the sort of cases I'd always been assigned to. That didn't make it any easier, though. I didn't technically have the protection of the law behind me in this case, either.

I couldn't think about any of that now. I'd managed to muffle the shot a little with the way I'd shot him, but I had to assume more guards were already on their way after hearing his shot.

"He made his choice," I said, moving back and tearing at the buttons of his suit coat to get to the armor beneath. "He works for Remmington, which means he chose a life in the mafia. He knew the risks of his choices."

I tried to believe it.

Then I tried to forget it as the urgency of the situation increased. The flashlights wielded by the others had turned in our direction.

"Get his shoes," I told Ari. "They'll be too big, but with the t-shirt around your feet, they might work.

"Hello?" Ari answered in return.

I paused in the process of peeling off the dead man's suit jacket and unfastening his Kevlar vest to twist and frown at Ari. Somehow, he had a cell phone up to his ear.

"Hello? Yes. Police. No, listen, this is an emergency and we don't have time," he said to whoever was on the other end of the call.

"Ari, what are you doing?" I hissed as I rolled the suit out of his armor. I had to ditch the rifle so I could don the armor. It had been slowing me down anyhow, but I hated leaving it behind.

"My name is Ari Crestmont," Ari said, slowly and distinctly. "I'm in the middle of the forest on the west side of Glass Top Mountain. There's a massive drug deal going down right now. They said twelve tons of cocaine earlier. Yes, yes, shut up and listen to me!"

My breath gusted out at Ari's audacity as I yanked the vest free, then threw it around my shoulders and fastened it. I wanted to give it to Ari, but that would have to wait. The flashlights were getting closer.

"Someone named Remmington is purchasing the drugs," Ari said, tugging the suit's shoes off with one hand. "The men selling them are Norman Ingraham, Clyve Ingraham, and Mayor Keller." He paused, and I felt irritation flash through him. "No, this is not a prank. Follow this signal and get the cops here right now, because the deal is about to take place and people have already been killed. I sure as fuck don't want to be one of them."

"Ari," I warned him, shifting to help him remove the suit's shoes, then put them on his own feet.

"I have to go. My life is in danger. Just keep the line open and follow this signal," Ari said, then shoved the cell phone into his pocket.

"Jensen!" a deep voice called out. "Jensen, report!"

"Now," I hissed to Ari, shoving the too-big shoes on his feet over the wrapped t-shirt.

Ari didn't hesitate from there. He let me lift him, and the second we were both on our feet, we ran.

Ari was faster with the alpha's shoes on, but not nearly fast enough. The flashlight beams cut through the trees like lasers, some of them way too close to us. We were putting space between us and the suit, Jensen, but I could hear both of the ATVs out in the dark somewhere, and the shouts and shuffling in the underbrush told me at least half of the goons were chasing after us now.

I started out in the direction I thought my house was, judging by the directions the light was coming from behind us. The trouble was, I hadn't explored that part of the forest yet. For all I knew, I could be racing toward some sort of cliff and dragging Ari with me. I didn't think there were cliffs in this part of the forest, but I just didn't know.

An increase in the shouting behind us hinted to me that Jensen's body had been found.

As if echoing my thoughts, Ari hissed, "They found him."

I nodded once, then, on a whim, cut to the right. I could hear a stream nearby, and I knew enough about tracking to know water erased a trail quickly.

"Come on," I whispered, gesturing with the hand that still carried the pistol for Ari to follow me to the water.

It wasn't pleasant, but it would buy us time. The stream was cold and I could feel from Ari that his ill-fitting shoes were soaked through to his sore feet in an instant, but as I followed the water upstream, I told myself it was buying us some time.

Another round of gunfire echoed through the night off to one side. This time, I could have sworn it came from where I thought the shipping containers were.

I paused, letting the calf-high water rush past my and Ari's feet and tried to listen. Had something gone wrong with the drug deal? Had Remmington grown impatient and done away with the Ingrahams? Or was it the other way around? Clyve had six or seven men with him earlier, and a few more had arrived with his father and Keller. I had no idea how many Remmington had brought with him, but men like that traveled with ample protection. It hadn't sounded like Remmington was best buddies with the Ingrahams and Keller either.

"What do we do?" Ari gasped in the darkness, speaking too loudly to be heard over the babble of the stream. "They're still coming after us."

He was right, unfortunately. The flashlights were still searching, and we could still hear shouts in the distance around Jensen.

I turned to peer into the darkness away from the site of the deal. My house was out there somewhere. I wanted to believe that the closer we got to my house, the closer to safety we would be. I knew that territory, and I had my own weapons, not to mention my own cell phone, there.

The problem was, Ingraham and his men knew who I was. Maybe not by name, but I'd mentioned where I lived. They'd probably sent someone to my house the second they'd realized we'd escaped, knowing I'd try to return home.

I couldn't go home. I couldn't go back to Clyve's house. That place was wired to blow, which would definitely happen if the deal went wrong. I could try to take Ari to safety some other way, but it was a hell of a lot more difficult to walk your way off a mountain on foot in the dark. And there was still the problem of the goons chasing after us.

The only way to avoid being caught in a weak position was to find your own strong position and make a stand from there. The only way I stood a chance of getting Ari to safety was to evade the goons and find us a vehicle to leave the mountain in. And the only vehicles were back where the deal was going down.

"Trust me," I whispered to him, gesturing for him to step out of the stream with me.

"I do," Ari said, sloshing back onto dry land just behind me.

He slipped and slid a little as we moved free of the stream, but found his footing eventually. If we made it out of this—when we made it out—I wouldn't say a word if Ari wanted to fill up an entire room with shoes that actually fit him. I'd give him a foot rub and a pedicure myself as a way to make up for what I'd put his feet through since we started this whole thing. I'd even suck on his toes, or let him suck on mine, until he came, if that was his thing.

Those thoughts would have to wait for later, though. We were heading right into the line of goons searching for us, which meant we would have to be absolutely on top of our game.

As we moved, I noted where each of the flashlights originated from. There were four of them, but I had to assume there were more than four men spread out, hunting for us. They'd made a sort of informal line that stretched from one end of my vision to the other, telling me they were sweeping a wide area.

I could work that to our favor. It was a risky move, but I steered Ari toward the second largest gap between two flashlights. The largest gap was wide enough to have me worrying someone without a flashlight was walking there. The second gap was narrow enough that we might just be able to get through without being seen.

"They have to be here somewhere," one of the goons called out to the other. "They shot Jensen. They were right over there not more than fifteen minutes ago."

"Keep searching," Bruno's voice answered.

I hunched down a little, trusting that Ari would imitate me and keep low. Two of the flashlights were getting close enough that their beams might pass over us if we weren't careful. We were lucky that there was just enough groundcover where we were to conceal us.

When the lights flashed dangerously close to us, I gestured for Ari to get down all the way, then shift with me into the leafy shelter of a low bush. It was just our luck that the bush in question had prickers, too.

Ari didn't make a peep, even though I felt a subtle feeling of pain from him through the bond. His arms and torso were protected by the coat and backpack he wore, but his legs were still bare. My arms were scratched the hell up, but the Kevlar vest kept the thorns from digging into my chest or back.

We waited, barely breathing, as the sound of boots crunching on sticks and dried leaves grew closer. The flashlight beams seemed impossibly bright and menacing as they swept through the area. They came close to where we were, definitely lighting up where we'd been a moment before, and at one point, one beam brushed right over us.

Moments later, one of the guards walked past, not more than twenty feet away. He was close enough for me to hear him mutter, "Remmington is going to kill us."

Not if I kill you first, I thought to myself. Though, to be honest, I still felt too sick from killing Jensen to think about taking extreme action against anyone else.

"Do you see anything at all?" the one who had just passed us called out as the line of goons walked on.

"No," Bruno called in return, sounding grim. "They had to come this way, though."

I didn't share his reasoning, but I didn't need it. I waited until the crunch of boots and occasional mutters faded, then I pushed myself up slowly and crept out of the bush. I held out one gun-filled hand to Ari, gesturing for him to stay where he was for a second as I checked the area.

As soon as I was certain we'd been passed over entirely, I motioned for him to come out of the bushes as quietly as he could.

I was impressed by how quiet Ari could be and how agile, despite the handicaps of his shoes and the way he was dressed. He didn't have the pistol I'd handed him anymore, but even though I had no idea where he'd left it, I felt better with him unarmed, inexperienced with firearms as he was.

He must have known I was taking us back toward the heart of danger now. I could feel his apprehension and his racing heart. He followed me without question, though, moving relatively quickly along the tracks the goons had made as they'd plowed through the underbrush.

"You ever been to San Cardello?" I whispered to him when the tension of going toward danger instead of away from it got to be too much.

The confusion I felt from Ari hinted that the distraction was a good idea.

"No?" he said, like he was questioning why I would ask.

"It's got the most beautiful beaches," I went on, even though talking was a risk. "Pristine, beige sand, cobalt blue skies, turquoise water. It's as pretty as any island in the Bahamas, but it's not a tourist trap."

"Sounds nice," Ari whispered, resting a hand on the small of my back as we moved on.

The ATVs were still out there somewhere, and the closer we got to the house and the area with the shipping containers, the more light spilled through the trees.

"I've always thought it would be nice to build a little house down there," I whispered on. "Just a small place, really. A couple bedrooms, a nice kitchen and indoor sitting area. An outdoor living area, too, complete with fire pit, hammocks, maybe a pool. It would be right on the ocean, though, with a dock and a boat."

Ari hummed like he could see what I had in mind and approved. "I bet it's quiet."

"Really quiet," I told him. "No cities, no hustle and bustle, just peace and sunshine."

"You planning on taking me there when we're done with all this?" Ari asked.

"Absolutely," I whispered in return. "How about we sell this place off, pick up stakes, and move down there."

"I'm in," he whispered, then added, "Do we have to tell people where we're going?"

"Nope," I said.

Truth be told, depending on how everything played out, we might have to not only leave without telling anyone, we'd have to change our names and ditch our old lives entirely to avoid any repercussions.

I was one hundred percent for it.

I was about to spin the dream even more for my omega, but shouts and another round of gunfire rang out in front of us. I could hear more than the sound of the ATVs, too. Other engines were running, like the kind that powered tractor-trailers.

I picked up our pace, following that sound. Something was happening with the drug deal. My instincts were going nuts. Part of me wished we'd stuck close to Ingraham the whole time so I knew more about the dynamic between the two men, what each side expected, and how Mayor Keller was involved. I had the sense all was not going smoothly with the deal.

My suspicions seemed to be confirmed when we got close enough to the shipping containers to see one of them had already been loaded onto the flatbed of one of the tractor-trailers. The other was in the middle of being loaded, although it looked like there was some kind of problem with it.

Clyve and Ingraham didn't look happy with whatever was going on. Ingraham was shouting at someone, and Clyve seemed to be shouting at everyone. That either meant the two men were very important or very stupid. Either way, a tall, unarmed alpha in a suit, who could only be Remmington, stood with his arms crossed, looking unmoved as Ingraham growled at him.

I wished I could hear what was being said and started to move forward. As soon as I did, Ari following me, we were stopped by the sound of a gun being cocked behind us.

"Don't move," a cool, professional voice said. "Get your hands up where I can see them and walk slowly forward."

Fear flew at me from Ari's end of the bond. I was more angry than afraid. So much for the idea of circling back and finding us a vehicle. Instead, I'd just gotten us caught.