9. Bria

9

brIA

“Bria!”

I groggily get up to see Donte looming over me. His shoulders are heaving, his eyes scan the room frantically, and he seems disheveled.

A knot forms in my stomach. “What’s going on?”

He rakes damp locks of hair out of his face. “We need to get ready in case we need to run.”

My heart jams in my throat. They’re after us . I lunge for my shirt, my coats, my pants, tug them over my limbs as I stagger into the living room.

What I dreaded most is coming to reality. It’s like the world is unraveling while I’m standing on a ridge— poised to trip over the ledge, and into an all-consuming void…

Crack!

I shriek, dropping to the floor as I hear glass shatter near me. The front window bursts open.

“Stay down!” Donte shouts, although I’m already rocking back and forth on the ground with my hands clamped on my ears.

I’m terrified out of my mind, and don’t even want to glance at what’s unspooling before me. But curiosity, and a desire to stay alive, compels me to look up — icy air blasts my skin, and chunks of wood explode in the place I just stood.

Donte

My military experience kicks in. I sprint across the room, ducking low when I enter the main room. I’m aware that someone has their offense homed in on this area. If I want Bria to make out of this alive, we need to escape their line of sight.

I swallow a breath of relief when I reach her. She isn’t injured, thankfully, not even a graze to be spotted on her porcelain skin. It’d kill me if she got hurt. It’d kill me if I lost her.

“We need to go. Now,” I say in the steadiest tone I can summon.

If Bria could see through me, in the way she pried the deepest emotions inside of me this evening, she’d gauge that I’m anything but steady. I’m breaking on the inside. This woman means so damn much to me and that compromises my attention and our safety.

How could I let this happen?

As I shield Bria with my torso, just so that she isn’t exposed to the flying projectiles, I glimpse men standing on the perimeter of the cabin. There must be two guns— or even three. What I know for sure is that there can’t be any more weapons than that. And they won’t be able to surround the cabin. They seem small potatoes, staying on the front of the cabin and not surrounding.

I return my attention to Bria, who’s crawled away in the few seconds I’ve looked away from her. She’s grabbing her damn sudoku book from the table.

I give a deep exhale, stride to retrieve my rucksack and shove it into her hands.

“Come on. Let’s head to the back.”

Bria nods sheepishly. Her eyes are wide, and her face drained of color. Clearly, this is testing every fiber of her being and it enrages me that these lowlifes could make her feel so small. That they could dare to threaten a woman with the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen— but we can’t second guess their humanity. We must move.

As she slides the sudoku into the rucksack, a loud thud resounds. Blood sears in my veins— I look at the doorway, to discover the silhouette of a gunman at the entrance.

I catch the glint of metal and set into action.

Urging Bria to get away, I shout, “Run! Run far away!”