Chapter 53 Silas
SILAS
“You’re going to get her killed,” Erik growls. He flies past me, tires smoking as he cuts his bike across my path.
“Shit,” I grit out, slamming the break. Evie shrieks, my arm wrapping around her waist to hold her steady in the seat. “Get out of my way, Erik.”
“No, Sie,” he says, flipping up his visor. “We can’t take them here.”
“We’re outnumbered,” Dominic calls, appearing a moment later with Adrian and Bane at his side.
“They’ve clearly scouted this place well in advance,” Erik continues. “Judging by how clean that abduction was, they must’ve been studying their enemy for weeks.”
“Their enemy,” Mavros says, pointing toward the fake cop cars pulling off the street. “You don’t know if they’re ours.”
“They took her,” I growl, my body tensing as I fight the urge not to run Erik over. “It’s happening again. They’re taking her, and we’re doing nothing.”
“They’re heading toward the fifteen,” Noctis says, and I can hear the shuffling of metal as he packs up his rifle. “Follow them, but don’t let them see you. If we’re lucky, they’ll head for the desert.”
“He’s right, Silas,” Evie says gently. “Morana is safe. We didn’t see them hurt her.”
“Yet,” I mutter, kicking my bike into gear and speeding past Erik.
He curses but falls into line, the six of us catching up to the cop cars quickly. Trailing at a decent distance, we follow as they leave the city. A half hour passes before they turn east onto I-15, following the highway as it snakes through the desert.
“There’s no cover here,” Noctis warns, having just caught up to us.
“There’ll be less once dawn comes,” Erik adds. “Even now, under the cover of the moon with our lights off, they’ve probably already seen us.”
“Agreed,” Mavros says. “This feels like a trap.”
My jaw flexes as I study the black SUV and two cop cars ahead. They’ve kept the same pace since we left. Mavros is right. A team as thorough as theirs, one prepared enough to have false cop cars, matching uniforms, and high-quality weapons, would surely have lookouts for a tail.
“I agree,” Dominic says, as if reading my mind. “Something feels off, and we can’t rescue Morana if we’re dead.”
“What do you suggest?” I ask. Cursing, I ease off the gas, putting more distance between us and my sister. “Letting them get away won’t help.”
“Two tails,” Bane suggests. “Two others fall behind them but within sight in case the tails need backup. The rest pull off and wait. With any luck, we’ll follow them into the city and get a location.”
Another location. Which means more scouting. More planning. And that’s if we don’t fucking lose them entirely.
“We’ll tail,” Evie says, pressing her back against my chest, her way of showing she trusts me. That she understands the seriousness of this and is unafraid. Of course she is. My little fox is fucking incredible.
“Uhhh, guys?” Erik interrupts as the early morning sky turns the darkest shade of purple with the promise of day. “They turned on their flashy lights.”
The cop cars split, leaving the SUV on the road, one veering left and the other swerving right. Clouds of sand and dirt swirl as their wheels blaze through the desert, each making a U-turn.
“Shit,” Noctis mutters as the cop cars switch directions and head straight for us. “They’re surrounding us.”
“Silas,” Evie whispers, pressing further into me. Her voice wavers around my name, and I wish to my fucking core that I could shield her from all that’s to come.
The cop cars zoom past, dust kicking up in their wake before they swing back onto the road. They race toward us from behind as the black SUV stops, blocking our path forward.
“We could split up,” Dominic says as our group slows. “Bike into the desert until we find a way to lose them.”
“No,” I cut in as we ease to a stop, our group pinned between them. “It’s flat for miles. We’ll be too easy to pick off.”
“They haven’t shot us yet,” Mavros chimes in, hand twitching like he’s considering reaching for his gun.
“Best not to tempt them,” Adrian murmurs, turning his bike to face the cop cars behind us. Dominic and Bane do the same. Erik, Noctis, and Mavros take the front. Leaving me in the middle. I don’t like hiding behind my brothers, but Evie is safest here. And her life is more important than my ego.
“Movement,” Dominic calls, snapping my attention to the car on the left.
“Maybe I spoke too soon,” Adrian says. “Should we put our hands up or reach for our guns?”
“Morana is with them,” I bite back, wishing just as badly as my brothers that this had gone a different way. “Don’t draw your weapons unless forced to.”
I switch the mic so only Evie can hear me, my hands clamping over hers. “If they open fire, you ride south until you hit Highway Forty. You take that back to the fifteen. Don’t stop. Don’t look back.”
“I’m not leaving you,” she protests, the conviction in her voice cracking something in my chest.
“I need you to, little fox.” My tongue is heavy, emotion clogging my throat, but I force the words out. “I need you to run, because if anything happens to you, it’s over for me. You are my purpose. My life. My entire fucking heart.”
I hear the tears in her voice, and as much as it pains me not to be able to kiss her, to fuck her until she forgets all the horrible shit in this world, I’m glad for the helmet hiding her from view.
Because it allows me to imagine her happy and whole.
Which is the only fucking way I’m able to swing my leg off the bike and walk toward the two men stepping out of the SUV, their guns trained on me.
I flip up my visor as I switch my comm to include my brothers again, and lift my chin. I glare at the one closest, recognizing him as the same man who carried Morana out of that garage.
“You took my sister,” I say, my voice dripping with the promise of blood. “I intend to take her back.”