Chapter 35
KARA
The car took a corner so hard I slid across the seats and my head collided with the door, jolting me awake. The pain had diminished to a level that was more bearable, less searing. But I felt sick.
Oh, no.
I turned my head and vomited on the floorboard. Juric was driving, and although he didn’t turn to look at me, he must have heard what I’d done.
“I threw up in your car,” I said, somewhat proud of myself.
“Not my car.”
I was still foggy. What were these sparkly crumbs all over me?
Safety glass. That was why it was loud. He didn’t have the windows down—the back windshield had been shattered. Panic surged inside me when I realized this was Shawn’s car. Where was he? Oh, God. What had Juric done to him and Ethan?
I tried to sit up, but the pain was intense and lingering.
“Stay down, unless you want the marshal to accidentally put a bullet in your head.”
How long had I been out? There was a noise, like hail but louder, on the trunk of the car. Bullets.
The car wove dramatically, and every time I reached for the door handle, another swerve sent me crashing to the other side of the back seat.
“I don’t recommend jumping, if that’s your plan,” he said. “If you were unlucky enough to survive, the pavement would take your skin off.”
Posed with the alternative of spending more time with Juric, was this really that bad of a choice? Yet I’d made enough bad choices to last a lifetime, so I heeded his warning. He fumbled with his phone. I’d be damned if I’d let him call for reinforcements or do anything else with it.
Screw the pain. Pain is fleeting.
I reached for the door handle, and he swerved again, helping to prop me up. Ignoring the danger from the car behind us, I lurched forward, grabbed his phone, and tossed it straight out the open back window.
It bounced noisily off the trunk, shattering with a satisfying crack.
I’d caught him off guard, but he recovered quickly. “You’re going to wish you hadn’t done that,” he snarled.
I did the instant I saw his gun. It had been in his lap, and he took one hand off the wheel to grasp it, his finger on the trigger. He bent his arm backwards through the seat opening and buried the barrel in my knee. He pressed down so hard, I couldn’t move free of it.
“You’ll have to carry me, if you do that,” I said, trying to appeal to his practical side while wincing from the pressure.
“Only if I decide to keep you. I could shoot you in the stomach and listen to you die.”
“You don’t want that. You’ll never have gotten control of me. I’ll win.”
“I don’t think you’ll care when your dead.”
No, of course I wouldn’t, but I was banking on him caring.
Suddenly, the car jolted. I flew forward, my body colliding with the back of the front seat. We’d just been rear-ended by the car behind us with a sickening crunch. It sent a new wave of pain through me . . . but it was a blessing in disguise.
It made me aware that I had control of my body.
We were on the outskirts of a village, and Juric had to slow to weave through the traffic. I turned to look out the back window—
All I could see was the front seat, and Shawn was not there.
Jason’s face was pure focus, his hands wrapped around the steering wheel of a Range Rover.
There was an unfamiliar man seated in the passenger seat, blood and dirt dotting his face and light brown hair.
Despite the high speed and frantic turns that we made, Jason kept the Range Rover unbelievably close to us.
For a half-second, I considered scrambling out the broken back window and up onto the hood of their SUV, but . . . really? I was still weak and by no means a daredevil. It sounded like a great idea if I wanted to die.
The Range Rover fell behind a few feet, then roared forward, bumping us again. Maybe I should have been mad that my brother-in-law was ramming the car I was in, but all I could worry about was Juric getting away while I was still trapped inside this car.
My hands fumbled for the seatbelt. I yanked it on and clicked it in, digging my fingers into my thighs, holding on. Thank God I’d already thrown up, because it saved me from having to do it now.
The next impact was more violent, followed by plastic shattering and metal crumbling, and it jolted us into oncoming traffic. He swerved violently back across the center line just in time, and a car horn blared in protest.
I knew this was going to end badly. The engine of the SUV behind us was loud and sounded like it was right beside me.
This time the Range Rover struck us on the side, and it sent us spinning.
It was a stomach-turning, disorienting feeling of being wildly out of control.
We continued to spin as Juric swore and fought the wheel.
Brakes and tires groaned trying to bring us to a stop, until the car hopped a curb with a horrible thud and sent me slamming into the belt.
The car came to rest at an awkward angle, the engine hissing and popping.
Seatbelt buckle. Door handle. Freedom.
I dashed out onto the cobblestones, ignoring the startled people on the sidewalk. Where was the other car? My gaze darted around until I found it slammed into a concrete barrier on the other side of the road, fifty yards down from us.
Jason was already running toward me, his gun drawn.
But Juric was out of the car now too, with his own gun, and in between us.
Go, the voice in my head commanded. I’d seen how fast Jason could move. I had to believe he could catch Juric before that monster caught me.
I stumbled across the cobblestone, my wounded, bare feet making me slower than I wanted. Plus, the drugs lingered in my system, making me sluggish. But I kept churning my legs. Get away. Keep going.
I turned down a narrow street and tore past shops, screaming in English for people to get out of my way. It had to be quite a shock, because most of them simply froze in place, dumbfounded. I didn’t look back to see if he was following. Surely, he was.
And a moment later, I heard Juric yelling my name.
Should I dart into one of the shops that lined the street and try to hide? No. I might get trapped. Just keep running.
Even as my lungs burned and everything ached, I ran. I tried not to think about Shawn or what had happened to him, but a sob bubbled in my chest.
There was an alley up ahead, and I collided with the wall on the far side as I took the corner too fast. It slowed me down, but there was a stack of wooden crates, and I hurled them behind me, tearing down the alley toward what looked like a clearing.
I had been wrong about who would reach me first.
Five feet into the city square I ran right into a hard wall, covered with fabric, and it closed around my body. Arms.
Shawn’s arms.
He must have cut through a side street rather than follow Jason.
“Kara! Are you all right?” His eyes were filled with worry, but it made him no less handsome. And it was worry for me. I stared up at him, overwhelmed, my heart aching for him.
“You’re here,” I replied, echoing the first thing he’d said to me the night the bombs had gone off and I’d set this terrible chain of events in motion. I put a hand on his face and wanted to say more. I wanted to kiss him and tell him how good it felt to be in his arms. To tell him that I—
There was a blur of movement just outside the focus of my vision, filling me with dread. Juric had caught up. The gun he pointed toward us caused chaos, clearing a wide circle of panicked people from the market. Shawn didn’t move; only his pupils dilated with alarm.
“Get over here,” Juric snapped.
“No,” Shawn said, tightening his hold so I couldn’t follow Juric’s order even if I’d wanted to.
Jason materialized from the crowd, Ethan right behind him, along with the man who’d been sitting in the passenger seat in the Range Rover.
“Put your gun down,” Jason commanded, his own steady as he aimed at the man who’d done so much damage.
All Juric did was laugh. Then he sneered, revealing the monster who lurked within him. “Come here now, Kara.”
“Wait.” Shawn’s voice was urgent but controlled. “I have money.”
“So do I.” He flung his free hand out and glared at me, demanding I take it.
“I have connections,” Shawn added. “I’m a powerful man, and I can get you anything you want.”
Juric hesitated. He considered it for a moment—then the decision was made. The monster wasn’t interested in bargaining. “The only thing you have that I want,” he snarled, “is what’s in your arms.”
A shiver ran down my spine. My heart beat a thousand miles an hour, slamming in my chest, and it felt like everything was slipping away. If I didn’t go to Juric, he’d kill Shawn.
I wasn’t about to let that happen. When I began to struggle for release, he tightened his grip.
“Stop, Kara. Please.” Although his plea was hushed, it was as if everyone in the world could hear us. Not a soul moved in the square. No one dared breathe.
“Put. Your. Gun. Down.” Jason’s tone was far more threatening this time.
Juric’s gaze didn’t waver from mine. “She’s coming with me.”
“No,” Shawn said. “No.”
The cold, blue eyes clouded with anger and rage, but whether it was the word he hated or Jason’s steady advance, I couldn’t tell.
“Are you prepared to watch your brother die, marshal? Because if you take one more step toward me, that’s going to happen.”
Jason hesitated. “Surrender . . . and let me take you in.”
My mouth had gone dry, but I swallowed anyway, my mind racing. It was all too apparent that surrender wasn’t an option for Juric, and he didn’t believe it was for Jason either.
If Shawn wouldn’t let me go, Juric would shoot him. I struggled harder to break free, to try to keep him safe, but my body was so weak—
The muscle running along Juric’s jaw flexed, and he gave me a final, cruel look that was tinted with resignation. “If I can’t have her,” his focus drifted to Shawn, “neither can you.”
I gasped, horrified. “No—”
But Shawn spun, his body wrapped around me, blocking me from the monster. Blocking me from the damage his gun promised.
The gunshot cracked, the sound bouncing off the buildings, and Shawn jerked forward with the bullet’s impact. Another shot rang out, but I was already falling backward, Shawn’s collapse pulling me down.
Even as we fell, I struggled hopelessly to get my arms free and break my fall. The only thought in my mind was that he’d just been shot. That he’d taken that bullet for me to keep me safe.
Then the full weight of his body drove me down onto the cobblestone street, my head slamming into it, and the world went dark.