CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX #2
The trees and homes and vehicles all bleed into a burst of muddled color whipping by us. And that trepidation threading Tessa’s voice smacks into me, but I can’t focus on it now. She won’t like the answer that I’d mow a hundred people over to ensure she’s safe, so I keep that to myself.
“I can’t see that,” Liam responds to her. “This is the best we can do. A quarter mile past that is standstill traffic.”
“Slowing for approach,” I announce as I break into the turn.
There are indeed people outside, so as Tessa mutters a slew of curses, I tap the horn, rev the engine, and swing my back end out to knock over their trash cans while bolting for my escape route on the side street.
They heed the warning, screaming, running, and corralling everyone.
Once we zoom past them, I see their fury in my rearview mirror, but all I feel is victory.
“Talk to me, Maddox,” Liam demands as we blast onto the primarily empty street. “What do you see?”
“Looks good. I—” I’m cut off by the whiz and clank of a bullet on my front grill. “Taking fire.”
“Fucking hell.” That’s Ryker’s voice, so it’s escalated to involve the whole fam.
As I look at the GPS, the cops racing toward me in my rear, a truck behind them, and the Ford Raptor opening fire on us, emerging before me, I make a decision. “Are the squad cars rushing toward us ours?”
Three heartbeats.
Three panicked breaths from Tessa.
Three notes into the song droning quietly from the speaker as I lower my window and fire back, hitting the side panel of the Ford Raptor.
A chorus of voices reply, “Yes,” at once, and a few more bullets plink against our frame.
“Tell them to cover me.” I pass Tessa the gun, and she seems to grasp everything I’m saying with one simple word. “Ready?”
I won’t let anything happen to you, but if things go sideways, become their fucking nightmare.
She takes it with a nod, holding it on her lap, as I turn up the volume on “Send Me on My Way” by Rusted Root—one of my mother’s favorite songs, which has to be a good fucking omen.
So, I initiate a one-eighty turn.
Applying the foot brake while simultaneously pulling up on the electronic parking brake (EPB) in the center console, I then quickly lift my foot off the brake and steer left, which throws us into a controlled spin.
We fly, propelled against the seat as the world briefly blurs around us, like one of those Gravitron rides at an amusement park, where you stick to the side.
Once we’re into the rotation, I give her some gas, press the foot brake, and push the EPB off. It’s smooth, but it still jostles us with a jolt as I accelerate right toward the cops.
“Still under fire,” I inform our listeners as we take a hit to the left corner of our back bumper. “But we’re out of the turn.”
My crazy Nightmare lets out a whoop of relief as we storm head-on toward the patrol cars and the other truck.
Then she fucking shocks me, unbuckling her seat belt, lowering her window, twisting so she’s on her knees, and firing at the guy behind us.
It’s so smooth; you’d think she does this all the time.
She watches through the back window and braces her arm against the car.
A hailstorm of bullets smack into our assailant, and while we might be fighting for our lives, I’d do just about anything to freeze this moment.
It’s the most erotic sight I’ve ever witnessed.
Her ass in the air and her don’t-fuck-with-me rage at an all-time high.
Several shots ricochet off the Ford’s hood and windshield.
Then she hits it at just the right angle, and the truck slows.
She decides she’s made her point and lies back down, reaching into the center console to grab a magazine.
In one fluid motion, she pushes the release button to dislodge the empty one and drop it onto the floor, slams the full one into place, and pulls back the slide, completing the reload.
“What the fuck was that?” I bellow, but her breaths are erratic, and all she gives me is silence.
Tabling that inquisition, I finish our plight, getting us out of the thick of it.
One squad car barrels past us in pursuit of the Ford Raptor.
The other skids sideways to derail the truck charging us.
They crash, the truck clipping the back end of the patrol car, sending it across the road.
The clank and crunch of metal on metal are deafening as we narrowly pass them.
It’s a minor collision, but enough for us to flee.
We zip full speed toward the fastest route back to La Lune Noire.
“On our way home,” I announce.
“She came through,” Axel says, and I know he heard the song and is referring to Mom.
“She always does,” is all I manage, and though there is little emotion in that response because I’m focused on staying alive, Tessa’s hand smooths over my thigh, and I’m stuck on another woman who came through.
We’re still not free and clear, so Liam ticks off a few more positions on the law enforcement and the roads we should avoid before he asks the million-dollar question. “Any idea who you’re running from?”
This isn’t going to land great, but any hope of keeping this locked down went out the window with that goddamn one-eighty. Still, I keep it as nonchalant as possible. “I hope to fuck it isn’t Makarov, but I don’t know who else it would be.”
“Makarov?” Axel scoffs.
And Ryker piggybacks on that with a growled, “What the fuck is going on, Mad?”
After three turns, I’m back in traffic, but nearing the safe-harbor entrance on the far edge of town. “I’m a little preoccupied with keeping my girl and me in one piece, so maybe the grilling can wait until we get home.”
“I’ll be here,” Cash assures me before I reach for Tessa’s phone and end the call with my family.
I tap my pistol with a cocked brow.
She moves her seat upright and huffs—irate at being underestimated, it would appear. “I grew up in the country. If you can hit a flying clay pigeon or a can, you can shoot a damn monster truck.”
“Hottest fucking thing I’ve ever seen, baby. I almost came in my pants.”
Liam chuckles, reminding me we still have an audience.
“Thanks, Graves. I know you’ve got a lot going on with a toddler and a month-old at home and Ty and Rena’s babies on the way.”
“Anytime. We’re always here. You guys know that. Moonshine would’ve been beside herself if something had happened to you.”
Moonshine is his nickname for my sister. He’s like her big-brother stand-in at their house, so I appreciate him more than he knows.
“Don’t update her on any of this, please. That’s the last thing she needs.”
“Of course not,” he says. “We’ve got her. Take care of your girl. Our FBI guys are working on a story for this, but go straight to the resort.”
Tessa’s features pinch at the realization that I’ve claimed her to someone beyond my brothers. She must have assumed I was keeping us a secret, but I’d get her a collar with my name on it, take a picture, and share it on the national news, if I didn’t think she’d smother me in my sleep.
“Will do,” I assure him.
I’m just about to take a cleansing breath because we escaped some messed-up shit and it’s over when Liam inadvertently fucks it all up.
“All right, man. Check in with me later about your interrogation from yesterday, so I know if that produced anything. I’m still working through these names.”
He hangs up, and I take fire from the passenger seat as we roll at a snail’s pace through the streets of New Orleans.
“Was he talking about Hunter? I thought you were just being a jealous asshole, marking your territory. You were interrogating him? About what, Maddox?”
There’s no way Liam would have ever thought Tessa would know who I interrogated yesterday, so I won’t hold him accountable for the slipup. Of course, that does bring to light that I could have interrogated someone else and simply visited Hunter.
Tessa might be dressed in her casual attire and look a bit more innocent today, but she flips up her sunglasses, and those turquoise demon eyes spit fire like a dragon gatekeeper for hell.
“Before you try to bend this into a story that is a shadow of reality, let me tell you that after being shunned by my family due to an unexpected visitor, forced to move out of my apartment, chased down by a Mafia don’s enforcers—possibly—who I didn’t even know were after me until a couple of nights ago, and shot at, I am in no mood for bullshit. ”
Yeah. When she puts it like that, this isn’t the best foot to kick off our relationship on.
I rub my jaw, considering my options, before I land on the truth. “It was a little of both. Ensuring he knew you were mine and interrogating. I needed to be thorough.”
The ramp down to the safe-harbor tunnel comes into view, and I focus on just making it there as the heat of her fury steams off her.
I probably should have taken my gun back. She still has a firm grip on it.
“I appreciate you keeping me safe. I’m thankful for the shelter of La Lune Noire.
It’s clear that my life is on the line and I’d be dead without you.
Last night, I was so swept up in how you took care of me.
But you’re interrogating my … Are you investigating my family?
” She expels that with all the warmth of the polar ice caps.
“That isn’t a world you get to be part of.
Leave them out of whatever this shit is.
You’re not just putting a wedge between them and me. You’re putting it between us.”
I park the car in front of the guard station, but make no move to get out. I could shatter all the things she believes about her family and Hunter and half the town of people she thinks are so good. I’ll have to do that eventually. Soon. But there’s something more important I need to address.
“We’ve had a fucked-up morning, preceded by several challenging days, within an intense month. Emotions are high.” Curling my fingers around her throat, I pull her closer, sweep my thumb over her hammering pulse point, and brush my lips against hers.
Even simmering with ire, she can’t resist the crackling electricity between us, which I’m certain infuriates her all the more. When she presses into me, I nip at her lip and extend a gentle reminder, my placid tone meeting her polar-ice-cap warning with an arctic promise.
“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear all that mistrust in your voice or the subtle threat to walk away from us.
You’re a brilliant woman, so I’m sure you understand that we’re inevitable.
You’re mine, Tess. Your world is my world.
Your fights are my fights. Your happiness, burdens, fears, enemies, body—all mine.
There are no limits to what I would do to keep you safe. ”