Chapter Forty Pax
Chapter Forty
Pax
I’d spent most of my life stealing from the scum that wandered the earth. Pillaging what they had stolen. Money they’d attained through whatever vile, heinous crimes they preferred to commit. Feeding their wickedness into the population.
Drugs and prostitution.
Thieving and deceiving.
Exploiting the vulnerabilities of others to sustain their greed.
Had sworn to myself that I would only ever take from the ones who had taken, but I’d never imagined that it would come to this—and some things just had to be done for the greater good.
Besides, I doubted any of these businesses would remain standing for much longer if something wasn’t done.
If we didn’t find a way to intervene.
To stop the madness that had so clearly infiltrated the world.
There was just this vibe pervading reality.
A lawlessness that had merged with the oxygen. So distinct I could scent the evils that coursed through the atmosphere, wisping and winding as they sought to lay siege.
Dani flew into the nearly empty parking lot at warp speed, her little car tilting to the left as she curb-checked the back wheel. The tires skidded as she cut across the lot, not taking the time to follow the aisles.
I sat forward, and from over her right shoulder, I pointed at the narrow lane between two stores that would lead around to the back of the building. “Go in down the side right there.”
Dani jerked the steering wheel, and the car whipped to the right as she took it fast. She barreled between the two buildings, the thick gray bricks of the walls blurring by on each side.
The second she rounded the corner at the rear of the building, she skidded to a stop.
I threw open my door and jumped out. Timothy was quick to follow, slamming his door shut and rounding to the trunk.
I thumped my hand against the top of it.
Dani popped it, and I dug around on the right side, where I’d stuffed a crowbar I’d seen on a workbench in her garage.
I tossed it up, testing its weight.
“That going to be enough?” Speculation lifted Timothy’s brow.
“It’s gonna have to be.” I strode over to the door as I felt Aria climbing out from her side. Both she and Dani ran up on their toes like they needed to remain covert, when we were assuredly getting ready to let the whole fucking neighborhood know we were there.
Right at where the lock was located on the door, I stuffed the crowbar into the tiny gap between the doorjamb.
I pulled with everything I had.
Metal bit against metal, a high-pitched groaning that pierced through my head as I put all my weight into it, teeth gritting as I tried to break the fucking industrial lock.
Even in the cold of the winter morning, sweat instantly beaded on my forehead and slid down my back.
I kept trying to work it, moving it up and down the slot, throwing myself against it.
It didn’t budge.
Timothy jumped in and gripped the end of the rod. Grunts rocked out of each of us as we tried to force it open.
“Come on, man,” he said through clenched teeth. “We need to get this bastard open.”
Could feel Aria itching. Her attention wandering the area, watching for anyone who would notice what was going down.
“Hurry,” Dani said.
We pushed harder; then I felt the shift. The force of Aria’s presence as she came up between us. She placed her left hand on my shoulder, and with the other she reached out and grabbed hold of the rod, too.
A bolt of energy suddenly streaked down the metal, and the lock popped with a small boom.
Timothy chuckled under his breath. “Now, why the hell didn’t we think of that in the first place?”
We didn’t have time to contemplate it, because the second the door burst open, the siren started shouting.
Deafening.
Disorienting.
Lights flashed from the ceiling, doing their best to chase us out, like we hadn’t been expecting their welcome.
“Hurry. We won’t have much time before someone shows,” I growled.
Unless the authorities were too busy dealing with all the alarms that no doubt were going off all over the city.
“We’ve got this,” Timothy said, and he snatched Dani’s hand and made a beeline up the aisle, heading in the direction we’d already planned.
Any weapons we could find were going to be at the back of the store.
Dani and Timothy were assigned to knives and bows.
I grabbed Aria’s hand. The heat of her slashed up my arm the second we connected, a jolt to my heart. A zing reminding me that we had to do whatever was required to see this through.
“This is insane,” she wheezed as we sprinted down the aisle.
“I know, baby. That’s what happens when the world goes crazy.”
I hooked a left at the end of the aisle. Releasing Aria, I snatched two big duffel bags displayed on an endcap and tossed her one.
“You can do this,” I shouted above the blaring, feeling the bleak desperation that poured out of her. The siren was so loud that it thundered our pulses into chaos. Doing its best to drive us out.
“I know. We have to,” she said as we broke apart.
I ran straight for the glass cases that displayed a bunch of handguns. But what I was interested in was the wall of rifles on the other side.
The area was blocked off, only intended for whatever employee worked this section.
I planted my hands on the top of the case and used it to propel myself over, while Aria rushed to a tall display case where a ton of ammo was displayed off to the side.
I could feel her frustration when she found it was locked, and she spun around, searching for something she could use to bust it open.
Relief gushed out of her when she saw what she was looking for, and she ran two aisles down to where mallets used to drive in tent posts were set up on an endcap.
She grabbed one and came hurtling back up to the case. She swung it back, then smashed it through the pane.
Glass shattered, crashing onto the floor at her feet.
I could feel her frenzy as she searched for the specific bullets I’d instructed her to get, a full disorder pummeling the air as she frantically stuffed them into the bag.
While my gaze scanned, then pinpointed a bunch of rifles that fit the ammo.
I snagged the wire cutters from my back pocket, and I was quick to cut through the small wire ropes that attached the guns to the wall. I tossed the duffel onto the counter behind me, and I loaded in as many as would fit in the bag.
Then I turned to the case behind me, bashing it in with the butt of a rifle and grabbing as many of the handguns inside that I could.
Timothy and Dani came running up, weighed down with the huge duffels they’d filled. “We got everything,” Timothy rushed, his chest heaving with his breaths.
“Good.” I zipped up my bag just as Aria was zipping hers. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
The four of us raced back out of the store.
Relief slammed us the second we stepped outside, the earsplitting blare of the alarm cut to a dull roar.
Only we were hit with the peals of sirens coming from not that far in the distance.
I inclined my ear toward the sound.
Fuck.
It was coming from the other side of the building, and getting closer with each second.
“Hurry!” I shouted, and I tossed my bag into the trunk. Dani tossed me hers and I caught it, throwing it in as she ran to the driver’s seat and turned over the ignition. Timothy flung his on top and rushed to his seat.
Gasps raked out of Aria as she shoved her bag on top of the pile.
“Is it going to fit?” she begged as I tried to slam it shut.
A curse ripped off my tongue when it didn’t latch.
“Just get in the car, Aria,” I grated as I tried to compress the bags, and she wavered for one beat before she hurried around and dove in.
Jumping up, I tossed myself onto the trunk and used my weight to slam it down.
Relief gushed out of me when it finally caught.
Though that relief didn’t last long, because I could hear the roar of the cruiser, and it was coming down the same cut-through we’d taken to get back here.
Adrenaline pumped through my bloodstream, and I ran, diving headfirst into the back seat of the car.
“Go, go, go, go!” I shouted.
Dani rammed on the accelerator before I was even fully inside. The tail of the car swung hard as she hooked a sharp right into the high grass that grew up along the back lot of the shopping center.
We bounded down into a drainage ditch with at least half a foot of water running through it. The water split in two and splashed up on the sides as the little car tore through it.
I finally managed to sit upright and drag my door shut as she flew up the other side, wheeling a left as she took an alley that ran along the backside of a fence that closed in the yards of the houses in a neighborhood on the opposite side.
None of us dared to even breathe as she took three more sharp turns, then looped back onto the road.
I finally chanced a look behind us through the back window, and I heaved out a sigh and rushed shaky fingers through my hair when I saw it was clear.
“Is anyone following us?” Dani’s words were abraded as she glanced at me through the rearview mirror.
“No. You lost them.”
Deliverance poured out of her on a wheeze, and Timothy reached over and clamped a hand down on her thigh. “Damn, my girl is a badass. Not that I didn’t already know it.”
Pink hair whipped everywhere as she shook her head. “What are you even talking about? Total computer nerd over here.”
“Who must have been playing a slew of those driving games.” He gave her a waggish grin.
She choked on her amusement, the sound hitching with the stress that still clamored through our bodies. “Never.”
“Does that mean you always drive like this?” Aria asked. A hint of a smile kissed the edge of her mouth as she struggled to steady her own breaths.
Dani giggled. “But of course.”
Timothy let go of an unrestrained laugh. “You should have seen her the other night when we were coming after you, Aria. She was not about to waste a second. I might have lost consciousness once or twice from the G’s she was pulling.”
A chuckle rolled out of me. I couldn’t believe he was joking in the middle of this, but I appreciated it more than he knew.
I sank back into the seat, struggling to tame the way the blood slogged through my veins.
“Shit,” I finally forced out, the word heaving from my lungs like a thousand-pound weight I was shucking, and I scrubbed both palms over my face as I tipped my attention to the roof of the car. “Wasn’t sure we were going to make it out of there without cuffs slapped around our wrists.”
Timothy fully shifted around so he could look back at me, an arrogant smile pulled onto his face. “O ye of little faith. How could you have ever doubted us? Our beautiful Dani here is not the only badass around—our whole crew obviously has mad skills.”
Then he sobered as he glanced between the three of us. “A good fucking team is what we are.”
I caught Aria’s eye as she reached over and threaded her fingers through mine, and she locked sight with Dani through the rearview mirror before she turned her attention to Timothy and gave him a nod of agreement.
“Yeah,” I added. “We’re a good fucking team.”
We had to be.
Because it was one we were staking all our lives upon.