26. SIREN
26
SIREN
R olling over in bed, I stare up at the ceiling as an uneasy feeling settles in the pit of my stomach. I can’t put my finger on it, but something doesn’t feel right. “What’s wrong?” Reaper murmurs beside me, locking his strong arm around me and pulling me in tighter against his body.
“Not sure,” I say, pulling out of his hold and sitting up. “Something just . . . doesn’t feel right.”
He sits up with me, watching me through a cautious stare. “Something’s really not right, huh?”
I shake my head, unable to figure it out. There’s physically nothing wrong, and there’s no reason for me to have woken up in the middle of the night, but I can’t seem to shake it. It’s been five days since the explosion at the warehouse, bringing us to day twenty-eight, and while Gasoline and the brothers haven’t been able to draw us out, they’re quickly running out of time.
I’ve been on the edge ever since.
They’ve had more than enough time to regroup following the explosion, and while Reaper and I have been dying to head out and hunt these bastards, with Shadow to worry about, we’re not willing to risk putting her in the line of danger.
We’ve been watching them like hawks, waiting for them to make a move, and from what we’ve been able to gather, they haven’t been able to locate us. Instead, they’ve attempted to draw us out, laying traps and breadcrumbs in hopes that we’ll let our guard down and come to them, but this ain’t our first rodeo, and we’re not reckless serial killers like they are. We’re hunters, and we’re ready to eat.
We’ve had their location pinned for the past four days, watching their every move, and the longer we wait, the more frustrated they become. They’re getting desperate, knowing there’s only a handful of days left in the competition, and if they don’t take us out by the end of day thirty, the sorry bastard who created this fucked up game will take us all out, which isn’t exactly a position any of us want to find ourselves in.
Don’t get me wrong, Reaper, Shadow, and I will be fine. We can handle a simple threat with ease, but the moment he realizes he can’t get to us himself, he’ll put a bounty on our heads so big that not even we can escape it.
Needing to settle this uneasiness in the pit of my stomach, I reach through the darkness and feel around for my phone, and when I don’t find it on my bedside table, I haul my ass over to the edge, making sure it didn’t fall off. “Fuck. My phone’s gone,” I say, following the cable of my charger and seeing the phone missing from the end.
“Shit.”
We both spring out of bed, and I’m halfway down the hall within the blink of an eye. “Shadow?” I call out, racing toward her room as Reaper follows behind me, his phone in his hand.
I don’t bother to knock. Instead, I just barge right through the door only to find her bed empty and her boots and weapons gone. “Fuck. She’s gone after them,” I say as we both whip around and head straight back to our room, getting ourselves dressed and ready within seconds.
“They’re on the move,” Reaper murmurs, checking the pinned location we had for the brothers and Gasoline as we load ourselves with weapons.
“Where?” I rush out just as the familiar sound of my phone ringing comes from the kitchen. My brows furrow, and I dart out of the bedroom, hurrying to catch the call with Reaper hot on my tail, both of us scanning the house as though a threat could pop out at any moment.
My phone is in the middle of the counter, and I scoop it up, finding Mila’s name across the screen. I swipe my thumb across it and lift it to my ear, then, before I can even say a word, Mila’s voice comes rushing through the phone. “Oh, thank fuck. You’re alive,” she breathes. “Did you get them all? Is it over?”
“What?” I demand, still shoving weapons into every crevice my outfit offers.
“What do you mean what ?” she questions. “I sent you their location over an hour ago. You confirmed and said you were making your move.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? I’ve been asleep the past few hours.”
“I . . . I don’t know what to tell you,” she says as I pull my phone away from my ear and put the call on speakerphone before going through my recent messages, and just as Mila suggested, she sent me a text over an hour ago letting me know they were on the move, and just as she said, there’s a confirmation text from me saying that we were on it.
“FUCK!” I grunt, grabbing Reaper’s keys and tossing them to him as I step into my boots. “That was Shadow. She took off without us.”
“Shit.”
“Where are they?” I rush out, already hearing the sound of Mila’s fingers rushing across her keyboard as we barge out the door and into Reaper’s car, not bothering to lock up behind us. What’s the point? By the time we return here, it’ll be over, and the last of the threats against our lives will be neutralized.
“I’ve got them in the old abandoned amusement park,” Mila says as Reaper peels out of the driveway, white-knuckling the steering wheel.
“Got it,” Reaper says.
He pulls to the left out of the driveway, the wheels squealing against the asphalt. It’s at least a ten-minute drive to the old amusement park, but right now, every fucking minute counts. If they’ve got her, they won’t hesitate to take her out. One wrong move, and it’s over for Shadow, and I’m not about to let that happen.
“Let me know how it goes,” Mila says, a hint of fear in her soft tone.
“I will,” I say, swallowing over the growing lump in my throat, and with that, Mila ends the call, knowing we’re in for the fight of our lives. We need to concentrate now more than ever.
“What the fuck was she thinking?” Reaper demands. “We told her they will try something like this. They drew her out, and she fell right into their fucking trap.”
“She was probably thinking that she wants this shit to be over,” I throw back at him, ready to defend that girl right to the end of the world. “She’s just a kid who’s been taught that sacrificing themselves for a mission is honorable. Let’s just focus on getting her out of there, and after that, we can rip into her about going into this bullshit alone. Until then, she’s our only focus.”
“What if it’s already too late?”
“It’s not,” I say, clenching my jaw. “I’d know.”
“You had that feeling in bed. What if—”
“Don’t say it,” I beg him. “This isn’t over yet. She’s going to be fine. She can handle herself just as well as we can, even when backed into a corner. We’re going to get her back, and the moment we do, we set our focus on them, not giving them a chance to get away again. We end this tonight no matter the cost.”
Reaper nods, his fingers tightening on the steering wheel, and the closer we get to the amusement park, the more he begins to resemble that terrifying beast I saw in the warehouse during that very first night. His eyes are as dark as night, completely hollow and void of life. He’s lethal, and that’s exactly the vibe I try to replicate.
Nothing is stopping me from getting to our girl.
“The amusement park is huge,” he tells me. “We have no choice but to split up.”
“I know,” I tell him, mentally going over the park map that I’d become accustomed to before I’d even arrived in Blue Springs. There are too many variables and too much space that needs to be covered. We need a whole fucking team for this, but it’s just us, and lucky for Shadow, we’re the best she’s ever going to get. “This is exactly what they wanted.”
Reaper nods in agreement. “Keep your wits about you. Stick to the shadows, and if you have a shot to take them out, don’t hesitate. Until this is over, you don’t stop. Watch your back and don’t falter.”
“I won’t,” I tell him, feeling that same energy pulsing through my veins just as Reaper pulls into the massive parking lot, his screeching tires alerting anyone in the vicinity that we’re here. “I’m ready.”
The car comes to a halt right by the front entrance, and Reaper reaches across, taking my hand. “Don’t fucking die,” he tells me, and all I can do is hold his stare and nod, speaking the same exact words right back to him in silence.
Don’t fucking die.
He blows out a heavy breath, and with one last squeeze of my hand, we make a break for it, both of us pouring out of the car and instantly becoming nothing more than lethal hunters moving through the entrance of the old amusement park.
Reaper goes to the left as I turn to the right, and as my feet pound against the pavement, my gaze sweeps for any sign of Shadow. My heart races in a way it never has before. I’ve been overcome by adrenaline in fight-to-the-death situations more times than I can possibly count, but this one feels different.
I’ve never felt such overwhelming fear like this before. The knot in my stomach grows, and the deeper I get into the amusement park, the tighter that knot becomes. I should have found her by now, should have found some kind of hint.
Terror grips me, and just as I loop back around an old merry-go-round for the second time, a piercing scream cuts through the night, and before the sound has even finished tearing through the sky, I’m running with one of Reaper’s custom blades in my hand.
I follow the sound, and just as I break out past a crumbling Ferris wheel, a fiery blaze cuts through the sky.
My heart sinks, and for a moment, I don’t know if that scream cutting through the night is coming from me. I keep running toward the blaze, and as my vision adjusts, I realize the firefly blaze is a cart on the rollercoaster tracks, and the scream is coming from inside it.
“Fuck.”
My gaze darts from left to right as I run faster than I’ve ever run in my life, frantically searching for Gasoline. Because where there is fire, there’s usually a redheaded bitch trying to make her escape. But not tonight. She’s not getting away with this.
My gaze darts to the rollercoaster track before sailing back to the ground. She’s gotta be close by, somewhere near the entrance of the massive ride, and just as I approach the ride, my lungs heaving for sweet oxygen, I see the flash of red I’ve been looking for.
Desperation cuts through me as she makes her getaway, and I dart to the left, lining myself up perfectly with her as I rear my arm back. “Hey, bitch,” I roar.
Gasoline glances back over her shoulder, her eyes widening in fear, realizing that she hasn’t gotten away with this, and before she has a chance to put one foot in front of the other, I fling my arm forward, letting my blade sail through the air.
It plunges right through the center of her throat with so much force, a portion of the handle becomes lodged in her airway, and I don’t bother to check just how quickly the bitch dies as I continue toward the track.
I would have loved to take her out in any other way, to make her truly pay for the hell she put Eagle through and the brutal way she attempted to do the same to me, but with Shadow on that burning cart, I have no choice but to be okay with this.
I don’t stop for the blade or even bother to collect the stack of IDs she stole off me. It doesn’t matter to me anymore. Instead, I sail on past her limp body and through the entrance of the massive rollercoaster.
The track is huge, and judging by the look of it, these rides haven’t been in use for ten or twenty years. There’s no telling what’s going to happen to that burning cart on these tracks, and with Shadow inside of it, I’m not willing to find out.
I skip over the bars that block people from stepping out onto the tracks and forge ahead. The cart is already halfway around the track, so I head in the opposite direction, ready to catch it as it passes through.
The smell of gasoline is thick in the air, and as I race along the tracks, I keep my eye on the prize, desperate to get to her.
Shadow’s squeals cut through the night, and I know without a doubt that it’s not the fear of the fiery cart that has her screaming, it’s the agonizing burn of the fire against her delicate skin.
The track bends toward the sky, and the further I run, the higher up I go, but nothing can stop me now, and as I begin to reach the very peak of the track, standing high over the amusement park, I have no choice but to try and time this just right.
The fiery cart is blazing around the tracks, traveling at a speed no human could possibly keep up with as it whips around the tracks and flies around the sharp bends. My feet don’t stop moving, and just as the cart speeds toward me on a parallel track, a bullet whizzes through the sky, grazing my upper arm.
“FUCK!” I screech, ducking down just in time to miss another.
The cart is barreling closer, and I don’t even get a chance to look back to see who’s shooting before I have to jump, launching myself off the track and through the air. My body crashes down into the fiery cart, slamming into Shadow’s chest as three more bullets sail past us.
“Shit,” I say as Shadow lets out a loud cry at the impact of my body slamming into her chest.
I adjust myself in the small space, narrowly avoiding the flames creeping up the sides of the cart every time we begin to lose momentum. I’m frantically trying to figure out how to get her out of here while being all too aware of the deep dive the cart is about to take down the track. There are cable ties locked around her wrists and ankles, but I keep searching, knowing these cable ties aren’t an issue for Shadow. That’s when I notice the heavy rope wrapped around her chest, bracing her to the cart.
Another bullet whizzes by, and I curse under my breath. “Who the fuck is shooting at me?”
“The Boneyard Slayer,” Shadow yells over the noise of the roaring wind whipping past us.
“Fuck,” I grunt, trying to focus on the issue at hand.
My blades will easily get through the rope, but there’s so much of it that neither of us are about to get out of this cart without injury, and having said that, I get straight to work slicing through the cable ties at her wrists and ankles.
“What the fuck did you think you were doing coming here alone?” I demand, starting on the thick ropes as I keep my head down, hidden away from the constant bullets, but I’m not worried. If it were anyone else, the bullets might actually have a chance of taking me out, but The Boneyard Slayer is a lousy shot.
I tear through the bottom rope, giving Shadow enough space to start moving her arms and the second she can, she grabs a knife from my thigh holster and gets right to work, frantically trying to help me free her.
“You said we were a family,” Shadow grunts as the wind whips violently through my hair. “This is what family does for each other. I couldn’t stand the thought of you two going out and trying to save me when I could have saved us all.”
“This is your idea of saving us?” I say, noticing the fresh tears in her eyes. “Shit, Shadow. Do you have any idea—fuck. We can fight about it later, for now, we just need to get you out of here.”
“What about you?” she demands as more bullets sail over our heads, one of them getting way too close to Shadow.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine,” I say, slicing through another rope as the flames blister my skin.
We cut through enough rope that Shadow is finally able to shimmy out of the destroyed bindings, and just as she’s free enough and goes to pull herself away from the blaze at her back, she looks up ahead on the track. “Shit,” she grunts.
I look back over my shoulder, seeing the way the track takes a steep dive before sailing straight into a twisting loop, and with neither of us locked into this damn cart, there’s no way we could both hold on. Then grabbing a gun out of my holster, I shove it at her chest. “RUN!”
“But you—”
“FUCKING RUN, SHADOW.”
She clenches her jaw, and after closing her hand around the gun, she climbs up onto the small seat of the burning cart and launches herself onto the track. She doesn’t skip a beat, breaking into a sprint through the barrage of bullets, and just as I see Shadow’s head disappear behind the raging flames, I have just enough time to clutch onto the burning handlebar of the cart as it falls down the massive dip of the track.
My body flies, jolting around inside the cart, and when it whips around the loops, I’m thrown out of the cart, barely having enough strength to hold on. I do everything in my power to swing my legs up into the upside-down cart, and just as I do, we hit another loop, throwing me out again.
The track quickly levels out, swooping low to the ground, but not being the end of the ride, I have only a second to get off the rollercoaster from hell. Just as the burning cart hits the lowest point of the track, I jump, throwing myself into a forward roll on the hard asphalt.
My back grazes the ground, my skin tearing to shreds, but I spring back to my feet because this fucking ride is not even close to over. With Shadow free, I take off after The Boneyard Slayer.
He sees me coming from a mile away, and as I dodge and weave past every bullet he’s got, he realizes the game is up. There’s not a damn thing he can do to get away from me now, and I’m not even a little bit surprised when fear flashes in his eyes and he turns to run, knowing he doesn’t stand a goddamn chance against me.