Page 7 of Ballistic

Single shots volleyed back. One, two. Three, four, five.

Hands set on each panel of the van’s back door, Camo boy paused, as if to listen.

That’s when I charged forward.

Barrel leading the way, I shot twice, and the bastard hid behind the door panel. Still jogging toward him, I aimed for another shot.

A hum whizzed past me, and I could just make out the business end of his gun directed at my face.

Ducking alongside the storage unit to the left, I dodged his next bullet that ricocheted off the concrete in front of me. He shot again.

I fired back two more shots.

In the pause that followed, I watched his feet move beneath the vehicle, and I charged again, darting across the space that separated us. At the rear of the vehicle, I peeked around the corner and found him crouched alongside the van’s front tire.

I could’ve laughed my ass off at the sight of him, completely unaware I’d advanced on him. Instead, I stepped around the corner, lining up my next shot.

The second his arm raised, I popped him twice, blowing a hole in the side of his face, nailing the stain on his cheek, and another through his neck. Blood spilled from his wounds as he scrambled across the dirt, as if that would save him. As if the panic in his eyes and the gape of his mouth would somehow reverse the damage. His gun lay just out of reach, but he had bigger concerns—ones that’d begun to sap the color from his face, turning his skin a pallid white, in spite of all that red.

Leaving him to flop like a fish out of water, I climbed into the back of the van.

Shots continued to fire, their intensity prodding my muscles to hurry and identify the girl. Tugging my cell from my back pocket, I flipped on the flashlight and angled the beam onto the body stretched across the bed, writhing and moaning. Bruises stained the pale white skin stretched over thin bones. Each arm lay strapped to the bed by thick leather cuffs, most of the body covered by a white sheet. The narrow face and long lashes told me she was a girl, despite the shaved head. She hardly stilled, as I stretched open her eyelids to find warm amber irises.

It was her. I’d never forget those eyes or mistake them.

‘The fuck did they give her?

“Please,” she slurred, grinding her heels against the mattress. “Ead … den. Eat… ten.”

Confusion muddling my head, I leaned in closer. “What’re you trying to say?”

Instead of answering, she rolled her head back and forth against the mattress, teeth clenched.

I dragged my gaze back to her bruises, and some irrational rage burned in my muscles. Of course they’d done shit to her—I knew that much. I just hadn’t anticipated the way it would hit me once I found her. A total stranger, yet the sight of her suffering struck me the same as it had when I’d found the video of Livvie, my sister, abused on camera. The urge to kill had my fists flexing at my sides, and I clamped my eyes shut, taking in the gunshots off in the distance.

A crash tensed my muscles, and I pushed to the front cab of the van, staring through the windshield. Smoke rose up from a black SUV that’d slammed into the brick exterior of the building ahead.

Tesarik?

I exited the van and jogged toward it, eyes scanning the damage.

One of the guards lay half hanging out of the busted out windshield of the SUV. Another male lay off from the others, his face smashed and bloody. Still no sign of the bastard anywhere, though.

Bullet holes decorated the adjacent steel door of the storage unit. Against the wall, Evander sat crouched, hunched over himself, and the sight of blood had me rushing toward him.

“’The fuck happened?”

“Ah, you know … shit.” Evander groaned, and I peeled back his bloodied shirt to see he’d taken two shots in his arm—one that looked like it’d blown right through an exit wound on his triceps. “Another guy came outta nowhere. Must’ve had the SUV hidden in one of the units.”

“Where’s Rhys and Xavier?”

“Rhys’s got one of ‘em. Xavier’s checking the units for any girls.”

“I’m gonna get you to the hospital, man. Sit tight.”

“I’m all right. You find the girl?”

“Yeah. I did.”