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Pop! Pop! Pop!
More rounds of tinny sounding shots were fired into the kitchen. A couple of them pierced the overhead baking oven, and some ricocheted along the chrome storage cabinets, whizzing by and threatening to hit us no matter where we hid.
“Out front, but those shots sound like they’re coming from the back,” Leo shouted over the noise.
One bullet hit the sack of flour Harper had been using, inches from the very spot where she’d been standing. The force exploded white powder everywhere around us, creating a thin cloud of particles that the sunbeams made flicker and seem to hang in the air. Then a half-filled jar of what I guessed was mayonnaise got hit, sending shards of glass flying in every direction and driving Harper to crouch and cower into my arms.
“You stay with her!” Leo shouted. “I need to get a better look.”
“More like neutralize these motherfuckers. I should be watching your six!” I told him.
“No. Keep Harper here. I’ll be fine.”
Terror and shock played on Harper’s face. Her body shivered uncontrollably in my arms, and I tightened my hold on her, hoping to reassure her. But no amount of coddling could console her, just as no amount of telling her it’d be okay could save her from facing the fact that Leo was right all along.
This was the scenario he’d been hoping to avoid since we’d left O’Sullivan’s fucking mansion, and now we were facing it in a location with so many weak points and dangers. I didn’t know much about security or even fighting like Leo did, but I knew we were fucked.
As Leo hustled off with his body low to the ground, ducking another round of gunfire, I could picture the grimace on his face. He was probably stomping mad, sweating bullets, and swearing under his breath that he’d let Harper convince us to bring her here without so much as a cursory threat risk assessment on the place. Sure, he’d taken a quick look around the perimeter and spent hours with her while his men guarded the exterior, but I knew Leo. He was sure to beat himself up over this attack later.
“Why?” Harper whimpered at my neck. “Why is this happening?”
“Shhh,” I told her, my eyes darting around the space. This kitchen had way too many smooth surfaces for the spray of bullets to bounce off of. So much food stuff was getting hit, and all that flour hung in the air, making visibility low as fuck. I needed to find us better cover. “Try not to think about that right now.”
“Why would they go this far when they haven’t even said a word to me or made a threat?”
“This is the type of people the O’Sullivans are. They don’t make threats. They eliminate them. The dead body in the freezer was proof of that. But it’s okay. I don’t blame you for any of this. No one could anticipate where or when they’d come after you, and I get it. We couldn’t expect you to take our word for it and just shut down your business.”
“I just…I can’t believe this,” she cried as another shot pinged off the wall
“We can get better cover in the walk-in fridge. Is there a way to lock it from the inside without locking ourselves in?”
“Yes, these newer ones have a failsafe,” she said absently, her breathing ragged.
“Stay down and follow me.”
Her hands clung to me, fingers digging into my flesh. “I don’t want to die.” When I tilted her chin toward me to get her to calm down, I saw the tears streaming down her face. It fucking broke me to know she was this frightened. She was a caterer. What the hell did she know about this kind of shit?
“We won’t let that happen. Just do what I say.”
Tucking her into my left side, I shielded her and led with my right, guiding her closer to the fridge door. The fucking bullets wouldn’t stop, even as I got her inside and shoved the door shut behind us. At least within the sounds were muffled. We sat on a couple of empty plastic milk crates in silence. Harper shivered in my arms, letting out little whimpers for close to five minutes until I heard a heavy hand pounding on the outside of the door.
“Dane, it’s me,” Leo’s muffled voice called out. “They’re gone.” I swung the door open and he waved us out. “We need to leave now.”
“They ran off that fast?”
“More like circling the block to prepare to finish the job. Or leaving because someone had to have called the cops.” His eyes flashed toward Harper then returned to me. “Are either of you hurt at all?”
“No.”
“Let’s debrief when we’re clear of those fuckers. I don’t want to get involved with the police.”
We followed him out of the fridge, grabbing Harper’s purse on the way to the front door, our bodies crouched low behind his broad frame in case things heated up again. One of Leo’s guys waved us out to the open back door of the first of two SUVs idling at the curb. After Harper and I climbed inside, Leo had the presence of mind to run back inside for keys to the place, tossing them to one of his men. He gave some instructions then jumped into the driver’s seat, barely giving himself a second to shut the door before speeding off, the tires squealing.
We couldn’t get out of there fast enough for me.
“That was close,” he told me, catching my gaze in the rear-view mirror.
Close? Way too fucking close.
