Page 91 of Emmy's Ride

Jax was on his laptop, his face grim. “I’ve been monitoring the dark web. There’s chatter—someone put a bounty out on us. Mercs are on their way.”

My stomach dropped.

“If we stay, we die,” Jax continued. “If we move, we could be walking into a trap.”

I blew out a breath. I didn’t like those odds, but I had never played by the rules. I knew when to use them and when to shit all over them.

My first priority was getting Luke to a hospital before we lost him. There was only one person who could help me pull that off.

I pulled out my phone and dialed. Detective Ryan Cole answered on the second ring.

“Austin,” he said, his voice edged with both concern and warning. “I had a feeling I’d be hearing from you.”

“I need a favor,” I said without preamble.

Cole sighed. “Of course you do.”

“We need to get out of Mexico now,” I said. “And I need a guarantee that Luke gets into a hospital without getting us all killed.”

There was a long pause.

“You realize what you’re asking?” Cole finally said. “I can’t just pull a magic string and make all your problems disappear.”

“No,” I said. “But I can offer you something in return.”

Another beat of silence.

“I’m listening.”

I took a breath. “The Ghost slipped through our fingers. But help us get out of Mexico alive, and I’ll work with you to help bring him in.”

Cole didn’t respond immediately, and I knew why. The Ghost had been a thorn in his side for years. A criminal mastermind who never left a trail. The FBI had tried and failed to catch him too many times.

Cole exhaled. “You’re serious about this?”

“If it means keeping my people safe? Yeah. I’m serious.”

Another pause.

“I’ll see what I can do.” The line went dead.

I lowered the phone. We had a plan. Now, we just had to survive long enough to make it work.

The safehouse felt smaller with every second that passed. We were sitting ducks, waiting for Cole to come through.

I paced near the door, my gun resting against my thigh. Every instinct in me screamed to move, to act, but this was a waiting game.

Riot leaned against the wall, silent, his fingers tapping against his knee in an uneven rhythm. Across the room, Jax was still at his laptop, trying to stay ahead of the mercenaries closing in on us.

Luke lay motionless on the table, his breathing uneven, his skin cold and clammy. Jax had done what he could, but without real medical care, it was a losing battle.

Emmy sat in the corner, her arms wrapped around her herself. She hadn’t spoken since she snapped at me earlier. She was still covered in Javier’s blood, but she hadn’t seemed to notice.

I knelt in front of her. “Emmy,” I said quietly.

Her gaze flicked to me, but there was no real focus, no spark of the woman I knew.

I reached out, hesitating for just a second before brushing my knuckles against her cheek. “You’re still with me?”

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