Page 59 of Forged in Peril

“Gabe, it’s an emergency,” he said under his breath. “Don’t talk. We need the police to block off Costa Street and Cherry Road, and I need immediate, armed backup at the side entrance and the garage. Hurry.”

He hung up, confident that Gabe would handle his requests in mere minutes, but minutes would be too long if he wanted to save Bristol before she was shoved into that van.

His knuckles white against the leather of the steering wheel, he eased the Maserati into a parallel space a few cars up from the van, not daring to look over his shoulder to check on Bristol.

He took a deep breath, grabbed his pistol from the glove box, and slid out through the passenger door.

BRISTOL

Bristol walked as slowly as possible, desperate to buy herself every second of time that she could.

She tried to ignore the feeling of the gun against her back, but all she could imagine was it going off, and the pain blinding her as the bullet lodged into her spine.

She closed her eyes for several long seconds, letting the man guide her closer to the van, struggling to fill her lungs with air.

She never thought she’d feel as helpless as she had that night in Dillon Warrington’s office.

She was wrong.

She opened her eyes, a surge of anger rising within her.

“What do you want?” she demanded, figuring if he wanted to kill her, he was going to do it anyway, whether she angered him or not.

He didn’t answer, and ignoring her terror, she turned her head as far as she could while still walking, trying to get a look at his face.

She felt a fresh jolt of pain searing down her tailbone as the man jabbed her again, hard.

“Nice try,” he said, chuckling. “Face forward, act natural. Just a sexy girl on a date with her handsome boyfriend.”

Before she could decide whether to push the man further, she noticed Cameron cruising past them, facing straight ahead, driving some kind of black sports car she didn’t recognize.

She did as the man had told her to, facing straight ahead even as she heard Cameron pulling the car to a stop somewhere up ahead.

The man behind her didn’t seem to have recognized him. He probably thought he was one of the usual wealthy civilians who frequented the area, looking for a decent parking space while he shopped or ate nearby.

She wanted to scream at him to get away, to go around to the front and to call the police.

This man wanted her alive, at least for the next few minutes, but she had no reason to think he’d have any qualms with gunning Cam down in broad daylight.

It was all her fault.

If she’d listened to him, neither of them would be in danger now. Instead, she’d chosen her own pride, and she couldn’t bear the idea of Cameron paying the price.

As the van drew nearer, she heard the sound of a phone ringing behind her.

The man paused, pulling her to a stop while he answered. She could still feel the gun touching her back, but he’d eased up some, mumbling something into the phone that she couldn’t make out.

Clearly, the man was distracted, but she’d never make it to the side door or the garage gate if he decided to open fire as she ran. Her sanctuary was so close, but at the moment, it may as well have been on the moon.

“Okay, okay, I hear you,” the man was saying, his voice rough and loud against her ears. He made no effort to lower his volume.

Not that anyone else save Cameron was around.

She couldn’t make out any other words on the other end, but she could hear yelling.

“Calm down, boss–”

There was another angry shout, and then the phone went silent.

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