Page 2 of Own

The order came from behind me and I ducked, covering my head and Goblin’s with one of my arms as I curled over him.

Three rapid-fire shots exploded over my head. There was a shatter of glass and a horrific meatythunkthen a clatter before the car jerked forward again.

The door thudded to the frame, not quite catching because it swung open as Bones navigated around another corner. I tightened my grip on Goblin and the seatbelt. The last thing I wanted to do was fly out of the car.

Something like the wee-woo sound of the local police or maybe an ambulance penetrated the roar in my ears. My hearing returning? Good. The warning of that rising siren? Not so much.

We slid around another hairpin curve, and it was definitely a slide with the rear of the car leading us around. I managed to steal a look at Bones. His expression was a fierce mask of concentration. A feral energy radiated off him as he seemed to glare ahead of us.

When the car slowed, I tried to suck in a deep breath. My ribs ached. My head hurt. My teeth felt like I’d been clenching them too hard. With a sudden lurch forward, the vehicle bucked like a wild bull released from a chute.

Just as abruptly, Bones slammed on the brakes and we were reversing backwards at nearly the same speed we’d been going forwards only to come to another sudden and violent stop as the second of the two motorbikes crashed into the back of the car.

There was no mistaking the crunch of metal, the crush of glass and the vivid image of a helmeted head striking the rear window. A spidery pattern of cracked window radiated out from where the helmet struck.

Unlike with the man who struck the open door, the rider didn’t lift his head. Horror slow-crawled through me as we pitched forward again and the body didn’t move. Or at least the helmet didn’t. One of his hands was partiallythroughthe glass and my stomach rolled.

I tried to breathe through my mouth as the body bounced and shifted with the movement of the car. Were they still alive in that helmet and just unconscious? Were they staring sightlessly forward?

Between the rusty smell of blood, the musky stink of my own flop sweat, the cloying stink of burnt rubber, and the acrid smell of charcoal and sulfur—probably from the gun Bones had been firing—mingled with something that might have been gasoline, it took everything I had to not vomit.

Another hard turn, then a hard jolt of brakes as the car sputtered before the engine came back to life and he gunned it down what appeared to be an alleyway. I watched it all fly past kind of distantly as I flexed my fingers around the straps of Goblin’s harness. Metal sheared as he took a corner too tightly and there was a crunch and a thunk.

The body on the back window was abruptly gone. All that remained was a glove still partially through the cracked glass. My stomach rolled and I squeezed my eyes shut.

Please don’t have a hand in there. Please don’t have a hand in there. I rocked from side to side with the vehicle as we navigated these ancient routes. They had to be ancient really, narrow and bouncy with the cobblestones.

The sunlight cut abruptly and we were under cover inside a parking garage. It took me a moment to let my eyes adjust. He wound us down. Oh, the parking garage must be inside a hill. That made sense.

The guttural cough and choke of the engine replaced the hiss of static in my ears. Oh my hearing was definitely coming back. Goblin panted. I stopped pressing down against him so tightly and he slurped my face.

Finally, we came to a stop and Bones twisted in the front seat to whip off his sunglasses and look at me. “Show me.”

The order pulled me around and I raised my eyebrows. My sunglasses had disappeared somewhere in the wild bumper car ride we’d taken. When he touched two fingers to my jaw, it was the lightest of brushes and I tipped my head obediently. When he ran a thumb along my throat to my collarbone, it stung and I grimaced.

“Just a cut.”

I’d gotten cut?

“It’s not bad,” he said and his voice was so deep, and had a bit of a growl like the engine had. “But I want to clean that out. We need to leave this car here.”

I glanced at the cracked back window, then the door that still hadn’t closed all the way, before looking at the front where it was also sporting a couple of bullet holes. “Are you okay?”

“Good enough,” he said. “Let’s go, I want to stash you and Goblin away from the car while I get us alternate transport.”

Oh, that totally made sense. I carefully unwound my arm from the seatbelt. The strap had dug grooves into my skin and I winced. Definitely some burn from the nylon. Bones slid out then opened the rear passenger door behind the driver’s seat.

He snapped his fingers and Goblin pivoted and jumped out. He wasn’t limping.

That was a good sign, right?

I followed him, but I was a lot shakier and if Bones hadn’t gripped my arm, I was pretty sure I would have dropped on the spot. My legs were spaghetti.

“You’re a very good driver,” I told him, then patted his chest as I firmed my legs beneath me.

He quirked a brow at me. “Is that so?”

“Yes,” I confirmed. Taking a couple of shakier steps forward before I glanced back at the vehicle. It was more than a little crunched. The rear bumper was gone, as were the hubcaps on this side. Nearly every single window sported some damage.

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