Page 45 of Own

I slid right out of them and made a leap even as Voodoo helped. Then we were all going over the edge.

Closing my eyes, I held on for dear life. Then we were on the ground.

“You’re clear through the gardens,” Alphabet said. “Bones is on the way to meet you. You have one minute, guards are incoming.”

“Can you run on bare feet?” Voodoo asked as I wiggled down.

“Yes.” Because right now I had no choice.

“Stay with Lunchbox.” He nodded. “I’ll cover.”

Hand in hand, we raced through the darkened garden. Gun fire erupted sporadically behind us. Worse, there was breaking glass erupting behind us. An alarm went off on Lunchbox’s wrist.

“Down,” he ordered, pulling me to him and all but rolling me beneath him even as Voodoo landed on top of us. The next boom that came was alotlouder. Debris rained down.

“What the fuck was that?” Voodoo demanded as they both pulled me to my feet.

“Boomer on their wine cellar to let their guests out. They’re going to be busy and those people didn’t need to be down there.”

“East gate,” Bones growled. “Now.”

Thankfully, that wasn’t that far and as sore as my feet were, I was almost floating by the time we got there. Four men lay in a heap just inside the gate.

Guards.

None of them were moving.

Or breathing.

Bones held out his hand. It shouldn’t have surprised me that he picked me up and sprinted with me. He’d done the same when we’d had to leave the guys before. But this was different.

The guys were with us for one.

They didn’t slow down as they raced through the dark and I held on, trying to make myself small. When we got to the van, he set me down inside it.

“You did good,” he murmured, touching a hand to my cheek. “You did real good.”

I blew out a breath. Lunchbox was climbing in the driver’s seat as Voodoo slid into the back with me. Then the vehicle was starting and I sagged into the seat.

“Nothing went to plan,” I said, panting. “How did I do good?” The plan hadn’t called for them to extract me withbombs.

“You adapted,” Voodoo said, cupping my cheek. “Went with it. Followed orders. That’s why you did good, Firecracker.”

“Always did like it when a plan has some wiggle room,” Lunchbox said almost cheerfully.

“Even if we have to make it ourselves,” Alphabet commented drily.

“Exactly.”

Another laugh bubbled out of me. They were crazy.

We were all crazy.

Chapter

Sixteen

GRACE

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