Page 154 of Like Grim Death: Part One
But when I start to shuffle past Ezra, keeping low, he grabs my arm and hauls me back, slamming me against the brick building behind me. His hand shoots to my chest, pinning me there as he gets in my fucking face.
“You’ve got a kid, dumbass. I sure as fuck don’t want to raise him.” I can scent the alcohol on his breath as he hisses the words, and I know he doesn’t mean it as an insult.
My heart thrums too fast inside my ribcage when he’s this close to my face. I see his long, dark lashes, wet from the storm. The brighter green pieces in his hazel eyes. A drop of rain running down his nose.
Loyalty.
I feel it with Ezra, here.And what am I doing? Going behind everyone’s back. Maybe it’s for a good reason, like what I wanted to do just now, shielding Ez from the opening. But just like this moment, they might not appreciate it anyway.
He shoves me back again, ensuring I don’t move, then turns his head, sweeping his gaze over the rectangular entrance to the alley, buildings looming on either side of it.
I shift my body, looking around him, even as he flings out his arm to catch me in the chest, making sure I don’t expose too much of myself. Behind me, Maverick tells Sevryn to move, and I feel them shuffling their positions, then Mav is right beside me, all four of us squatting down to make our body mass smaller.
“Who the fuck do you think that was?” Mav says in my ear.
More cars zoom by, traffic nonexistent in the storm. I can see the reflection of a green stoplight, hazy on a growing puddle. “Someone trying to keep alive who we’re going to kill,” I mutter under my breath.
“They didn’t try very hard,” Mav comments and Ez laughs, dropping his arm from my chest.
“Yeah,” I say, keeping my eyes on the entrance. “We’re Unsaints. They’re not gonna fuck with us too heavy—”
Before the words can leave my mouth, another explosion pops off, the bullet sailing over our heads.
“Get them.”I snarl the words out as Mav, Ezra, and I do exactly that, the three of us fanning out but keeping low as we aim toward the entrance, the direction the bullet came from.
I see nothing as the guns pop off, my finger squeezing the trigger for the third time. It’s dangerous, stupid, firing into a street like this, but oddly enough, the cars have stopped coming by, like everyone knows a gang war is taking place right now.
The bullets scatter into the street, maybe a few strike the brick face of the building opposite us.
We all stop shooting, holding our breath.
My entire body is tense, my ears ringing as I think of Rain and Sid and everything I’d do to get home to them in one fucking piece.
My heart actually aches, pressure building behind my eyes. I never used to be afraid to die. In fact, I used to want it.
Not now. Not anymore.
I blink away the burn in my eyes, keeping my gun aimed, one hand braced against my inner elbow. Seconds tick by. The rain thins the slightest, not that it matters. My hoodie is already stuck to my body, my sweats too.
The minutes stretch on and I think we’re in the clear as the ringing in my ears dies down.
But a second later, my limbs going numb from squatting, I see a figure of darkness, running across the alley entrance.
“Hold back,” I mutter, because whoever it is isn’t looking our way.
Flaps of a long, black coat trail after what I think is a woman, judging by the curves I see from here. High black boots, a hood that falls away, revealing inky black hair with one shocking stripe of white.
Beside me, Ezra stiffens, his shoulder bumping mine.
I turn to look at him as the woman disappears.
He’s staring after her, his lips pressed together.
“Who the fuck was that?” I hiss.
He doesn’t answer for a second. Then he just says, “No one. Let’s go.”
I’m glad I didn’t bother to bring a lock pick. After we entered the door at the top of the fire escape, made our way here, into a narrow corridor that smells of mildew and rot, trudging mud and rainwater behind us, I realized this job doesn’t have to be neat, in terms of breaking in.
