Page 96 of Vicious

It turns out, I don’t get the opportunity to find out. When Jake is a little closer, Baba suddenly makes a dash for it. Jake lets out a surprised cry and turns his attention entirely to Baba.

Baba crashes into Jake, knocking them both to the ground.

“May, Chase, get out of here!” Baba shouts.

I instinctively go for him, but pain freezes me in my tracks long enough for Chase to grab my arm and pull me in the other direction. I let out a yelp, but I don’t have the strength to fight him.

“Baba!” I scream as I hear the sound of a gunshot ring out. “Chase, I can’t?—”

“We have to go!” Chase shouts. “May, if we don’t run, we’re going to be next!”

And I just let him pull me along.

I leave Baba behind.

CHAPTER 27

Chase

The gunshot still echoes in my ears, and I don’t have high hopes that Simon survived his tussle with Jake the Lender.

May’s hand is cold in mine, and I don’t think that’s a good sign. I don’t like the blood on her shirt, or the bags under her eyes.

I want to stop to hug her and reassure her and whip her for daring to leave me, but we don’t have that luxury.

I need to get May to safety, but we’re on the wrong side of the building. Drake and Pavone’s man Slayer went in on the other side while I snuck in the back to retrieve May. It was supposed to be easy.

I should have known better, but I hadn’t been thinking rationally. I just needed to see May.

“There’s the exit,” I say to May, pointing to a door. Once we’re out, we can circle around the building to where Hunter is waiting.

May doesn’t say anything, but her grip on my hand tightens.

I push the door open, only to shout when another gunshot rings out and a bullet embeds itself in the door.

“Don’t fucking move,” Jake shouts from behind us. “Brad! I found ‘em!”

Fuck. I push May through the door first. “Run!” I tell her.

I glance over my shoulder just in time to see Jake and his goon running towards us. I dash through the door and close it behind me just in time to block another bullet.

The building is in a remote part of the state, surrounded by forest. It’s hotter out here than it was in the building, the last vestiges of summer making themselves known. Even the afternoon hour doesn’t offer much reprieve.

I see May grimace, putting one hand to the red spot on her shirt as she starts to run. She isn’t very fast, but I can’t help but admire how courageous she is, how determined, as she takes off on the flight of our lives.

I could easily outpace her, but I stay just behind her. I’m not going to rescue her only to let her get shot immediately after.

“No matter what happens, keep running,” I tell her. “Got it?”

She casts a pained look at me, and I see tears streaming down her cheeks. They can’t be helping her see, but she still maneuvers through the woods better than I expected given her condition.

“Okay,” she croaks.

Another bullet rings out behind us, and while the shot wildly misses, it’s still another reminder that danger is right on our heels. These men aren’t going to let us go easily.

“Hunter and Drake are waiting on the other side of the building,” I tell May. “But I don’t want to risk the goons spotting us. We’re better off going farther into the woods and hiding until they lose us.”

“I don’t know how much longer I can keep running,” May admits to me, and her gait is already slowing.

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