Page 148 of Oathbreaker

“Did someone just shoot at us?” Winter’s voice pierces through my chest, her fear amplifying my anxiety.

“ID on the vehicles.” My words cut through the air, sharp and pissed off. When Rio maneuvers between a city bus and a minivan, my back slams into the seat.

I grab the gun and clip sitting inside the center console of the back seat. I hand it to Winter as Rio’s speed tops over a hundred.

“Is someone following us?” The wide-eyed expression on Winter’s face telegraphs her frantic thoughts. Her hand covers her stomach, trying to protect our child with the only thing she has.

“Load it,” I tell her, putting the gun and clip on the seat in front of her.

Her hands tremble as she reaches for the gun and does as she’s told.

I take the risk of leaning down toward her, putting my hand on the back of her neck so that I can force her to face me.

“Calm,” I say in a hard voice. “Calm yourself.”

She breathes in and out in fractured spurts, and after a few cycles, her breathing smooths.

“Ghosts, boss,” Jared’s disembodied voice says.

Pop-pop-pop erupts from the speaker a split second after I see the car on the left careen into the interstate median.

“Vehicle one is down, sir,” Carlos, the other occupant behind us, says.

“Stay with us,” I demand.

“You don’t want us to assess?”

“No.” If Winter wasn’t in the car, then yes, but with her trembling in the back seat, whimpering....

Fucking focus.

Rio weaves between a few cars. “We’re too exposed,” he says.

Winter’s choking sobs break through the tension. “What’s going on?” she cries with her eyes closed.

“Take the next exit,” I demand, swinging my body to the front passenger seat. “Stay down, baby,” I say over my shoulder to Winter.

I barely hear her strangled, “Okay.”

I want to haul her into my arms—to cover her body with mine. I’d gladly take a spray of bullets if it meant she were safe.

The remaining SUV revs up, weaving around a car and popping onto the emergency lane before swerving back over two lanes of traffic.

I lift my gun, ready to fire, when they suddenly decelerate. Fast.

“They just fell back and exited,” Rio says. He sounds just as confused as I am.

“Confirm,” I bark into the speakerphone.

“Confirmed. Do you want us to disable this vehicle and assess?”

“No,” I say.

I hear the other man say a low “fuck,” an utterance he obviously didn’t intend on me hearing.

“Everything looks normal now, boss,” Rio says, his eyes still scanning the vehicles around us.

This does little to ease my anxiety.

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