Page 4 of Tainted Essence

“Take the next left, there's five cars chasing us, not four. Two will go after them and three will come after us,” she says in a matter of fact tone.

“How do you know that?” I ask as she unfastens her seatbelt.

“I’m the one they need to leverage my mother for the formula, not them. They know who London is and if they are dumb enough to try to take out Bishop Murdoch's granddaughter, they know it means death. They would know this is a suicide mission anyway, because there is no way Royal won’t skin them alive for endangering his baby girl.”

Fuck it!

I bank left and sure enough, three cars follow us. I plant my foot down on the gas as I dodge in and out of cars, trying to get away. When I spy her out of the corner of my eye pushing out the window and resting her ass on the edge, I dart my arm out to try pull her back inside the fucking car. When she fires the first shot, I leave her be and grind my teeth in rage—if she falls to her fucking death, I know without a doubt that I will be executed by her family.

The cunts return fire. Instead of ducking back inside the safety of the car like I thought she would, she surprises me when she stays put and fires off round after round, finally landing a shot on one of the cars, sending it careening into one of the parked vehicles at the curb. The two behind it don’t slow down. She ducks back inside the car and secures her seatbelt like she didn’t just act like she was fucking Rambo.

“What the fuck was that?” I seethe.

“Me helping you, dipshit. Take the next right and then head back toward the club. We'll lose them in the frenzy of people.” I tighten my grip on the steering wheel, not liking her ordering me around, I’m not used to that shit. Knox may be the Don and my formal title may be underboss, but we don’t operate like that. We’re partners. With Xander not being with us, we had to learn to cope as a duo instead of a trio. Xan pledged his loyalty to Wave and that shit earned both mine and Knox’s respect. He’s a brother and best friend, the fact he was willing to go to war with us in order to stand by her side showed us how much he loves Wave.

“Here, take this,” I say as I hand her my gun.

“Why?” she queries.

“Three more cars just joined the chase, the fact they aren’t trying to take out the two chasing us means they are with them.” She turns in her seat and curses just as my phone rings. I answer the call knowing who it is.

“I already know, Artemis,” I say.

“We’re doubling back?—”

I cut him off before he can continue. “No. It’s too late, there's a road block ahead.” Destiny follows my line of sight to see three SUVs parked across the road, blocking it with men standing with machine guns, I slow down buying us some time as I try to think of a plan.

“Hang on, I'm adding Royal to the call.” Within a second Royal’s voice filters through the speakers.

“Ram those fuckers and don’t stop,” he snarls.

“I’m in a rental car, no bulletproof glass and I’m not risking her,” I sneer.

“Destiny, you fucking run. Do you hear me?” The sheer panic in Gage’s tone has me feeling like a complete waste of space that I am the reason his daughter is in this position.

Destiny looks to me as she answers, “I won’t let them get the formula.” My brows raise at her insinuation. I snatch the gun from her grasp and glare at her.

“Listen to me, we have three seconds tops before I hit the brakes. You don’t fight, you do as they say,” I say hoping she obeys me.

“Taylan, they will kill you,” comes from Chaos.

“No, they won’t.” Destiny frowns at my answer. I shoot her wink. “No one knows who Royal Murdoch is…” I let my sentence trail off as I toss my gun in the back.

“You sneaky son of a bitch,” Royal says, I can hear the humor in his tone as I bring the car to a stop and I turn to Destiny.

“When we get out, you shout out anything you see about these guys, we don’t know who they are, anything you say they will be able to hear and track.” I tear my gaze from her to see the fuckers in front of us approaching. “Royal, mute the call, Gage won’t like what he hears and I can’t risk him fucking this one chance we have until you all find us.”

“Protect her with your life. Destiny, I’m coming for you, kill as many as you can, champ.” At the sound of her father’s voice, she turns rigid.

“Bye, Daddy,” she whispers as she shoves her door open and climbs out with her hands up.

“I’ll lay my life down for hers, I’ll keep her safe,” I vow before I rush to follow after her.

Destiny

It takes them four seconds from the moment Taylan climbs out to come at me. “Ski masks, AK-47’s, MG 42 and 43’s, M60 rifle, License plate G49-2368,” is all I manage to say before I take a left jab to the mouth. The metallic tangy flavor of my blood fills my mouth as I stumble backward. “Come on, motherfucker!” I scream in false bravado.

“Don’t fucking touch her, you cocksucker!” Taylan roars as he tries to fight off the fuckers holding him back. For a split second my gaze collides with his and that’s when I see fear, not for himself but for me. The trance is broken when another hit lands to my stomach. I gasp and drop to my knees as two cunts grab my arms and yank them behind me. I feel a cable tie slip around my wrists a second before a black bag is placed over my head and I’m dragged toward a car. “Slayer?” I hear Taylan call out, I open my mouth to answer but my head is shoved from the back and I smack into something hard and solid. I grind my teeth fighting to keep from crying out at the pain radiating through my skull.

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