Page 150 of Javier

I bit down on my lip, clasped my hands together, and glanced up at Javier. He sat on the bench seat, leaning his head against the window, his eyes hooded. Only the sheen of sweat glistening on his face and the tight clench of his jaw revealed he wasn’t taking a harmless tour of the countryside.

“Move to the second row,” he murmured. “Get under the seat, make yourself small, and stay there. If you faint, you’ll be safer back there.”

I started to get up. Then I paused and looked around me. Dash drove with one hand on the wheel and a gun in his other hand. Micah handled the tablet and his rifle. Thena sat on the last row with her weapon ready, looking like her namesake, the goddess of war and wisdom. Javier propped his carbine against his chest and clicked off the safety, ignoring the pain that swelled his fingers to the size of sausages.

I plopped back down on the seat. “I’m not hiding and I’m not fainting either.”

“This is no time to be stubborn.” Javier glowered at me. “Move to safety. Now.”

“No.” A cool calm descended on me, a strange and eerie sensation.

He blinked several times. “Angel, please—”

“Don’t you Angel me.” I aimed an attitude-rich glare at him. “I’m not a kid. I’m part of this team now. I need a weapon.”

He straightened on his seat. “You don’t do weapons.”

“You taught me how to use the gun when Rozina tried to abduct me, remember?”

He studied my face. “You’ve never shot a gun before.”

“And yet you tell me all the time that I’m a fast learner.” I winked at him.

He curved his lips into a smile. “Fastest learner in the West.”

He reached back with his good hand, slid out his gun, and deposited his Glock in my palm. The weight of the weapon reminded me that this was an instrument of death. A shiver crawled up my spine.

“My helmet is in the duffel,” he said. “Put it on. Take the right flank. Put the duffel between you and the door and kneel behind it.”

“Got it.” I followed his instructions.

“Thirty seconds to contact.” Micah’s low bass sounded mournful.

“Any words of wisdom?” I asked Javier as I braced behind the duffel.

“Shoot at the bad guys.” He clicked off his safety. “Donotshoot at the good guys.”

“Around the curve,” Micah called out. “Fifteen seconds.”

My shaking fingers fumbled on the safety, but somehow, I managed.

“Here we go.” Javier lifted his carbine and propped it on the left side window.

I braced my hand on the van’s right windowsill. The sounds of a pitched firefight reached us before the battle came into view. Smoke rose from fires burning from several vehicles. The aerial drone laid to one side of the road, burning. The land drones were still shooting. One had corralled a group of mercs behind an upturned truck.

While we watched, the other drone blew a hole through the concrete barricade. Dash adjusted the wheel and accelerated toward the opening. The van’s tires crunched over metal and debris. I choked on an acrid gulp of air and blinked off the smoke from my eyes.

“Disengage the drones,” Dash ordered as we approached the line of fire. “Now!”

Micah tapped his screen. I caught a glimpse of the drones as they ceased firing.

Plink, plink, plink.

Bullets clanked against the van from every direction.

“Return fire!”

The burst of automatic fire filled the van, a deafening ruckus that matched my racing pulse. Javier, Micah, and Thena let loose. Several people dropped as we sped through. Javier mowed down everything in sight. I fired my weapon. A bunch of mercs hit the dust. Whether my shots hit or not, I had no clue, but the men fell out of view. When I looked again, the battlefield was behind us.

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