Page 114 of Captive Lies

“Dammit, Val, get overhere!”

Blaire!

44

Blaire

CursingGrant’s sister to the high heavens, I left the cover of the stacked crates and ran toward her. With my carbine set in fully automatic, I shot in the direction where Andy, Eric, and their other man disappeared and grabbedVal.

“Come on,” I shouted and wished to God she’d snap out of herdaze.

“Oh my God, Blaire, you’re bleeding. You’rebleeding!”

“Not my blood,” Imuttered.

When a bullet kicked up concrete beside her feet, I turned my weapon and fired in the direction where the shot came from. Val was a crying mess and if I didn’t calm her down, she’d get us both killed. My own courage was hanging by a thread, and if I thought about our situation too much, I would doom us both. I fisted Val’s shirt and dragged her behind the metalcontainers.

To her credit she was trying to stop the sobs rising up from her throat. “I need you to suck it up,” I growled, glancing around the crates to check our immediate surroundings. “Can you do that,Val?”

“You got us into this mess,” she blurtedout.

Good Lord.“You can go back to hating me later,” I told her. “Right now, we need to work together to get out of this mess.” A bullet ricocheted off our steel hiding place. She jumped but didn’t scream. “Are you with me,Val?”

She pressed her lips together andnodded.

“Okay. You saw that open gate on our left?” It was serendipitous that the two men who reported the tracking hack left the warehouse gatesopen

“Yes.”

“We’re going to weave through these crates, but when I tell you to run, you run like hell. Don’t look back. Don’t see if I’m following you. They’ll try not to shoot me because they need me for the paintings, but theyaregoing to kill you.Understand?”

Val scowled atme.

“Ready?”

Again, shenodded.

“Go!”

We ran between a series of shipping crates. Sporadic gunfire followed us. When we had to break cover, I had to blast the carbine at full auto. The gate seemed too far away, but I was running for my life—thinking that next second would be my last with each second lasting an eternity. I reloaded magazines in the middle of our sprint to freedom and, during that moment, a bullet nicked my arm. I cried out, feeling the burn, but, thank God, Val listened to me and continued running. We made it to the exit and that was when I noticed that it locked fromoutside.

“Help me push this!” I yelled. This should buy us some time. There were side doors and folding gates all around the warehouse, but I was hoping they’d have trouble opening those. We sealed the sliding gates and I threaded a chain with the padlock to secureit.

The sun was shining high in the sky and I took a moment to look around. The warehouse was in the middle of farmlands. The driveway and parking lot were not paved. There were several parked vehicles—newer SUVs, an older model pickup truck, and a Jeep. I quickly checked the SUVs; they were locked. The Jeep didn’t have the keys, so that left the truck. It wasn’t quite vintage, but it was a model before transponders were installed in cars that prevented hot wiring. I just hoped it didn’t run like aclunker.

The pickup was unlocked. I handed the carbine to Val. “Here. Make yourself useful. It’s set on full-auto… just press the trigger.” Luckily, this was the version of the carbine that didn’t have a lot of kickback so I didn’t bother warning her of it. Recoil was worse when anticipated. The steering column cover came off and exposed the housing of the wiring. “Shoot anything that moves!” I yelled over my shoulder. Twisting the black wire to the ignition wire together, I started flicking the starter wire to the battery one. The engine sputtered and came to life just as Val screamed “Motherfuckers!” and sprayed the warehouse withbullets.

I pulled her to the front of the pickup. “Can youdrive?”

Her eyes were bright from her adrenaline rush. “Oh my God!” sheanswered.

“Val, can you drive?” I shouted to get her back in themoment.

Her grin was cocky. “I’ve got a few speedingtickets.”

Fantastic.

“Keep your head down. Get to the driver’s side. Close your door. Open mine. Go!” I grabbed the carbine from her and shot at Andy and his men trying to make their way toward us. I circled the hood and dove into the passengerseat.

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