Page 32 of Captive Lies

My friend appeared to consider this. “Then he’s not the man I thought he was. But, my advice? Don’t dump all our shit on him atonce.”

“I’m not lying to him anymore,Liam.”

“Then don’t lie. Let him know you’re not ready to tell himeverything.”

“This is Grant we’re talking about here, you think he’ll be contented with piece-meal information given that he’d discovered ourstash—”

Liam held up his hand as if to shush me and then cocked his head toward the door. He tossed his sculpture and knife into an openbag.

“What?”

The word barely left my mouth when my friend tackled me across the bed as the door explodedinward.

* * *

Liam had already drawnhis gun by the time we fell on the other side of the mattress. Bullets flew through the room, lodged into the wall and shattered windows. I crawled to my bed and snatched my weapon from under the pillow. Lying on my back on the carpet, I cocked my gun. I scrambled to my knees and, using the bed for cover, returned fire. But the firefight was short-lived. There was a dead man on the floor and bullet holes on either side of the door frame. Our attackers had either fled or were dead. Liam was rarely caught off-guard. He had an uncanny “Spideysense.”

“Are you all right?” he askedgruffly.

I nodded, but had trouble regulating the surge ofadrenaline.

“Deep breaths,” my friend ordered as he got up to check on our unmoving attacker. He had prepared me for scenarios like this, but no amount of preparation could substitute for a real shootout.Oh. My. God. I couldn’t wimp out now. I stood and pointed the gun at the guy on the floor, nodding to Liam that I had his back. I tried to speak but my teeth only clattered, so I clamped my mouthshut.

He leaned against the wall beside the door, then quickly pivoted through the door to clear the hallway. His body relaxed. “They’re gone. There’s blood on the floor so we got some ofthem.”

“He’s dead,” I said, pointing to the man in our room. “I don’t recognize him atall.”

“Neither do I,” Liam replied. “He must be a low-level soldier. They’re not very experienced. Too eager. Should have used tear gas. The bad news is, it looks like their orders were shoot tokill.”

Versus being captured and tortured? Maybe death waspreferable.

“We need to move,” Liam said as he shoved our things into a duffle. “The cops will be here in seven minutes orless.”

“What about Grant?” Given that this place would be crawling with uniforms soon, I doubt he’d think I’d bailed on him again, but how would he findus?

“We’ll drive around the block. It’ll take him an hour at least to gethere.”

I nodded shortly. Calling him wasn’t an option. Our phone call was the only way these ROC thugs could have tracked us down which meant Grant’s phone was the problem. Scant minutes later, Liam and I exited the motel. There’d been tentative spectators, doors slightly open and suddenly shutting as we hastened by. I was wearing a hoodie and had my head down. Liam had on a baseball cap. We both had our guns tucked into our pockets, trigger finger on the barrel, ready to engage if our assailants were lying in wake. Keeping vigilant, we moved in the shadows until we got into our Ford sedan. Liam gunned the engine, backed up, and left the motel parking. Two blocks up we parked at a diner to change clothes. I put on a sweatshirt while my friend donned a NY Giants jacket and took off his cap. Afterward, we got back on the road. It was only then that I noticed my hands were shaking. Cold and clammy with an uncontrollable tremor, I ended up sitting onthem.

“You okay?” Liamasked.

“I’m shaking,” I gave a nervous laugh. “I’ll get it together in a minute. Dead bodies I can handle, just not used to getting shotat.”

“You did well backthere.”

“Thanks.”

“I’m serious, Wren. You didn’t lose yourshit.”

“I’ll be honest, I feel like throwing up rightnow.”

Liam glanced at me. “Want me to pullover?”

“Keep driving,” I said, rolling down the window. “The fresh airhelps.”

“You’re a survivor,” Liam muttered and I wondered if he was trying to convince himself that Iwas.

Almost to the hour,we pulled back to the diner across from the inn. Blue and red lights from three police cruisers strobed and lit the scene. A crime scene investigation van was parked near the law enforcement vehicles. There was a bigger crowd of spectators now thanearlier.

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