Page 70 of War Games

She knows she doesn’t stand a chance in this warehouse, and without a fucking care, she tosses the lit match toward the gas tanks as horror pounds through my chest. She takes off at a sprint toward the back exit as my feet slam against the ground, only having a few seconds to save myself.

The Texan Reaper roars something to his brother, but the deafening boom of my pulse beating in my ears makes it impossible to hear a damn thing except for the sound of my own fear. I don’t take my eyes off Shadow as she races across the rafters, and then just as a strong arm locks around my waist andyanks me aside, Shadow throws herself right out of the second-story window, glass shattering around her.

My body is violently yanked, and the next thing I know, I’m flying through the main entrance and crashing to the hard ground as the piercing scream of a terrified woman fills the warehouse behind me. A body slams down over mine just moments before an almightyBOOMblasts through the warehouse.

“FUCK,” Reaper roars over me as the searing heat of an explosion hits our backs, shooting plumes of fire up into the dark sky. His body crowds mine, his arms bracing around my head as he buries his face into my back. “SIREN? BABY, ARE YOU GOOD?”

“Fuck,” I groan, unable to tell if I’m hurt from the explosion or from Reaper’s impressive weight crashing down over me, but none of it matters as I try to shove him off me. “SHADOW!”

Reaper is off me in seconds, grabs my arm, and drags me to my feet as we race through the night, desperate to get Shadow.

We find her face down in the overgrown bush by the side of the warehouse, the wall of the rundown building having mostly protected her from the blast, but that doesn’t mean she got off scot-free.

“Shadow,” I gasp, crashing down to my knees beside her and grabbing her arm as I quickly roll her over, but before I even get a chance to assess her, Reaper is there, scooping her into his strong arms.

“We have to get out of here.”

Shadow fights his hold, and relief soars through my chest. “I’m okay. I’m okay,” she rushes out, pulling herself free. “I can walk.”

Not wanting to overstep her boundaries, Reaper releases her and allows her to balance on her own two feet, and despite her protests, he keeps his hand on her upper arm as we hurry away from the massive blaze.

“What the fuck just happened?” I demand as we slip into a back alley that offers us privacy from the road and the sirens that are quickly coming this way.

I lean against the wall of a building, closing my eyes as I try to catch my breath, but feeling Reaper’s gaze on my body, I open them again and find him assessing me for injuries. “You okay?” he asks, his voice deeper than I’ve ever heard it.

I nod and immediately start doing the same, noticing burns all over his back and arms—burns that would have been mine had he not thrown himself on top of me. “You?”

“Fine.”

He’s the furthest thing from fine, and seeing that I’ve noticed the burns across his bronze skin, he simply pulls me into him and locks his arms around me, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “I’m fine,” he repeats, his tone demanding compliance.

“Gasoline and the brothers?” I ask, shifting my gaze to Shadow and checking her from head to toe for the millionth time in the last few seconds.

“From what I could tell, they got out,” he tells me before pulling back and indicating further down the alley, silently telling us it’s time to get our asses out of here before the FBI scours every inch of the industrial park.

“Fuck. I was hoping that would have wiped them all out so this shit could have been over,” I murmur. “But if anything, us showing up and robbing them of a satisfying kill is only going to piss them off, especially with Silver out of the competition. It’s going to be us three against them, and the only way they’re going to be able to break us down is to pick us off one at a time.”

Shadow walks up ahead of us, and as she reaches the end of the alley, she begins climbing up an old dumpster, preparing to launch herself over the back wall. “Is this my fault?” she asks, pausing as she looks back at us. “If I wasn’t there, they wouldhave made their kill and then taken off for the next week. They wouldn’t be focusing on us just yet.”

Reaper shakes his head. “Whether you were there or not, they’ve run out of options. If they want to win this thing, they have no choice but to lure us out, but we’re not going to let that happen. It’s important now more than ever that we stick together. We can’t be going off on our own. I can’t risk losing either of you.”

Shadows nods and reaches for the edge of the wall, preparing to pull herself over. “So what do we do?”

Reaper lets out a heavy sigh as Shadow pulls herself up on top of the wall and glances back down at us. “We figure out one hell of a game plan, but before we do that, we eat.”

“Now that’s a plan I can get down with,” Shadow says before dropping down on the other side of the wall, her feet not making even the slightest sound as she lands.

I follow suit, and before I know it, Reaper is dropping down beside me, and the three of us start the long trek back home.

We take every backstreet we know, doing whatever we can to keep off the main roads as they become flooded by emergency services trying to figure out how an old warehouse that hasn’t seen the light of day in years suddenly blew up.

Almost an hour passes when we reach the city center of Blue Springs, and despite how silent Shadow is, there’s no denying the sound of her rumbling stomach. “You wanna stop at a diner?” I ask her as we stride down the street in silence.

“Oh god, yes,” she says with a sigh of relief. “I’m starving.”

I roll my eyes. No matter how much we feed this kid, she is always hungry, and honestly, I don’t know where she’s putting it. She’s practically skin and bone.

We stop at the next diner, picking a private booth close to the back exit, and before the waitress has a chance to hand us themenus, Reaper rattles off a quick order, getting us each a burger and fries, and demanding she make it quick.

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