Page 108 of Brutal Obsession

I crane my neck. A cluster of soldiers spills out onto the catwalk behind us. Picking up the pace, I hightail it across until I’m through the doorway on the other end. Thankfully, another staircase comes into view, and I hurry down, as gentle as I can be with Harper in my arms while also running for our fucking lives.

Back on the ground floor, I race as far from that factory as I can before yanking a grenade Darren gave me from my breast pocket. I rip out the safety pin with my teeth and chuck it into the hallway behind us.

Around a corner, I drop us down to the ground as quickly and gently as possible, shielding Harper’s body beneath mine to wait for?—

The detonation shakes the world.

Heat. Smoke. Crumbling cement.

Harper remains unconscious.

Panic infiltrates my brain. What if I never see those eyes open again?

I shake my head, pissed at the pessimistic direction of my thoughts.

Fuck that. She’ll be okay.

She has to be.

I gather her in my arms and round the corner. Human remains, rubble, and smoke are all that’s left of our pursuers. The grenade took them out and also created our exit.

A fresh breeze cuts through the smoggy, bitter scent of structural damage choking the air.

Under a dark sky, I sprint through the grass.

Eerie silence.

Radio static.

A dark road.

Smoke behind us.

I run and run until my legs give out.

Chapter 32

Cian

For the next hour, I hold my breath. Nothing seems real.

My friends are battling for their lives behind enemy lines, and I’m not there to fight alongside them. They could all be dead.

They could have walked straight into another trap, but I don’t know because I’m following the plan. I found Harper and got her out of there. After navigating on foot to where we stashed a getaway car, I laid her in the backseat and got behind the wheel. This is the last phase of the plan.

Meet up at the rendezvous point before returning to the estate together.

We decided to use the rendezvous point because this De Luca facility is more than three hours from the city, and we knew Harper would need emergency medical attention and maybe even a place to rest, long before we made it back to the Kings’ medical unit.

It’s my job to give her first aid and anything else she needs. To assess the damage done and report back. But I can’t think about my job.

All I can think about is the stench of blood on the shirt I bought her just a day ago.

She’s so pale.

I could have put her in the front seat with me, but I didn’t want to glance over at her too many times and end up crashing. But laying her in the back seat wasn’t a better plan. When she’s out of my sight, my mind plays tricks on me. It’s like tonight didn’t happen. Like she’s not really back there, unconscious and possibly clinging to life.

I race through darkened two-lane roads in upstate New York.

---