Page 70 of His Juliet

Her eyes were wide, but she nodded.

“Wait there.”

I grabbed another gun from the console and exited the SUV, ducking behind it as I waited. My heart raced, but I tapped into my darkness and let it settle over me.

These bastards were not going to harm Sienna. I wouldn’t let it happen.

The first car pulled up, stopping in the middle of the road, and the doors opened. Before the guy in the passenger side seat could fully emerge, I shot him in the forehead. Responding bullets hit the body of the SUV and I crouched behind it. The crunch of gravel let me know the second car had pulled up. I crept around to the front of the SUV and unleashed a spray of bullets at the second car. A shout told me I’d hit at least one target, but I couldn’t savor my victory because they returned fire. The sound of breaking glass sent panic shooting through me as the SUV’s windshield shattered. I threw the passenger side door open to find Sienna covered in glass. I tugged her out of the car, forcing her to stay low as I deposited her on the ground.

A line of blood trickled down her face, making me feel sick.

“I’m okay,” she mouthed.

I would check her over as soon as we were safe, but for now, I handed her one of my guns. She’d become a pretty good shot under Sofiya’s instruction.

“We need them alive!” a heavily accented voice shouted.

Sienna gripped my forearm, her nails digging in. It had to be the Albanians. I had no idea why they wanted us alive, but they’d never capture us. I jerked my head at the tree line a few feet away. Matteo knew our location, but we were about an hour away from the city and twenty minutes from our nearest warehouse. We needed to hold out until our soldiers arrived.

I gestured for Sienna to move ahead of me. We would need to make a run for it to get into the forest. Once we were in there, it would be much harder for the Albanians to hit us, but crossing those few feet would leave us exposed.

“Ready?” I mouthed at her.

She nodded and started running, staying as low to the ground as she could. I followed hot on her heels as we sprinted to the tree line.

Bullets bounced off the ground near my feet, but we kept running. “To the right,” I said, following Sienna as she turned off the trail into the denser wooded area thick with evergreen trees.

We kept going, the silence ringing in my ears, almost painful after the ear-splitting bullets. When Sienna tripped, I lunged forward to prevent her from falling.

“Here, sit down.” I guided her behind a large tree, scanning the forest for any sign of the Albanians.

She hunched over as she tried to get control of her ragged breathing. Her hair was filled with tiny shards of glass and I cursed as I tried to pick them out so they didn’t cut more of her skin.

Sienna pulled out her phone with trembling hands and answered the incoming call from her brother. “We’re hiding in the forest off the road from where we were ambushed,” she whispered.

I kept my gun in my hand, my eyes peeled the way we’d come until Sienna nudged me with her phone. I took it from her.

“Six soldiers from the warehouse are ten minutes out,” Matteo said.

“We’ll stay in the forest until then.”

“Guard her with your life.”

“Always.”

I gave Sienna the phone and gestured for her to sit down. Her legs were shaking, and she looked seconds away from collapsing from the adrenaline crash.

“Backup is coming,” I reassured her, keeping my voice low. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

She blinked slowly, pushing her tangled hair out of her face. “I’m okay.”

I’d gotten the larger pieces of glass, but I was worried there were smaller pieces left in.

The minutes ticked by agonizingly slowly. Should we head deeper into the forest? If we moved, they might hear or see us better than if we stayed hidden behind this tree, but quietly waiting went against every instinct I had. I wanted to run back to the road and eliminate all of them, but I had Sienna to think about.

A cracking twig had both of us freezing.

I gestured at her gun, and she tightened her hold on it with a nod, moving onto her knees. I held up my hand for her to stay put as I moved around the side of the large tree trunk.

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