Page 77 of Filthy Liar

He was probably getting flashbacks from when he’d been forced into a fucking teenage army for that wannabe gangster guy in Kensington.

“Hold on, I’ll get us out of here,” I promised, putting my foot down harder and managing to get my phone out of my pocket, instantly dialing Slash.

He answered almost immediately, pausing mid greeting when he heard gunshots.

“Where are you?” he barked, the sound of him slamming a door in the background as he must have practically ran out of whatever room he was in.

“Main road. No idea who, I was just talking to Noah when the fuckers shot the window out,” I explained, flicking my gaze to the rearview. “Do I detour and try to lose them?”

“No, you come straight here. I’ve got enough guys here to handle it if they’re stupid enough to follow you.” He shouted orders to someone about getting ready for company, and something about Cruz.

“Cruz is watching?” I asked, feeling better if his eyes were on me.

“He’s trying. Something’s blocking his signal, he’s being kicked out of all the cameras he tries to access,” he said with frustration. “Caden’s on the phone with him, but right now, you’re blind. Is it just one car?”

“For now. This has to be Stefano’s guys, right? Their hacker could easily block Cruz’s access,” I answered, taking a corner a little faster than I liked, but I wasn’t going to slow down and risk them getting ahead of us to possibly cut us off.

Car horns blared as we wove between traffic, but our tail stuck to us like glue.

“They’re fucking dead, that’s what they are,” Slash bit out. “Don’t worry about breaking any laws, Lopez. Get your fucking ass here and don’t get my kid killed.”

Noah’s head popped up at hearing that, and I handed him the phone. “Here, talk to Slash until we get there so I can focus on driving.”

He snatched it from me, and I tried really hard to not listen to Slash trying to calm him down. It felt private, and I knew Noah’s trauma wasn't likely to be something he wanted to talk to me about.

The car followed relentlessly as I sped through town, narrowly missing cars. I wasn’t like the guys, I didn’t enjoy the thrill of racing on the road like this. Too many things could go wrong.

The car lurched forward as we were rammed from behind, and I struggled to keep control. If I crashed and Noah got hurt, I was definitely going to get my ass handed to me by Rory. She scared me more than Slash did.

“Glovebox,” I ordered, thankful that Noah wasn’t so lost in his fear that he didn’t hear me, and he only hesitated for a second before grabbing the gun and handing it to me.

This stretch of road was straight, and now that we were leaving the main street, traffic was thinning out.

“Cover your ears,” I warned, knowing the gunfire might trigger the poor kid more, but needing to do something to try and deter the assholes from following.

Best case scenario, I hit a tire and they spun out.

Noah jumped as I tried to aim behind us out the shattered back window, firing some shots and making them jerk the car to the side to avoid my line of fire.

Driving and shooting was a pain in the ass, but I wasn’t about to ask Noah to shoot for me. I wasn’t sure about the rules of him touching guns, and I wasn’t risking him actually killing someone and having that on his conscience.

I divided my attention between the road ahead and trying to shoot behind us, and I’d never been so happy to see the road that led to the Shed before.

“We’re almost there,” Noah said, and I wasn’t sure if he was reassuring himself, or updating Slash.

I was practically sideways as I turned into the parking area for the Shed, not even bothering to switch the car off before yanking the emergency brake on and bailing out of the car, running around to Noah’s side to drag him out.

He froze as gunshots sounded and cars sped in after us, and I shielded him with my body as I fired back, trying to drag him towards the door where Slash and some of his guys all spilled out to cover us.

“Go!” Slash barked, and I dropped the gun and focused on getting inside, not knowing what to do other than head into the office where it was quieter and the door locked.

Noah was shaking like a leaf and crying in the far back corner of the room, so I hugged him tightly to my chest, trying to ground him. I’d seen Raven like this before, so I knew the security of someone else could sometimes help.

He fought me in a panic for all of two seconds before clinging to me, his body jolting with every gunshot that sounded outside.

“You’re okay,” I murmured, not letting him go even after it became silent.

He was breathing so rapidly that I was worried he’d hyperventilate.

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