Page 134 of Salvaged Hearts

“Five minutes at most.”

Nodding, I forced myself to breathe. “Good deal. So, we’ll get home around the same time. Caterers are setting up as we speak.”

“Do you remember what I told you?”

My mind emptied entirely. “Um, about the menu?”

“About our security protocols?”

“Yeah, I got it,” I said, trying to reach back into those first months of summer as he gave me the layout of the house and the vehicles. Mostly, I just prayed if it was true, this wasn’t the day he’d make his move.

“Stay on the phone with me,” Greyson ordered. “I fucking love you, Alessandra Hart. I fucking love you so goddamn much.”Why did he sound like he was saying goodbye?The blade of terror in his voice had my heart accelerating, the bridge of my nose burning.

“I love and miss you too, you big—” I was in the middle of my thought when Jax glared into the mirror, silently rolling up Royce’s window, startling him away from the door. He turned down the music as the song swapped toCalifornia Dreamin’by The Mamas & The Papas, and without hitting his blinker, swerved into the far right lane, cutting between two rows of traffic.

Leighton was whirling for the back window as I pointed toward Royce, my attempt at a subtle head’s up lost on a very focused Jackson.

“I mean it, Alice,” Grey snarled as rubber squealed. “Stay with me.”

But Leighton wasscreaming.

Leighton was screaming words I couldn’t make sense of.

Greyson was barking orders in my other ear.

Royce was turning, looking more irritated than concerned.

I whirled right as a tinted black SUV slammed into our bumper, sending us jolting forward as Jax slammed on the gas, and Mattie screamed in terror. My neck gave a pang of protest, and I turned, wide-eyed, to Jax’s reflection as he methodically glanced between our mirrors.

“What’s happening?” Greyson demanded, but I was preoccupied with thesecondvehicle snaking up beside us—some sporty black thing—and themanwith the black barrel of a gun pointed at our window.

“Get down!” I yelled. Before I could make sense of her motions, Leighton had ripped her buckle off and was throwing herself over Mattie as Jax swore.

Oh god,Mattie.

Without hesitating, Jax cranked the wheel to the left and slammed into the black Charger, sending it spinning out, where—at least judging from the horrible sounds behind us as he fought to control the vehicle—traffic T-boned it.

I released a paradoxical breath of relief as I thanked whatever benevolent being was watching out for us and prayed that nobody innocent had been hurt in the wreck.

“Get fucking buckled,” Jax barked as he hit the center lane and slammed on the gas. Leighton, breathing haggard, rushed to follow his order. And just in time, too, because without warning, Jax slammed on our brakes, the SUV behind us smashing into the back with enough momentum to send my phone flying as Mattie broke into sobs in the third row. The screeching of rubber on asphalt and metal on metal tore through the air a beat before Jax pulled some insane circle maneuver that sent our assailant flying as he cut back across the lanes of traffic to the chorus of horns blaring.

Jax hit the inside shoulder of the bridge and floored it, our rearview mirror snapping off to the scream of the vehicle scraping over the concrete barrier.

“Holy shit!” Royce barked, looking more than a little green around the gills.

He couldn’t be one of them.

I couldn’t reconcile the concept with the sweet couple I’d spent my summer with. The preening parents. Or the bloodless-looking face staring wide-eyed at Jax as he invented a lane for us. Spotting an opening, Jax swerved through a gap between vehicles and put us right in the center lane ahead of the line of traffic.

“Alice, I could use some backup.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, do I look like I know how to call for backup?” I screeched as I contorted in my seat to check our left side. But Leighton was tossing me her phone, and I dialed 911 before the words came out of my mouth.

Think, Alice, think.There had to be a way out of this that kept Leighton and Mattie safe.

“They were going to shoot at us!What the fuck is going on!?” Leighton hissed, her hands clamped over Mattie’s ears like our language or volume was what the tiny, sassy super genius would be concerned with. Tears streaked down her little wan cheeks, and I vowed to deliver retribution on her behalf. I’d find a way.

“They’re trying to kill us or capture us,” Jax noted helpfully.

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