Page 43 of Clean Hack
“Eh, depends on how you look at it,” I said with a shrug.
“To answer your question, I’d be very pissed. I would probably try to jump out.” She bit her bottom lip as her eyes moved to look out the front windshield. “Look, you don’t have to help me. I really appreciate you coming here. I didn’t know who else to call and I can’t thank you enough. Just because I have to see this through, doesn’t mean that you do.”
Her words cut me a little. And right there I knew that there was no other option. She was wrong. I did. I had to see this through and I desperately needed tonotlose her. I needed to be the one to hold her when the crash came later.
I drew in a deep, calming breath. I had no idea what I was headed towards but I was going to do it despite the fact that my head and gut were telling me to run.
“Tell me where I’m going,” I said after I released the air from my lungs and turned the key.
“It’s not far,” she said and there was a pause like she was thinking of something. “We should go a different way.” It was almost as if she was talking to herself more so than me. “Turn left at the end of the road.”
So I did. Then we drove another two blocks and took another turn. The place was heavily wooded and I wasn’t even sure why the hell there was a road here anyway. That was when I saw a bunch of SUVs parked on the side of the road.
“Here?” I asked, searching as best as I could through the darkness.
I didn’t see any movement and I wondered where the hell the owners’ of the SUVs were. There didn’t appear to be anything wrong with them and they seemed too new to just be abandoned. But I guessed anything could have been possible.
“Um,” she said, drawing out the word like she was trying to think of something. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure I know who those belong to.”
“You care to enlighten me?” I asked with a raised brow.
“It’s too long of a story to go into at the moment. I have to get in there now. I might already be too late.”
I pulled my truck to the side and she was already reaching for the door handle. She was jumping out the moment I put it in park. I snapped to, yanking the keys out of the ignition so fast that I was worried it might snap off. By the time I shut the door, she was darting through the line of trees like she knew where the hell she was headed.
“Fucking hell,” I muttered as I jogged to catch up with her.
We hit the end of the tree line and I reached out and snagged her elbow before she darted out into the open. She stumbled back from the opposing force and her back slammed into my front. I didn’t hesitate to wrap my arm around her waist. You know, to keep her from falling or something. Sure. Yeah, that was it. But in all realness, I needed her to hold on a damn minute while I checked to make sure shit was clear.
“Sorry,” she whispered but let me pull her back into the shadows a bit.
There wasn’t much around. I could see buildings a little ways down on the same side of the road that we were on. They all appeared to be empty and long abandoned. Across the cracked, seen-better-days street was a huge fence that looked like it was made for keeping people out. However, the front gate looked to be wide open.
I got a bad feeling in my gut. One that told me it would have been a really fucking good idea to turn around. But I knew she wouldn’t have it.
“What’s in there?” I asked needing to know what I was heading into.
“It’s The Devil’s Kings compound. There’s someone in there I need to save.”
There was more to that story but now was not the time to ask.
“I think there is something already going on in there.”
“Yeah,” she said but her eyes stayed focused on the big warehouse just beyond the fence. “I think war has come. Now move.”
My head snapped back as my arm tightened around her.
“Please,” she said a little more sweetly. It made mealmostbelieve that she meant it nicely.
“I can’t talk you out of this?”
“Not a fucking chance.”
“Stay behind me,” I said and shifted so that I was covering her front.
There apparently was…someone to save.
And a war to throw ourselves in the middle of.
