Page 47 of Twisted Hearts

26Megan

A series of gunshots sounded,and all I could make out were flashes on the far side of Aaron’s truck. A hair-raising roar sounded that made my lips twitch with a smile. I’d recognize Aaron’s roar anywhere. The scuffing and body-shaking strikes indicated anther fight.

How many guys were out there? From my location, it was hard to tell how many vehicles had driven up.

Heavy steps beat rapidly against the uneven, leaf and twig-littered ground. Someone was running, and the sound was growing close enough for me to make out the rasp of their winded breathing. They were at my back, so I flipped my body, raised and aimed my gun towards the approaching noise. When the green form came into view, I was hesitant to shoot because I didn’t know if it was Aaron or one of the bad guys.

There was no way this guy was six-feet-two, but he’d gotten close enough to discover my hiding spot. My grip tightened around the stiff metal in my hand before my finger flexed against the trigger. Bam!

The shot rang out loud and long and seemed to hover in the air above me. The bullet struck the man someplace in the upper torso where the impact snatched his body back. A series of guttural grunts sounded before the second bullet struck him in the head, my finger squeezing the trigger instinctively when the man didn’t go down fast enough.

Green sparks of what must have been blood flew into the air, and his body followed as it fell back and hit the ground with a final thump.

Heavy steps beat angrily at the ground behind me and sent me back onto my stomach as my head darted towards Aaron’s truck. Another green form was heading my way at an alarming pace. I raised my gun, prepared to shoot, but I held back. This guy was damn sure over six feet, but was it Aaron?

“Megan. Are you okay?”

Sweet relief swept through my body at the sound of Aaron’s voice. He was alive, and thankfully, I hadn’t mistakenly shot him.

“I’m okay,” I called back to him in a low tone, unsure if we were alone or still under attack.

I jumped when Aaron’s firm grip reached through the darkness and wrapped around my wrist. He lifted me out of that ditch like my five-foot-five, one-hundred and thirty-pound body was nothing more than a small sack of potatoes. No sooner had he’d released me and my feet were planted on the ground, did I hear the familiar sound of him slapping another clip in one of the two guns he carried.

“Let’s go. I think they’re all dead.”

Think?

The night goggles had started to slip from my eyes when Aaron yanked me up. I held the gear to my face with one hand, and the warm gun swung in my other hand as I jogged to keep up with Aaron’s quick steps.

Aaron yanked his driver’s side door open, and I blindly stepped on the running board before swinging my gun hand into the seat, unwilling to let go of the gun. I climbed over the center console and shoved the night goggles off my head since they had started to hang lopsided on my face.

The flash of headlights and the roar of a vehicle’s engine breathed new life into the dark leafy woods and sent both my and Aaron’s wide gazes into the lighted view.

My body lowered in the seat, but my eyes remained peeled, wondering what the vehicle would do. Instead of remaining inside the truck with me, Aaron hopped out and took quick steps to the back of his truck. The headlights allowed me to peek and see the top of Aaron’s head at the back of his truck. He was back there, fixing or maneuvering a large object. I could hear the unmistakable clink of metal.

My brain froze when he left the cover of the back of his truck and took off running towards the headlights whose brightness made him a clear target. Aaron had said that he thought they were all dead. Was the driver unarmed? Injured? Was that the reason he wasn’t shooting at Aaron or attempting to run him down with the vehicle?

With light directly in front of him, it clung to Aaron enough that his shadow danced behind his urgent movements as he inched closer to what appeared to be a dark colored SUV. The driver revved the engine, but Aaron didn’t move. He stood there prepared to go head to head with two or more tons of revved up metal.

My mouth dropped wide open and utter disbelief hit my system when my eyes latched onto the object Aaron had pointed at the vehicle. Aaron was out there with a fucking grenade launcher. At least that was what I thought it was called. I could plainly see him shift or adjust something on the large weapon that was as thick as his muscular arm but longer.

He lifted the thing over his shoulder and fired it as the vehicle’s tires scratched into the dirt in an attempt to move away from Aaron at a fast rate of speed in reverse. A loud swishing noise came from the weapon, followed by a whistling sound that floated through the sky, chasing the vehicle Aaron aimed at.

Aaron immediately dropped to the ground, respecting what came out of that weapon more than the vehicle that could have run him over. The SUV had taken off, rolling backward to get away from what could only be described as flying death, but it was too late.

Although I couldn’t see it traveling through the sky, the grenade must have made a direct impact with the vehicle because the boom shook Aaron’s truck and vibrated the glass so hard that I ducked, thinking the blast would bust out the windows.

The vehicle exploded into a mass of burning flames that lit up the woods and spewed thick black billowing smoke. I rose in time to see Aaron running back my way. Knowing that we needed to get away, I climbed over the console, stomped on the brake and turned the truck’s ignition. Its engine stuttered for a few scary seconds but roared to a start.

Once Aaron reached the back of his truck, the loud clink of the weapon hitting the metal bed of the truck sounded before he slammed the cover shut. As soon as he climbed into the cab with me, Aaron shifted the truck into drive and sped off.

My neck twisted to keep the spectacle in my view when we passed the burning SUV. We sped over the untamed ground faster than we should have but with justifiable reasoning.

“That vehicle is going to attract a lot of attention. We need to get as far away from this shit as possible. The seven bodies we dropped are going to bring the feds and every other high-level law agency that believe they have jurisdiction,” Aaron informed me while directing the truck and glancing back at the scene we were leaving behind.

“Are you hurt?” he asked me, continuing to wheel his bouncing truck wildly.

“No,” I answered. “Are you?”

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