Page 96 of Forever My Saint

From what I saw, it looks Pavel has made a bomb, but I can’t be too sure. Whatever it is, it eases some of my nerves because I’ve seen the damage his bombs can do. Max, Sara, and Zoey creep over to where we are.

Saint offers me his hand as he steps from the van. I accept, ensuring to be light-footed as I step onto the snow. Thankfully, Pavel’s hand gestures are easy enough to read. He lowers his hand, telling us to stay low before signaling it’s time to move.

Pavel, Max, and Saint are in front while Sara and I are behind them. Ingrid and Zoey are behind us, keeping their eyes peeled for any threat lurking in the shadows. Our paces are measured and in sync so as not to draw attention to our presence.

I don’t know how far away we are because nothing is distinguishable. There are barren trees, their branches twisted into distorted angles, while the ground is covered in thick snow. Our boots sink into the snow, masking the sound of our footsteps.

We skulk in the shadows on high alert, anticipating an ambush, but we don’t encounter one. I don’t know whether to be relieved or terrified. Saint turns over his shoulder to look at me, and I nod that I’m okay.

We continue this formation for minutes with the same results. We don’t hear anything, nor do we see anyone. Maybe they’ve moved to another location? If they were still here, surely, we’d have seen something or, at the very least, heard something. But we haven’t experienced either.

Pavel remains on high alert, peering from left to right the farther we walk. I can’t shake the feeling that this feels too calm, too quiet. It feels like a setup. Pavel holds up his fist, hinting we’re to stop. We’re crouched low, awaiting his command.

“What do you think?” he whispers to Saint, who shrugs.

“I don’t like how quiet it is. Something doesn’t feel right. We have no idea of their location, so they could be anywhere.”

And that’s the problem. We’ve walked into this plan literally blind. We don’t know where they are, who we’re facing, and as far as plans go, this is fucking absurd. But it was now or never.

“We split up,” Zoey suggests, which is shut down before she can continue.

“Absolutely not,” Saint barks in a whisper.

My teeth begin to chatter because it’s freezing out here in the open, and my pants are wet from the snow. If we don’t make any progress soon, odds are we’ll freeze to death out here. “I think she’s right.”

Saint glares at me as though I’ve gone mad. I don’t fail to see that no matter how much Zoey and I hate one another, we always seem to be on the same page when it comes to devising a plan.

“We can’t cover enough ground this way,” I argue. “At this rate, we’ll freeze to death.”

Saint pinches the bridge of his nose, clearly annoyed.

“I don’t like this any more than you do, but she’s right,” Pavel says. “Something is wrong. We should have heard an echo at the very least. Or seen a light. If they’re out here, they can’t be in the dark. Something isn’t right.”

And there’s that word again. Right. I have to listen to my gut. If I’d listened to my gut earlier, we wouldn’t be here in the dark, freezing our asses off.

Saint sighs heavily. “Fine. Willow, Ingrid, Zoey with me. Pavel, you go with Max and Sara.”

Relief swarms me, knowing Sara is safe with Max and Pavel. But shame on me—I should know by now that nothing is that easy.

In a split second, I experience all my senses at once. I hear the gunshots. I see the night come alight with fire. I smell the gunpowder. I touch the cold snow as I fall onto my stomach. And lastly, I taste blood. But the question is whose?

I don’t have time to find the answers because the air is being siphoned from me when Saint throws himself over me to shield me from gunfire.The gunshots zip around us, and I watch with eyes that aren’t mine as shards of snow somersault up into the air as the bullets lodge deep into the ground.

I can’t see anyone else around me.

“Saint!” I scream to be heard over the ringing of gunfire. “Where’s Sara? We have to find her. She doesn’t have a vest!”

He only cocoons his body around me tighter.

We are ambushed, and judging by the bullets whizzing around us, an army awaits to bring us down.

This is my fault. I’m to blame. It was my idea to come here. They had a choice not to come, but they’d never leave us to deal with this alone.Saint draws the gun from his jeans and begins to fire it around us. The noise isn’t just deafening; it rumbles all the way to my core.

I can hear Saint yelling, but I can’t make out what he’s saying.He continues to fire his gun, but I’m still blinded to anything around us.

With great difficulty, I reach into the small of my back, fumbling for the gun. When I’m able to reach it, I aim it out in front of me. I’m squashed onto my belly with limited room, but having the gun allows me to defend myself if I need to.

My hand trembles as I wave the barrel from left to right. I’m on high alert, sharpening my eyes to see in the dark.

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