Page 96 of Darkest Retribution

I stuff some into a bag and brew myself some coffee. My body is aching and I’m already exhausted. This drive is going to be horrible, and I’m going to need copious amounts of caffeine to stay awake.

I wait until the last second to wake Rosie. She’s tired and grumpy as hell, but I was expecting it. I just pick her up, rubbing her back and carrying her downstairs and into the garage. She throws an absolute fit about getting buckled into her car seat. Thankfully, giving her a juice box and one of her favorite snacks is enough to placate her.

In the morning, after she’s slept and we’re far away, I’ll explain what’s going on in the best way I can. But for now, we have to move. So I leave my phone on the kitchen counter, double check that I grabbed everything Sparrow gave me, and then head out.

“Auntie Jade, where are we going?” Rosie asks as I get in the car.

“Someplace fun. I’ll explain soon, honey. For now, why don’t you try to go back to sleep?”

I pull out of the garage, pausing at the edge of the driveway and checking my rearview mirror. Dominic’s lights are still on.Shit.I hope he’s not paying attention.

“I’m not tired, Auntie Jade. I want ice cream.”

“Maybe later.”

“Pleeeeease?”

“None of the ice cream places are open right now. Why don’t you finish your snack, and we’ll get some later.”

I bet she’ll be out like a light in ten minutes.

Leaving shouldn’t feel wrong. It shouldn’t hurt like this. But as I put more space between us and the house—us and Dominic—my chest feels hollow. I turn the radio on, keeping it quiet, hoping for some type of distraction. It doesn’t work.

After about ten minutes, an SUV starts riding my ass. Then it passes me once the road is clear.

“Asshole,” I mutter, glancing in my rearview mirror. There’s another car behind me, but they’re keeping a respectful distance.

When I look back to the road, the SUV’s brake lights are flashing, and I’m approaching them too fast.

“Shit.” I slam on the brakes, barely managing to stop in time. “What the hell?”

I come to a full stop inches behind the SUV. Thankfully, the car behind us stops, too.

Why did they brake like that in the middle of the road? Are they okay?

The SUV turns, like they’re about to turn around in the middle of the fucking road.

“Seriously?” I grouse, hitting my horn. “This is not the place to do this shit.”

One of the back windows shatters, and Rosie screams. Then the door is ripped open, and I see a pair of hands reaching for her car seat.

“Oh, absolutely not.” I reach for my gun, nestled under my bag on the passenger seat. But before my fingers can find it, I feel something cold and hard pressed to the back of my head.

“Don’t move.”

The voice is familiar. It’s the man who was in my house earlier.

He was watching us. David must’ve predicted that I would run.

No. No no no no no. We were so close.

“Hands on the steering wheel.”

“Auntie Jade,” Rosie yells.

I watch in the rearview mirror as a second man pulls her out of her seat from the other side of the car.

“Told you there’d be consequences,” the man says, and I’d like nothing more than to strangle the smugness from his voice.

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