Page 122 of Hard Limits

What was going on? Were the other girls safe?

Thorns scratched at my back as I pressed deeper into the undergrowth. The road was just a few yards away, and Jerry had told me to wait here for Chase, but what if something went wrong? The trek across the estate had been a terrifying stop-start journey, with Jerry pausing to listen every few seconds before dragging me forward again, her grip tight around my wrist. She’d carried a gun in her other hand. I didn’t know much about firearms, but I’d watched enough movies to know it was a shotgun.

We’d been near the gate when a guard appeared from the darkness, his features a mix of light and shadow as he stepped under one of the ornate lamp posts that illuminated the driveway. Cass’s men must have realised there was a problem because he was carrying a gun too, a pistol that he raised in our direction when I tripped and sent a stone skittering across the path. Hell! I froze, but Jerry didn’t. She raised the shotgun, and there was a crack as she fired with no hesitation. My heart lurched into my throat, and I steeled myself for the explosion of flesh and blood, but instead of blossoming into a scarlet mess, the guard dropped and convulsed. What the…?

“Electrified slug,” she whispered. “Five hundred volts.”

She darted forward and injected him from another syringe before cuffing his wrists and ankles with plastic ties and dragging him into the gloom. The whole process took seconds.

“Why are you just standing there?” she asked. “Move.”

I moved.

And now I was hiding, hoping for the best but fearing the worst.

The distant purr of an engine sent my pulse into a frenzy. Was this Chase? Or backup for Cass? How many men were on the estate? I’d only seen five in the barn—three guards, the driver, and Cass himself—but there could be fifty. Fifty against Jerry, Tulsa, and Priest.

Another sound… A quiet whomp-whomp-whomp I didn’t recognise. And then a sound I did—the snap of a twig. My heart skipped. Should I run? What were my other options? Hiding and hoping? Being scared to death? That was literally a thing. I’d learned about it in school. A surge in adrenaline could cause arrhythmia followed by stress-induced cardiomyopathy.

The footsteps came closer, and I couldn’t stay where I was. I couldn’t sit and wait to be murdered by a band of psychos.

I ran.

I ran toward the road, short of breath as my heart pounded against my ribcage. Fear took over, and I didn’t know where I was going, only that I needed to get away from the nightmare behind me.

Then pain.

Pain as a dark-coloured vehicle rounded the bend and clipped my elbow. I spun away and fell, my knees scraping along the asphalt thanks to the stupid dress I’d been made to wear. My chin hit the ground and the impact snapped my head back. I lay there dazed for a second.

Have to get away.

A car door opened.

And then I heard the sweetest sound in the world.

“Indi!”

Brax. He scooped me up, and I clung to him as he bundled me into the back seat of the car and slammed the door.

“Are you all right? Indi? Are you hurt?”

My knees were bleeding, probably my face too, but in that moment, the pain barely registered.

“I’m okay.”

Brax had me. I was safe. Chase was driving, and he accelerated along the road, then stopped just as quickly. Why? Why was he stopping? The whomp-whomp-whomp grew louder, almost deafening, and Chase cursed as a helicopter flew overhead.

“Is that him?” Brax asked.

“Yeah. Guess the sick freak spent his ill-gotten gains on an expensive toy.”

Did he mean Cass? Cass was getting away? I didn’t have time to consider the implications because the back door opened again and someone shoved Meera in beside me. Then Elsa got bundled into the front, crying out as she landed. I grabbed Meera’s hand as Chase skidded the car around, and a second later, we zoomed off in the opposite direction.

“Meera.” I wrapped my arms around her, and then the tears came. Tears for all we’d been through and tears of relief that it was over. She hugged me right back, and I knew I’d have a heck of a lot of explaining to do. But it could wait. It could all wait.

The helicopter was way ahead of us now, a black silhouette against the purple sky. Stars twinkled, and as it passed in front of the full moon, it would have made a spectacular picture if not for the fact that a sadistic son of a bitch was escaping. Would anyone be able to find him again? Alexa? Jerry? The police?

The five of us were thrown forward as Chase braked sharply, and Brax grabbed my arm to stop me from falling off the seat. Dammit, I should have worn a seat belt. Having seen the aftermath of more car crashes than I cared to remember, I was always lecturing people about that.

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