Page 146 of Into the Woods

“Bishop,” I called, grabbing his arm. “They have Cami.” I didn’t need to voice what I was begging for.

“I’ll get her,” he swore, giving me a nod.

I stayed, watching them disappear behind the wooden door into a void where I couldn’t follow.

“Take him,” Court snarled, shoving Alex in Ryan’s direction.

Ryan caught him with ease and pushed Alex ahead, then followed him with the barrel of a gun pressed between his shoulder blades.

“Fuck,” Alex complained. “I’m not fighting you. We’re on the same team.”

“No, we aren’t,” I shot back, still furious that he’d given Cami to Eric.

Linc touched my back briefly as he followed Ryan, leaving me alone with Court.

Court pulled his mask up, revealing his stupidly symmetrical, gorgeous face. His chocolate brown eyes were molten as he holstered his gun and yanked me to his chest. His lips descended, and he kissed me hard as his tongue swept into my mouth and he devoured me whole.

I wrapped my fingers around the straps of his bulletproof vest as my legs started to tremble.

He pulled away from me. “You’re shaking, baby.”

“C-cold,” I managed to get out between chattering teeth. My skin pebbled like I was in a freezer. Even my bones rattled.

“Shit,” Court murmured, hugging me to him. “Becca, you’re in shock.”

“N-n-no I’m n-not,” I forced out, even as a strange buzzing sound filled the space between my ears.

“Yeah, you are,” he countered, swinging me into his arms with ease.

I hated the hard Kevlar that kept me from burrowing against him, but I settled for tucking my face against his neck and inhaling his scent.

“Can you pull my mask down, princess?” He kissed the top of my head.

It took a few tries to remember how my arm worked, but I managed to clumsily tug the mask back over his face, hating that it hid him from view. It was the best damn view in the world.

“In the world, huh?” he teased me with a soft laugh as he started to walk.

Crap. I’d said that out loud? I needed to get it together before I admitted those pants made his ass look utterly biteable.

“You can nibble on my ass all you want later.” His chest shook with laughter.

I huffed a sigh.

“Keep your head down when we go outside, okay? I don’t want anyone to see you,” he warned.

I didn’t know why. I honestly didn’t care. I did as he requested, letting my hair fall around my face as we stepped into the chilly night air. There were so many sounds—sirens, yelling, arguing—but at least no gunshots.

“Hey!” someone shouted, and Court paused.

“Does she need medical treatment?” a raspy female voice demanded in a heavy French accent, and I peeked through my hair to see a woman dressed in a three-piece business suit, her strawberry-blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. A gold badge was clipped to the front of her jacket.

“No. I’m looking for Lieutenant Striker,” Court told her in a detached voice, angling his body to show her his shoulder. I peeked around, spotting a small phoenix patch sewn into the material.

The woman studied me for a beat, noting the way I was holding on to Court like he was my lifeline, before nodding. She pointed somewhere behind us. “She’s back there.”

Court spun on his heel and stalked in that direction.

I tried to clench my teeth together, but they wouldn’t stop chattering. I couldn’t stop shaking.

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