Page 58 of Liam
Nylah: I’m just heading home now. I’ll call you when I get there.
Just the thought made her break out in hives.
She swung her bag over her shoulder as they stepped out the back door of the library. They were halfway across the back parking lot when Fiona cursed.
“Crap, I forgot my phone. Be back in a second.”
She’d just disappeared into the library when Callum’s arm suddenly swung out in front of Nylah, halting her from moving forward.
Her gaze shot up. “What’s—”
Before she could finish her sentence or understand what was happening, Callum shoved her to the ground and a popping noise sounded from across the lot. It took her muddy brain a second too long to realize it was a gunshot—an almost silent one.
Her breath caught in her throat, her belly clenching as Callum rolled them behind a car, all while bullets continued to fly.
They were being shot at in a public library parking lot! Were people so desperate for her to die that they’d willingly kill her out in the open now?
Callum pulled out his phone, pressed something, and put it to his ear. “I need backup behind the library!”
He was still talking when the library door opened, and Fiona stepped out. Nylah gasped, and Callum shouted, “Get inside and lock the door!”
Fiona’s eyes widened but she immediately followed Callum’s instructions, disappearing back inside the building.
He pulled out a gun and turned to her, his expression hard and deadly, looking nothing like the man she was used to. “Stay down,” he growled under his breath.
When he poked his head and pistol around the car, her heart leapt into her throat.
He fired, his shots loud, piercing the air like little explosions.
She heard bullets hitting metal, glass shattering…then there was a different sound.
The dull thud of a body hitting the ground.
When a police officer appeared from the alley running alongside the library, gun raised, Nylah’s belly cramped.
He started shooting, yelling for people to put their weapons down, when a bullet caught his shoulder and he dropped.
Oh, Jesus!Nylah’s feet twitched to move. To help the man, but there were still bullets peppering the air.
When the officer didn’t get up, nausea welled in her throat.
She pulled out her phone and called for an ambulance. As she did, Callum swiftly stood behind the car and leaned over the roof. He fired three more times, every bullet accompanied by the thump of a body hitting the ground.
Then…silence.
Nylah’s breath stopped. Was that it? Was it over? Could she go to the officer on the ground?
Callum straightened, his pistol still raised as he surveyed the area. “They’re dead,” he finally said in a low voice.
The air whooshed out of her, and she sprinted toward the officer, dropping down beside him.
“Hey. You’re going to be okay.” She’d just pressed her hands to his wound when suddenly, a man flew out of the alley right beside her—shooting Callum in the chest before she could blink.
Nylah gasped, shock and devastation bursting through her gut.
When the gun shifted to her, every emotion blanked as her brothers’ lessons kicked in.
Her foot flew into the man’s knee. She followed it up with a punch to his groin.
