Ignited (Titanium Security Series) (23 page)

The map on her phone showed the address as being just a few blocks from where they stood. Here amongst the back alleys and quieter residential streets the night seemed hushed and ominous. The narrow street they were on was dark, lined on both sides by rundown buildings that stretched three and four stories tall. Lines of drying laundry hung suspended between houses, casting eerie, swaying shadows below. The hot, muggy air smelled of cooking food and the underlying stench of rotting garbage.

Her breathing slowed, though her heart kept beating a frantic rhythm the closer they got to the target location. Hunter stayed deep in the shadows cast by the buildings, hiding them from any curious or hostile eyes. It made the back of her neck crawl to think that someone might be following them. She tightened her grip around Hunter’s hand and he squeezed back in silent reassurance. He wouldn’t lead her into danger and he wouldn’t let her down.

Partway up the street he tugged her into a little alcove tucked beneath a boarded up door and pressed her back against the peeling plaster wall with one arm, positioning himself in front of her. “Put your phone away,” he whispered, staring out into the dark alley.

The map showed them to be a block and a half from the target. She quickly dimmed the phone and shoved it into her pocket beneath her robe, worried that she might have drawn unwanted attention to them with the illumination from the screen.

Hunter kept her pressed to the wall and leaned forward to peer around the corner. He searched up and down the alley before speaking again. “Stay put. I’ll be back in a minute.”

He was leaving her here? Without thinking she reached out to grab his arm, then caught herself and forced her hand down. She was being ridiculous. As long as she stayed still it was likely no one would even see her.

With one last look about, Hunter darted around the corner and vanished from view. Suddenly everything around her seemed more sinister. The shadows were deeper, the darkened windows in the buildings across the alley staring down at her like suspicious eyes, the scuttling sound of what she assumed had to be rats searching for food was overly loud to her pulsing ears. Doubts began to creep in. What if they were in the wrong place? They were already suspicious that this entire thing was a setup, so they had to assume the kidnappers were manipulating them into a bad situation.

Her T-shirt stuck to the skin between her shoulder blades and her palms were damp. When she heard someone coming toward her from the opposite end of the alley she barely resisted the urge to peek. Instead she huddled deeper into the cover the alcove provided, hardly daring to breathe until the man passed with a huge basket slung over his back. He didn’t even look her way.

“Hey.”

She jumped and swallowed a cry. Hunter stood at the edge of the building and she hadn’t even heard him coming.

She grabbed onto the hand he reached out for her. “It gets busier from here and I don’t want to leave you this far back. We’ll go up another block and I’ll check again.”

She licked her dry lips. “How much time left?”

“Six minutes.”

God.

She hurried after him, anchored by the firm grip of his hand. He’d been right, the neighborhood got much busier the next block over. The moment they turned the corner she could see lights on in some of the upper floor apartments and people moving around inside. A few people walked on the street ahead of them but so far no one else was following. Someone might come by at any moment though. She was careful to stay in the shadows, making sure she followed Hunter without looking around or changing her posture. At the end of the block he led her to another hiding spot behind an abandoned wooden cart.

“Okay?” he whispered.

“Yeah,” she answered, the word barely carrying over the still air.

“We’re less than a block away now. We’re just going to go a little farther to check it out quick and come straight back. If they’ve got eyes on us I don’t want you exposed, so hug the walls and stay where it’s darkest.”

She nodded, wanting to just get this over with and get the hell out of here. She fell in step behind him.

They were partway up the street when a sharp bang up ahead broke the relative quiet. Then frenzied shouting. Hunter froze. She drew up short behind him, holding her breath. She stayed where she was, ears straining, alarmed when Hunter whirled around to face her. In the dimness she made out just enough of his face to see the rage in his expression.

“What?” she whispered, heart flying into her throat.

“The Paks jumped the gun,” he said tightly.

No.
She opened her mouth to ask if that meant what she thought it did when a thunderous boom rent the air. Khalia cried out and hunched into a ball as the horrendous wall of noise ripped through the night, the pressure of the blast vibrating against her ear drums in a relentless wave. Glass shattered in the buildings around them, the ground shaking with the force of the shockwave.

A bomb.

In the seconds that followed, a vacuum of silence blotted out everything but the roar of blood in her ears. She felt the pressure of Hunter’s hands around her upper arms, the urgency in his grip as he hauled her to her feet. People were flooding out of their homes in their sleepwear, yelling and gesturing toward the blast, their expressions filled with anxiety.

“Come on,” Hunter growled, yanking on her hand.

Her legs were uncooperative. She stumbled along in his wake, casting a terrified glance over her shoulder toward the explosion. An eerie yellow and orange glow lit the sky behind them, plumes of smoke boiling up into the dark sky. She could hear people around them screaming, shouting, the too familiar sounds of confusion and terror closing around her.

“Run,” Hunter snapped.

The sharp command cracked like a whip through the haze engulfing her. She put her head down and ran, focused only on keeping up with Hunter. At the end of the third block he paused to glance back. With a curse he steered her around the corner, propelling her forward with a hard hand between her shoulder blades as he got on the radio to Gage. “SWAT team went in and triggered a bomb. Either a hidden tripwire or someone remote detonated it.”

Khalia shuddered and kept going, driven by the desperate urge to escape and that implacable hand at her back.

“Someone’s tailing us,” Hunter added.

What?
She almost spun around to look but Hunter pushed her around the next corner in a sharp left turn and kept talking to Gage.

“We’ll keep moving east but you may have to lead us out… Roger that.”

“Someone’s after us?” she demanded, terror stealing more strength from her legs.

“We’re okay. Just keep running.”

He didn’t need to tell her she was slowing them down. She knew. He could’ve left her in his wake but instead he was sticking with her. Pushing herself harder, she dug down for an additional burst of speed and raced down the nearly empty streets. Behind her she could hear the distant wail of sirens. Someone was after them but all she could think about was that if they’d actually gone to the address like the hostage takers had insisted, they’d both be dead right now.

Don’t think about it—
run
.

Hunter maneuvered them in a zigzag pattern, whipping them right then left, then back again until it all became a blur. She made it another nine blocks before the initial burst of panic faded and sucked the strength out of her muscles. As though he sensed it, Hunter brought her up short and dragged her back against him, retreating into the deep shadows between two closed shops and flattening himself against the rough bricks.

She stood with her back pressed tight against his chest, gasping for breath, sweating and trembling. He brought one hand up to cover her mouth and she grabbed at it until she realized he wasn’t trying to cut off her air, but conceal the sound of her panting. Braced against him, she was too scared to close her eyes, instead staring dead ahead at the street in the gap between the buildings.

Hunter kept his hand over her mouth and brought the other one to his side. She glanced down in time to see him holding a pistol at waist level. His arm was like warm steel across her belly. She barely registered the feel of it there before he spun her behind him to shield her with his body in case the threat materialized. She jerked her gaze back to the alley, helpless to do anything but wait. It seemed to take forever. Several people passed by a few moments later, including a younger man dressed in jeans and a dark hoodie. Was he their tail? Hunter didn’t move, gave no indication if the threat was past or not.

Tense seconds ticked by after the man in the hoodie disappeared from view. Khalia could feel Hunter’s heart beating against her back, his muscular frame coiled and ready to spring. After a full minute he lowered the hand holding the weapon and tucked it back wherever he’d drawn it from. Risking a look at him, she tipped her head back to search his face. Hunter slowly removed his hand from her mouth and she took her first full breath since ducking in here.

He bent his head until his mouth brushed her ear, his voice barely carrying. “There are probably others. We’re gonna move quick and quiet until we meet up with Gage and the rest of the boys. All right?”

She managed a nod, feeling slightly nauseated.

Her silenced phone began to vibrate in her pocket.

Hunter’s head snapped downward, telling her he’d heard the quiet buzz. She hesitated.

“Check it.”

Almost afraid to, Khalia pulled it out and looked at the screen. Incoming call from an unknown number.

“Pick up.”

Everything in her told her not to. Her hand shook slightly as she answered, keeping her voice as quiet as possible. “Hello?”

“You were warned not to contact the police!”

Her skin turned cold and clammy, a hard knot lodging in her throat at that angry male voice. “I didn’t—”

“This is on
your
conscience.”

With that chilling declaration the man on the other end stopped talking. Khalia shot a helpless look over her shoulder at Hunter when the screams started. She didn’t speak Pashto or Urdu, but even she understood the plea for mercy in the other man’s voice through the phone. His chilling screams were cut short with an angry growl, and then a wet gurgling sound filled the line, replacing everything with absolute silence.

“Now his blood is on your hands,” the captor snarled.

Khalia dropped the phone and covered her mouth with her hands, backing away from it like it was a coiled rattlesnake. She shrank back against Hunter and squeezed her eyes shut, horror and denial blotting out everything else.
No.
No, she couldn’t take this. Couldn’t be responsible for Aisha’s father’s death.

Cursing, Hunter pushed her to the side and slammed the heel of his combat boot down on her phone, shattering it.

In the echoing silence that followed, Khalia couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t see through the blinding haze of tears spilling down her cheeks.

“Move.” He pulled on her arm but she resisted, feeling frozen inside, still staring at the phone, her mind wanting to refute what she’d just heard. They’d just killed Aisha’s father—slit his throat, she was pretty certain—because of her.

Hunter swore again and got in front of her, took her face in his hands and tilted her head back until she was forced to look into his eyes. “We have to keep running. They just traced your fucking cell phone, Khalia. They’re hunting us right now. Our only chance is to get out of here and get to the trucks before they find us.”

The words barely penetrated the paralyzing numbness. How could they get out? They’d managed to trace her cell. Maybe the police were involved. Maybe the entire police force was in on this and one of them would shoot them at the next checkpoint they approached.

She realized with a start that they were moving again, though she hadn’t been conscious of doing so. They rushed past a confusing flurry of colors and sounds. She was vaguely aware of her legs moving, of her heart throbbing, her shallow breaths echoing in her head. Shaking herself, she swiped at the tears covering her cheeks and picked up her pace, driven by survival instinct alone. With every step she was aware that they were the prey, that the predators were in the shadows, closing in on them. A strangled sob caught in her throat, the edge of hysteria nipping at her.