Sacrifice (23 page)

James glanced outside. “So what do you want to do?”

“They know we’re here. I say we go out, guns blazing.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?”

Will’s mouth lifted into a grin, but his eyes held a wicked gleam. “Why the hell not?” He looked outside again. “We’ll wait until there aren’t any patients in the garage. James, you take out the guy on the right and I’ll take out the guy on the left.”

“What about Emma?”

Will held her gaze. “Emma, you stay behind me and keep down.”

She nodded, trust in her eyes. “Okay.”

Going out there unarmed was a risky move, and in her position he would have asked questions. But she agreed, which implied that she trusted his decisions and trusted him. What had they already been through together?

They waited several minutes until the lot was clear, then Will nodded to James.

His stomach balled in apprehension, his instinct telling him something was wrong. James had already headed outside and Will couldn’t leave him uncovered. He glanced at Emma as he ran out the door. “Stay inside!”

Will hated last-minute changes, but something was off and he couldn’t have her run out behind him defenseless.

James raised his weapon as the two men turned to him, but gunshots came from behind the men—from two more gunmen hiding behind a sedan. James dived between two compact cars, pointing his weapon over the trunk. Will got in several shots while taking cover behind a trash bin.

The two men on the curb were down and Will spotted only one of the men behind the sedan. This could take all day and Will didn’t have all day. Glancing at James, he motioned that he planned to rush the attacker.

James nodded.

As he prepared to run toward it, the car exploded, throwing Will on his ass.

Emma stood in the doorway, surrounded by a golden glow.

Jumping to his feet, Will’s mouth dropped. “What did you do?”

Her face was emotionless. “I did what I had to do.”

Will ran over to James and found him seated, leaning against the car. Blood drenched the lower right portion of his T-shirt. Will knelt next to him. “Shit.”

Emma approached from behind and gasped.

Will’s heart nearly stopped, but he moved into action. “We have to get him out of here. He’s going to bleed out.”

James grabbed Will’s arm. “You can’t take me into the hospital. They’ll find us there.”

Running his hand over his mouth, Will sat back on his heels. “Goddamnit!”

Emma took a step forward then hesitated. “I can help.”

Will stood and spun to face her. “How?”

She bit her lip, staring at James’s shirt. “I can heal him.” She looked up, worry and fear flashing in her eyes.

James’s eyes widened in horror. “No fucking way! She won’t heal me! She’ll kill me!”

Will grabbed her arm and searched her face. “Can you really do that?”

She nodded. “But we’ll have to hurry.”

Screeching tires echoed through the garage. James looked up at Will, his mouth pinched. “Reinforcements are on the way, Will. Get out of here.”

“Like hell I’m leaving you here.” He grabbed James’s gun. “Do it, Emma. Do whatever you need to do and I’ll cover you.”

She squatted next to James. “I promise I won’t kill you, James.”

“Why the hell not after what I’ve done to you?”

She put one hand on his arm and her other hand hovered over his abdomen. “Because if you think I’d kill you out of spite, it shows you don’t know the first thing about me. I just killed that man behind the car to save you and Will, and while I did it for a good reason, it still eats me alive. Now shut up and let me fix you.”

A golden glow surrounded her and she placed her hand on James’s abdomen. “Heal him.” An electrical zap jumped from Emma to James. He jerked as she slumped against the car, but Will didn’t have time to check on either one of them. An SUV pulled up. The windows lowered and gun tips appeared.

“James! Get behind the back of the car!” Will glanced back. James had gotten to his feet while Emma squatted, leaning against the side.

“I need my gun.” James grabbed it out of Will’s waistband.

“She really healed you?”

“So it would seem.”

“Is she okay?”

“I have no idea.”

Will shook his head in disgust. The gunmen in the SUV hadn’t taken a shot yet. “Why aren’t they shooting?”

“My guess is that they know Emma’s here and they don’t want to kill her.”

Will turned to James with a scowl. “Did you have anything to do with this?”

James snorted. “Don’t be a fucking idiot.” Determination hardened his face. “But we can use it to our advantage.”

Will recoiled. “After she just saved your ass?”

“I never asked her to do that.”

“We are
not
handing her over.”

“Fine, I’ll do it myself.”

“The hell you will.”

Will dropped to Emma’s side and her eyes fluttered open. “Touch me.”

“What?”

“Just touch my hand.”

Will took her hand, curling his fingers around her palm. The ring on his finger turned icy cold and he sucked in a breath in surprise.

She smiled at him. “Thank you.”

Glancing up at James, Will knew he’d fight his best friend to the death before he turned her over. He might not remember her, but it turned out that she was a hell of a better person than James could ever be.

She seemed to regain her energy and sat up straighter. “Are you going to hand me over?”

His chest tightened. “No.”

Relief flickered through her eyes. “I can take out the SUV.”

“Are you sure? After what you just did for James?”

“Turns out healing someone takes a lot more energy than blowing things up. Do you have another plan?”

“No. But if you blow it up, it will block our only way out of here.” Their Toyota was five spaces down and Will had the keys. Will couldn’t believe he was making this decision, yet it felt right. “Emma, let’s go.” He grabbed her wrist and pulled her to the back of the car.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going, Will?” James shouted.

Will ignored him, moving behind the compact car next to him.

“Will!”

“Go to hell, Buckner.”

***

She followed his lead, scrambling behind the cars until he stopped at an older Toyota.

“You should let me drive,” she said. “I’m good and you always had me drive.”

“Maybe so, but I think you’ll be handier using your power. It will be easier for you to do that if I’m driving. Now get in.”

She climbed in the passenger seat while Will ran around to the other side and tossed her bag in the back.

“This is probably going to get ugly.”

She tried to swallow the lump of fear in her throat. “Doesn’t it always?”

Gunshots echoed in the garage. James was firing on the SUV.

Her chest tightened with fear. “What’s he doing?”

Will’s face hardened. “He’s distracting them and helping us get away.”

He swerved the car out of the space and tore down the row, skidding around the corner and past the SUV. “My shotgun’s in the bag in the back. Can you get it out?”

“Yeah.” She leaned between the seats, her fingers shaking as she unzipped Will’s bag.
Calm your ass down, Emma
. Freaking out would only make her ineffective. She searched blindly through the contents, her fingers brushing cold metal. She pulled the weapon out of the bag. “Is it loaded?”

“Yes, but we’ll need more ammo. It’s in there too.”

She found several boxes and pulled them all to the top of the bag. She turned around to the front in time to see the six men pointing guns at them.

“Get down!” Will’s hand shoved her head between her legs before bullets pierced the windshield, sending glass raining on her head. The sides and back windows shattered and the car fishtailed. She lifted her gaze to Will. His hands gripped the steering wheel and a gash over his eyebrow dripped blood down the side of his face.

“You’re hurt!”

He shook his head. “I’m fine. It’s just a cut from the flying glass.” Looking in the rearview mirror, his face hardened. “They’re coming after us already. I hoped to have more of a head start.”

Emma looked out the now open back window. Three cars were in pursuit. “Do you think James set you up?”

He shook his head again. “No. They probably knew my mom was here and waited it out, expecting me to visit her.”

“She works here?”

“No. She’s a patient.” His terse tone told her that now wasn’t the time to discuss it.

“Do you have a plan?”

“Other than try to outrun them in this death trap on wheels, which seems highly unlikely? No.”

“Then we wing it. We’re good at winging it.” She wished she felt as confident as she sounded, but she had to believe they’d get out of this. She hadn’t just found him for it to end.

Will pulled out of the hospital parking lot onto a four-lane road, the other cars gaining on them. “About a mile ahead, there’s an abandoned industrial park full of alleys between the buildings. We might be able to lose them there.”

One of the cars pulled up behind them. Emma raised the shotgun and aimed for the windshield, squeezing the trigger. The sedan made a sharp jerk and then righted itself.

“Can you do something to it with your power?” Will asked, swerving between two trucks in front of them.

“I don’t know.” It wasn’t like when they’d escaped in the plane and she had to worry about exploding the gas tanks in the wings. But she hated to take a chance sending her power through the car. “I need to climb into the back.”

“No!” He sounded panicked as he grabbed her arm. “If you climb over, they’re going to shoot you.”

“Then I guess I’m stuck with a gun unless I try something out the side window.”

“I can slow down and let them pull up beside us.”

Her heart tripped. It was risky but would probably work. “Okay, let’s try it.”

Will found a gap and moved to the left lane. The car slowed and the sedan pulled behind and rammed the back bumper.

Emma braced herself with her hand on the dashboard and mumbled sarcastically. “I forgot how fun this was,” she grumbled.

The sedan edged closer. Will jerked the wheel to try to hide the ruse.

Emma focused on her anger as gunshots hit the side of their Toyota. She aimed for the front of the sedan and released her energy. Smoke poured out of the hood and the car swung to the side of the road, crashing into a speed limit sign.

“One down,” she said. But two were left.

The industrial park came into view and Will turned into the first opening in the parking lot, driving at an angle toward the buildings. He drove into a gap between the buildings, turned right, and shot down a narrow alley. Both cars pulled in behind them.

Will pulled into the other side of the lane, barely missing a dumpster as he maneuvered around it. The car pitched as it flew through a pothole.

An opening between two warehouses appeared ahead and Will turned left, skidding around the corner. Pulling out into a parking lot, he sped through the lot, turning onto a narrow road between two more buildings and back into the alley. They were now headed in the opposite direction. One of the cars pulled in behind him. He swerved onto a cut-through to the opposite parking lot again, backtracking to the beginning.

Sirens sounded in the distance and Emma’s stomach knotted. “Pull into that road between the buildings and stop the car.”

“
What
?”

“Will, the police are on their way. We can’t outrun the police. Stop the car.”

“Emma, there’s no fucking way—”

The cars turned into the alley from opposite ends, both headed their direction. “Listen to me. I can do this. Trust me.”

He turned onto the one-lane road and screeched the car to a halt. “What the hell are you planning to do?”

“I’m saving our asses.” She opened the door and climbed out of the car.

Will followed with his shotgun.

“Will, you’re going to get yourself killed. Get back in the car.”

“I’m not leaving you out here.”

Emma shook her head in frustration, letting her anger at Will grow so that it overshadowed her fear. “Then get behind the dumpster over there and be my backup.”

“But—”

“They can’t hurt me, Will, but they can hurt you. Please, go over there.”

He relented and aimed his gun toward the closest car. “If you can, don’t destroy both cars. We need a replacement.”

Emma nodded and moved to the middle of the alley, surrounded by her golden glow.

***

What the hell was she doing and more importantly, what the hell was he doing letting her stand out there?

The glow around her thickened and she raised her hands, her face expressionless.

Will took a shot at the sedan’s tire, but it was still too far away to be effective.

Two golden orbs flew from her outstretched palms to the closest approaching sedan, which showed no signs of slowing down. The vehicle exploded, shaking the dumpster next to him and shooting flames into the sky. The car continued toward her, now as a fast-moving fireball. She jumped toward the dumpster as it flew past, nearing the oncoming sedan.

Will ran to a chained sliding door on the warehouse next to them and gave it a jerk. He looked up at Emma. “Can you open it?”

She nodded and stared at the lock, sending a small burst of energy toward it. The padlock flew to the ground.

Will pulled the chain away from the door and shoved the rusted door open enough for them to slide through.

Her eyes flew open and she dragged her feet as he pushed her toward the opening. “You said you had the book. Is it in the car?”

Wrapping his fingers around her arm he pulled her harder. “Forget the book.”

“No! Our lives might depend on that book! I have to get it.”

His grip tightened as she fought against him.

“Will!”

“I’m not letting you get shot over a fucking book. Now get your ass in there.”

A glow surrounded her again as her face contorted from her effort. Her skin singed his fingers and he released his hold. Emma ran into the alley as Will cursed under his breath, raising his gun to shoot anything that looked like a threat.