“Erik,” I repeated, his name a hoarse entreaty.
“Hell,” he grumped.
“Get out of the car!” the female voice said again. “Now! I’m sick of waiting.”
I gulped. “I’m going to get out now.”
“I’m going to create a distraction,” Erik said. “You’re going to run.”
I gaped at him. I could see the long length of his lashes casting shadows over his cheek. Bleak shadows, frightening shadows.
“Understand?”
“No. I told you. Running now is stupid. Just give yourself up.”
A muscle ticked under his left eye. “Everything will turn out okay if you’ll run and stay hidden until I can somehow clear your name.”
“But—”
“No buts. You’re innocent, and I dragged you into it. You shouldn’t have to deal with this.” He paused, then finally studied me. He growled low in his throat. “Promise me, Camille. Promise me you’ll run and not look back.”
“That just makes me look all the more guilty.”
Our pursuers lost any hint of patience and flashed their lights. “Get out of the f**king car. I’m close to blowing it to pieces. Feel me?”
“They’ll hurt you, Camille,” Erik said, still not moving from the vehicle. The dark brown of his eyes pierced me deeply. “They’ll beat you and they’ll torture you for answers you don’t have. Don’t try and be a hero tonight.”
Ha. I’d never tried to be a hero in my life. But more than making me look guilty, leaving him meant letting him endure questions about me, I suddenly realized. He might be beaten. He might be tortured.
“I’ll stay,” I said, determined. “Maybe we can convince them that you—”
“You won’t explain because you’re not staying.” Erik reached behind him a second time, angling his arm up and somehow anchoring the gun at the back of his neck, making sure the high back of the seat hid his actions from the agents. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. I always am.”
He was lying, and we both knew it.
He didn’t give me a chance to respond, though. “It’s been nice knowing you, Camille. Now get ready to run,” he mumbled, and then he opened the car door.
6
I can do this, I mentally chanted. I can do this. I’m smart—sometimes, I added. I’ll make them listen to me. I just wished my nervous system would calm down. Blood raced through me, hotter than fire, burning, burning. A loud ringing echoed inside my ears.
Erik emerged from the car, hands at his sides. He pasted a cocky, come-and-get-me grin on his face. I stayed where I was, scared, trying to force the right words into my brain and yeah, praying this was a bad dream and I’d awaken any second.
“Hands up,” the voice said, and he slowly obeyed. “Camille Robins, get out on your side of the car.”
Hearing my name, I gasped in surprise. They had already figured out who I was. There would have been no reprieve for me, no matter how far I’d run or where I’d hidden.
Voice shaky, I commanded the car door to open. The moment I stood outside, I had to blink against the brightness of the halogens. My eyes even teared. “We’re innocent,” I said. My legs were so weak I could barely hold myself up and had to latch onto the car.
“Hands up,” the voice shouted.
I let go and almost fell again. I had to lean my shoulder against the car for support.
“She’s injured,” Erik said loudly, then whispered to me, “Almost time to run.”
“I’m staying,” I whispered back.
“We’ll see.”
“I want to explain about tonight,” I called, trying to give details that helped both of us. I truly didn’t want him hurt, either. “I’d never really spoken to Erik until tonight, so we couldn’t have planned anything together. We—”
Erik cursed, and I realized our captors were racing toward us. Erik whipped the pyre-gun from its perch on his neck and started firing. Yellow-orange beams cut through the golden lights, through darkness, illuminating the shapes of three women. Each of them dove for cover and immediately shot back, their fire slamming into our car. Some were aimed directly at me.
I screamed and ducked. “I’m unarmed!”
Another blast hit just behind where I’d been standing.
Erik returned a steady stream of fire and worked his way behind the open driver-side door, using it as a shield.
“Run,” he shouted to me.
On instinct, I managed three crawl steps. Then I froze. What are you doing? You can’t leave!
“Run, you idiot,” Erik growled.
“No.”
Just then, a stream of yellow fire whizzed past my ear. It didn’t touch me, but it was so hot my skin instantly blistered. My stomach twisted painfully and I scrambled behind the passenger door.
“She isn’t f**king armed,” Erik shouted to the women.
“Drop your weapon,” someone shouted back. A girl, different from the one who had first spoken.
“Like hell,” he told her. He fired another shot and I heard the girl curse under her breath.
Yeah, I knew the feeling. I wanted to curse and scream and curse some more. “You have to believe me. We’re innocent. Everything that happened tonight was a big misunderstanding.”
“The shot that grazed you was a warning, Camille,” one of the girl’s said, fury dripping from her voice. “Next time I’m aiming for your heart. You want to live, you’ll walk toward me, hands up. We’ll go someplace quiet and talk.”
I made to straighten, and a beam hit just above my shoulder. Screaming, I ducked. Were they trying to kill me? “I thought—I thought—”
“They want you injured,” Erik explained. “They’ll say anything to get their hands on you.”
“But I am injured!” And I no longer wanted to give myself over to these girls. I think, perhaps, I was safer with Erik.
“No, you’re trapped,” a third female voice said, this one a purring rumble. “Much as I’d like to scratch your eyes out, Erik, we have orders to bring you in unharmed. If possible. But I don’t care who the hell you are. It’s open season on you and your little friend if you keep firing.”
Her words confused me. Who was he to them?
A second later, bright amber light exploded, consuming the night’s darkness, brighter than the halogens, glowing and shining over me and Erik. No shadows remained.