“Nora!” Powerful arms wrap around my waist, dragging me down to the floor. A furious Julian is kneeling over me, his face like thunder. “I fucking told you to stay down!”
In a split second, I register two things: he’s uninjured, and his hands are empty.
The grenade launcher must be out of ammunition.
Boom! A blast rocks the limo, sending us both flying. I’m vaguely aware that Julian twists around me, protecting me with his body, but I still feel the brutal impact as we slam into the partition. All air leaves my lungs, and the interior of the car spins around me, my vision blurring as something sharp bites at my skin. My head is pounding from the inside, as though my brain is struggling to get out.
“Nora!” Julian’s voice reaches through the ringing whine in my ears. Dazed, I try to focus in on him. As some of the blurriness clears, I realize we’re on the floor again, with him lying on top of me. His face is covered with blood; it’s trickling down, dripping on me. He’s also saying something, but his words don’t register in my mind.
All I see is the vicious, deadly red of his blood.
“You’re hurt.” The terrified croak bears little resemblance to my voice. “Julian, you’re hurt—”
He grips my jaw, hard, stunning me into silence. “Listen to me,” he grits out. “In exactly a minute, I’m going to need you to run. Do you understand me? Run straight for the fucking plane and don’t stop, no matter what.”
I stare at him, uncomprehending. Drip. Drip. Drip. The red drops keep coming down. I can feel the wetness on my face, taste the metallic warmth on my lips. His eyes are bright blue amidst all that red, blue and incredibly beautiful . . .
“Nora!” he roars, shaking me. “Do you understand me?”
Some of the ringing in my skull abates, and the meaning of his words finally reaches me.
Run. He wants me to run.
“What about—” you, I want to say, but he cuts me off.
“You’ll take your parents, and you will all fucking run.” His voice is sharp enough to cut through steel, his gaze burning into me. “You’ll have the gun with you, but I don’t want you playing hero. Do you understand, Nora?”
I manage a small nod. “Yes.” Through the pounding in my temples, I realize the car is still going, still driving despite whatever it was that hit us. I can hear the helicopter hovering over us, but we’re alive for now. “Yes, I understand.”
“Good.” He holds my gaze for a couple of moments longer, and then, as if unable to resist, he lowers his head and takes my mouth in a hard, searing kiss. I taste the salt and metal of his blood, and the unique flavor that is Julian, and I want him to keep kissing me, to make me forget the nightmare we’re in. All too soon, though, his lips move over to my neck, and I feel the warmth of his breath as he whispers in my ear, “Please get yourself and your parents to the plane, baby. Thomas is already there, and he can pilot the plane if need be. Lucas will take care of Rosa. This is our only chance to get out of this alive, so when I tell you to run, you run. I’ll be right behind you, okay?”
And before I can say anything, he jumps up and pulls me to my knees, handing me the AK-47 that I’d dropped. My head spins from the sudden movement, but I shake off the dizziness, gripping the weapon with all my strength. Everything feels off, my body strangely uncooperative, but I’m able to focus enough to see that the rear window is gone and there’s smoke rising from the back of the car. To my relief, my parents are still strapped into their seats, bleeding and dazed-looking but alive.
The back window must’ve shattered, sending fragments of glass flying into the car—which explains the blood on them and Julian.
The limo begins slowing down, and Julian grips my jaw again, bringing my attention back to him. “In ten seconds,” he says harshly, “I’m going to open this door and come out. In that moment, you escape through the other door. Understand, Nora? You jump out and run like hell.”
I nod, and when he releases me, I turn to my parents. “Take off your seatbelts,” I say hoarsely. “We’re going to make a run for the plane as soon as the car stops.”
My mom doesn’t react, her face blank with shock, but my dad begins fumbling with the seatbelt buckles. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the hangar coming up, and I frantically begin helping my parents, determined to free them before the car stops.
I succeed in unbuckling my mom’s seatbelt, but my dad’s seems stuck, and we both desperately tug at it, our hands in each other’s way as the limo barrels through a tall, open gate into a warehouse-like building.
“Hurry!” Julian shouts as the limo screeches to a halt. I’m nearly thrown again, but I manage to hang on to the seatbelt strap.
“Now, Nora!” Julian yells, throwing open his door. “Go now!”
The seatbelt buckle finally pops loose, and I grab my dad’s hand as he grabs my mom’s. Pushing open the opposite door, we scramble out of the car, falling onto our hands and knees. My heart pounding, I swivel my head, looking for our plane, and then I see it.
It’s standing near the exit on the opposite side of the hangar, with a dozen other planes between us and it.
“This way!” I jump to my feet, tugging at my dad. “Come on, we have to go!”
We start running. Behind us, there is another screech of brakes, followed by a furious burst of gunfire. Twisting my head, I see Julian and Lucas shooting at an SUV that just barreled into the building behind us. Rosa is running too; she’s right on our heels. My heart hammering, I slow down, everything inside me screaming to turn back, to help Lucas and Julian, but then I recall his words.