Page 44 of Stolen Salvation

The man on the other side fired again as she ran to the other side of the door to try and get a better angle. Pops from upstairs filtered through her brain with shouts and thumps of people fighting but she couldn’t let the fear win and distract her. Noah was more than capable of dealing with whoever was up there. She had to believe that, or she’d be history.

Spotting the man who’d shot at her in the reflection of the stainless-steel toaster, she made her move and took the shot, hitting him in the thigh. As he cried out, she slid across the counter and came to stop above him. “Don’t move.”

She could see the indecision on his face, sensed the moment he decided to go for the weapon which was just feet from him and fired. The sound of someone behind her had her spinning to find Reaper standing there.

Lowering her weapon, she glanced at Noah who rushed into the room and straight for her. She sagged into his arms when he reached her, her hands moving over him looking for an injury.

“I’m okay. I’m okay.” Pulling back she saw a look pass between Reaper and Hurricane as Titan joined them.

“Well, I guess the safe house wasn’t so safe.”

Reaper frowned at Titan’s words, but his jaw tensed as he glanced back at her. “We need to leave.”

“Are any of them still alive?”

Noah shook his head. “No, they were all going for kill shots, so I had to act first.”

A phone rang and Hurricane answered it. “Yeah. … Yeah. …Thanks, man.”

He hung up and looked at the group. “That was Watchdog. He called the police off, but we still need to get gone before other goons show up.”

“Yeah, let’s move to the second location. We can call Duchess on our way.”

“No need. She’s already blowing up my phone. Says she’s on her way and will be here in an hour so she must be taking the chopper.”

She saw a look of sadness cross Hurricane’s face at the words and wondered what could have prompted it.

Glancing back to Noah, she saw Reaper watching her and the skin on her neck prickled in warning. “What?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing.”

Noah sensed the sudden animosity and stepped closer to her. “What the hell is going on?”

“Nothing, let’s go.”

Reaper turned but Noah grabbed his arm and spun him back as Reaper shook his hand off. “What the fuck, Reaper?”

“Don’t you think it’s funny that in the entire time we’ve been doing this not once have we had a safe house compromised, and now all of a sudden we do?”

Reaper glanced at her and the accusation was clear in his blue eyes.

Noah straightened to his full height and went nose to nose with his friend, his tone was pure grit and ice. “What the fuck are you saying?”

“You can’t be that naïve. She fucking shot you, man.”

Noah looked wounded as he took a step back as if his friend had punched him in the gut. “You think Charlie leaked our location?”

“I’m just saying it’s odd.”

Hurricane stepped between them and held up his hands. “Everyone, just calm down. We need to go. This can wait until we’re clear.”

“The fuck it can. I’m not going anywhere with him.”

Charlie stepped toward Noah and laid a hand on his arm, his eyes instantly moving toward her with an apology she didn’t need. Reaper, however misguided, was looking out for him and she’d always be grateful he had that. “He’s just looking out for you.”

“How can you say that? He’s accusing you of causing this.”

Charlie moved between Noah and Reaper and laid her hands on his chest. “He has his reasons, and I did shoot you.”