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He speeds up, and I grab the door. I hadn’t put my seatbelt on, so my knuckles turn white fighting to hold steady as Magnum accelerates.
“Move, move!” he yells. In front of us, cars crowd an intersection, but the tires screech beneath us as he maneuvers around them. He yanks out his cell phone. “We’re being followed. Corner of—”
We’re hit from behind again. I slide across the seat and fall into the area reserved usually for feet.
“Corner of ninth and Hemlock!” Magnum yells. The screech of other tires underlie Magnum stringing curses together. “Brace,” he yells.
I barely have time to move before I’m thrown into the seats ahead of me. My head whips to the side and then back until we come to a startling halt among the scream of metal against metal.
I blink. It takes a moment for my vision to clear. My body is sore. My neck hurts like a bitch. I groan. “Fuck, fuck,” I seethe. “Magnum?”
No answer.
I try to pull myself onto the seat, but every time I move, my body protests with sharp, excruciating pain. My side, my neck.
The door behind me opens.
Despite my body resisting, I try to move, but rough hands grab my shoulders and heave me backwards. I want to fight back, but my arm might be broken because it doesn’t react the way I want it to, and the pulsing pain in my neck is no fucking joke.
“Magnum!”
A groan sounds from inside the car as I’m being hauled away.
No way. No fucking way. I can’t believe this is happening. Johnny warned that people could come for me, but I thought he was being paranoid. At the same time, I’m wondering who this is. Is it Fonz’s men, finally enacting their revenge? Or is it Gregory?
Why do I have so many enemies now? Oh right, because I came to the Heights.
“Get her in the car,” a voice says.
“Magnum!” I call out again. I have no idea if I’m even yelling that loud. It sounds like it to my own ears, but there’s a whooshing there, too.
Shots ring out, and I fall to the pavement.
“Fuck, I’ve been hit.”
A body falls behind me. I try to get up, to move back toward the car. I end up dragging myself with my hands. Magnum comes out from around our car that’s sandwiched between two others, a gun outstretched in his hands. He looks murderous. Blood trickles into his eyes, and he pulls the trigger again. The look on his face sheer fury. Shots ring out over my head, the unmistakable almost whistling sound as they pass just over me. He pulls the trigger several more times before a car screeches away behind me.
He spins in a circle, casing the area. When he turns back to me, he lowers the gun, running up beside me. “I’m here, I’m here,” he says. “Lay back. They’ll be here.”
Sirens surround us, and I close my eyes as the pain surges.
Magnum gets to his feet. His voice splits the air. “Who are you?” I don’t hear a response, but then the guy groans long and hard. “Who the fuck do you work for? If you tell me, I’ll spare your life, but talk soon because I have zero fucking patience.” The gun clicks, and I know Magnum’s ready to shoot again.
“Gregory. Gregory!” the guy chokes out. “Fuck. You shot me.”
“What do you want her for?”
He breathes in through his teeth. “Payback.”
I try to tilt my head back, but I can’t. I still get a good view of Magnum pulling his foot back to kick the guy in the ribs though.
The sirens get louder. Magnum tucks his gun in the back of his pants. “Someone must’ve called the accident in. They’re coming, Kyla.”
I try to stay as still as a statue as I look into Magnum’s gaze. Terror stares back at me. I make my fingers move, and he slips his hand into mine.
“I got you.”
Magnum looks up briefly. Tires come to a screeching stop somewhere near us. “Get down on the ground!” a voice yells.