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The security gate swung open and the SUV roared forward, clipping the metal but not slowing down as a bullet shattered the rear window in a shower of safety glass.
When they hit an open road, the driver’s eyes met hers in the rearview mirror.
“Stryker.” She exhaled in relief. The best, among the best.
“Cut it a little close there, DiLuce.”
“Yeah,” she responded as lightly as she could.
Gregorio’s eyes rolled back in his head.
“How bad?”
Unable to answer, struggling to keep it together, she clamped her lips together before managing, “Drive faster.”
The vehicle fishtailed as he threw the vehicle around the next corner, the accelerator all the way to the floor.
He keyed a radio and spoke quietly.
She’d been in enough of these situations to know Inamorata had a hospital on standby, and that everything that could be done would be done.
Blood soaked everywhere, and she frantically shrugged out of her jacket, bunching the material against his wound.
“Stay with me.” Her voice cracked as she pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Don’t you dare leave me.”
Their rescuer took another corner at breakneck speed, tires screaming in protest. The SUV’s backend swung wide, and she braced herself against the door to keep from crushing Gregorio.
Stryker didn’t apologize, nor did she expect him to. “Red light ahead,” she warned.
Stryker didn’t slow. “Hang on.”
Horns blared as they shot through the intersection. A delivery truck swerved, barely missing them.
“We’ve got a tail.” Stryker’s voice was steady as he wrenched the wheel, cutting down a side street.
No. No. No.
“You have a gun?”
“Yeah.” Since the car wasn’t close enough for her to engage, she pressed harder on Gregorio’s wound. His skin was growing clammy, his breathing shallow and uneven.
“Come on, come on.” She wasn’t sure if she was talking to Gregorio or willing the vehicle to go faster. “Open your eyes for me.”
His lashes fluttered.
“That’s it.” Desperately, she smoothed a hand across his forehead, needing to touch him, to keep him with her.
Beneath a streetlight, his diamond earring winked, and she struggled against the lump in her throat. “Don’t you dare leave me.”
Another hard turn. Then another.
Frantically she steadied him. “Stay with me, Gregorio. Fight, damn it.”
She lost track of where they were, how fast they were going.
“Almost there.” Stryker’s voice was grim as he keyed the radio again.
Thankfully, the scream of sirens cut across the night air, and two police cars fell in behind them.