Page 116 of Built for Mercy

Kendrick didn’t care about the conversation.

Yes, he lured me out.

Yes, I fell for it.

But worst of all, I wasn’t even fucking vigilant when it came to my surroundings.

I should’ve been. Why hadn’t I been more careful?

Police sirens broke me from my haze as Sophie outdrove them. When I looked at her, her jaw was clenched, her eyes hard and angry as she kept glancing in the rearview mirror.

“Soph—”

“Don’t,” she seethed. Then she reached across the console to pull my suit jacket to the side. “Are you hit?”

“No,” I said on instinct, but the movement of the fabric had me hissing. I glanced down and saw a growing bloodstain on my white dress shirt. “Fuck, I guess I am.” I shrugged my jacket off to get a better look. It was just a graze, but it hurt like a bitch now that I noticed it.

Her driving was nothing short of reckless abandon as she took turns way too fucking fast, but a single glance behind us confirmed why. There were two SUVs following us.

“You just couldn’t stay put, could you?” I snapped, suddenly angry that she left the safe confines of our home.

“How about a thank you for saving your fucking life?”

“I am so going to punish you for talking to me like this,” I growled.

She laughed humorlessly. “Really? You’re thinking about sex right now? You were almost killed.”

My head fell against the back of the seat just as she accelerated faster. The streets were blurring, and it was amazing she could navigate them at all at this speed. I clutched the door and thecenter console for grip as she whipped the car around as if it was easy for her. “Jesus, Sophie, you can slow down a little.”

“Right, well, unless this car is bulletproof, we really can’t afford for me to drive like a good Samaritan right now.” She took another sharp turn, and I won’t lie—my stomach flipped uncomfortably. It had been a long time since I’d been in a high-speed car chase.

Next thing I knew, Sophie was handing over her Glock. I eyed it warily before taking it. “I have my own guns, babe.”

“I know. But I need you to be ready for this next part.” Her eyes glanced in the mirror again, and when I looked, too, I saw how close the SUVs were, and that there were armed men hanging out of the windows. Shit. I needed to pull my act together before I got the both of us killed.

“What’s your plan?”

She licked her lips, drawing my gaze to them, and I had the sudden urge to kiss her. I would if I wasn’t worried she’d shoot me for distracting her. “I’m turning right to get onto the bridge. When I do, you need to do your best to take them out. I won’t be able to go fast enough to lose them until we’re outside of city limits.”

Ignoring the searing pain tearing through my ribs, I shifted in the seat, twisting to face the back. One foot braced against the floor, the other knee dug into the leather, steadying me as I rolled the window down. Wind whipped into the car, hot and fast, filling my lungs as I checked the chamber—one in, ready.

The street was a fucking blur of chaos, cars veering, horns blaring. Drivers slammed on their brakes, some swerving onto sidewalks, others speeding up to get the hell away. Pedestrians stood frozen at crosswalks, too stunned to move.

I waited. Waited for Sophie to turn, for the right moment.

The second she did, I leaned out the window, barely taking a breath before pulling the trigger. A shot cracked through the air, deafening, splitting the night in two.

One of the front tires of the SUV behind us exploded, the vehicle fishtailing wildly, tires shrieking against pavement. It spun out, colliding with a sedan before slamming into a brick building, glass shattering on impact.

No time to look at Sophie.

No time to process.

Just time to prepare—because the next car wasn’t stopping. The vehicle in the back lurched forward, gaining speed. Passenger-side window rolled down. I caught the glint of steel.

AR-15.

“Fuck—”I barely ducked back into the car before the first round shredded through the back windshield, glass shards slicing past me.