Page 22 of Epic

Ryan starts up the van and drives off. Once we're back on the road, he reaches across the console to take my hand. Our fingers tangle together and we hold on tight.

"Text the others to let them know we're on our way over," Ryan says after a few minutes of driving.

I make a humming sound of assent, taking out my phone and shooting off a text to Paige. She sends one back a second later to confirm they'll be waiting for us outside, so we can make a quick getaway from the Bedlam Estate. I relay this to Ryan, who nods in understanding.

Belatedly, I ask him, "Where's the gun?"

"Dropped the fucking thing.” Ryan's face contorts, furious with himself. “Had to leave it behind otherwise they'd have caught me."

Shit. There's no chance, if they find that gun, Paul Winters won't be able to track it back to Adrian. Adrian might have kept quiet to save his own arse, but if Paul questions him he'll fold like a napkin.

We lapse into quiet for a few minutes, the world outside the van feeling at once muted and distant, and deafeningly oppressive. My whole body feels like a live wire, each vein and bone and thread of muscle buzzing with an electrical pulse that could short-circuit at any moment and send a kill order to take out my heart.

I count to ten breaths before giving in, just to prove to myself my lungs still have a job worth doing.

"You know they're going to come after us hard for this?" I turn my head to look at Ryan, taking in his handsome profile. He has blood on his face, specks of it that could be mistaken for wet dirt in the right light.

The Colombians might kill Paul Winters, but they won't do it tonight or tomorrow. There's going to be plenty of time for him to find out it was us who ruined him and come seeking revenge for it.

A series of shadows and streetlights play over Ryan's face as he drives through the downtown streets, casting him in different shades of danger. He throws me a dark, hooded look filled with old traumas and fresh rebellion. "Let them fucking try."

I squeeze Ryan's hand like it's a promise, a pledge to stand with him on the precipice of this war we've started.

No matter what, I know in my heart that we’ll figure this out the same way we have everything else since the night we met. Together.