Page 123 of Guarding Grace

“We’re gonna die,” Elliot whimpered. “I just know it.”

“Shut up and stay flat on the ground,” Duke barked. “If you say another word, I’ll shoot you myself.”

Turning my head, I saw Duke’s foot and knee from under the car. He rose, fired three shots, and crouched again.

The other gunmen, whoever they were, peppered our car and the neighboring ones with more bullets.

Terry took his hand off my mouth. “Don’t move and keep your eyes closed.”

Right.There could be blood. I nodded, but didn’t follow his order. With his safety on the line and my heart about to explode out of my chest, I tensed instead. There was no way in hell I was taking my eyes off my boyfriend, my protector.

Terry crawled off me and squirmed across the ground to the back of the car with his gun in hand.

“Don’t leave me,” Elliot moaned.

I twisted toward him. “Shut up and grow a pair.”

I’d seen enough TV to know that if Terry took a bullet, someone had to apply pressure to the wound to control the bleeding. That had to be me, blood and all. I fucking refused to let my boyfriend die because I had a crap-ass nervous system that shut down at the sight of blood. If my boyfriend needed a nurse, I was determined to be there for him.

Boyfriend, that word echoed in my head as I watched him. The attacks had crystallized how I felt for my ex-Marine. If I survived this, I was going to tell him exactly how hard I’d fallen for my onetime tormentor.

Terry extended his arm alongside the tire and squinted. He fired, the sound surprisingly loud this close to me. A second later he fired again. “One down,” he announced to Duke.

Duke laughed. “If Marine scout snipers are so good, why’d it take you two shots to hit the guy?” He popped up and let loose another volley of shots.

More bullets peppered our car.

“Fuck you.” Terry’s tone was joking. “At least I didn’t empty half a clip without hitting anything like some washed-up SEAL.”

“It’s called drawing their fire to save your ass and giving you a target to aim at,” Duke argued with a laugh.

Their humor helped me relax a tiny bit. Maybe it was the badass key to handling the stress of such a deadly situation.

Terry stretched out and squinted again. “I’m ready.”

Duke shot twice more before ducking.

More return fire hit around us.

I could barely breathe. I was safely behind the car, but Terry had to be exposed to shoot. With the sound of each bullet hitting nearby, I feared the next one would strike him. That I’d lose him. We couldn’t end like this before we even got started. I couldn’t lose him, not now.

Bang. Terry fired once more. “Winged one.”

“Aren’t snipers supposed to go for headshots?” Duke joked.

“Bite me, sailor boy. A case of beer says I take you at the range, even lefthanded.”

“You’re on.”

Several more seconds went by with an eerie silence.

Duke popped up at the sound of squealing tires, and back down again. “They’re bugging out.”

“Don’t move,” Terry told me before he stood and gave a silent hand signal to Duke. The two split up, moving in different directions before crossing the street.

Now that the gunfire had ceased, I could hear the groaning coming from a distance.

Whoever our attackers were, they’d left one guy behind, presumably the first one Terry had hit.