Page 19 of The Forever (When the World Fell #3)

Cruz

N one of those assholes had fired off a shot. They could have stood their ground, threatened someone’s life or taken a hostage, but they ran.

Their guns were useless.

If only we’d known that an hour ago, we could have ended this and been walking into the compound by now.

With my rifle gripped in one hand, I chased the remaining two men. I couldn’t risk either of them catching a break and hiding somewhere before we got to them. If they did, we’d be doing foot patrols all fucking night.

Remy had a head start on the rest of us, with Jonah not too far behind him.

As the air puffed from me, I considered stopping and lining up a target to fire off a shot, but Remy kept moving in and out of my sight, and I couldn’t risk it.

The car sped up behind me and my heart pounded as the roar of the engine closed in on my location. Resisting the urge to take a look, I kept my eyes in front. With all the men in the gang accounted for, it had to be one of our people.

Remy dragged the closest man to the ground and held him face down with his knee planted on the guy’s back. A loud, pissed off exchange of words followed, and the man fought for his life.

Remy had weapons at his disposal and the skills to use them, but all he could do was hold his position and try to stop the guy from breaking free.

Seconds later, Jonah caught up to him, and the two of them restrained the man while his weasel friend left him for dead.

I spared the car a glance as it raced by, with Liv behind the wheel and Ro riding shotgun—a replay of their adventure in Darby Downs. Ro hooted as she hung her upper body out the window, clutching a baseball bat she must have found somewhere inside.

Liv floored it and headed straight for the last man standing. Thirty metres away at most. The moment she reached his location, she braked and performed a neat little half doughnut manoeuvre, while Ro smacked the man with a clunk powerful enough to knock him straight off his feet.

Confident they had the situation under control, I switched my attention to the closest man.

Jonah lifted his knife, ready to end him, but he didn’t need to get blood on his hands when I already had plenty of it on mine.

“Move back,” I ordered, waiting for him and Remy to clear a safe distance.

The man switched gears and turned to babbling nonsense, raising his hands and promising to run and never come back, pleading with me to spare his life. When his eyes met mine, the fear in them might have swayed me if we hadn’t been taught too many lessons by the people we’d encountered.

His crew spent the morning terrorising innocent lives. They would have killed Garrett and his men if they had the chance.

With that thought forefront of my mind, I clenched my jaw and aimed at his chest, blocking out every conflicting feeling.

When the echo of the gunshot faded, my limbs trembled with waning adrenaline. I straightened and wiped my forearm over my brow, gazing into the distance as my mind switched to Liv. I hadn’t seen or heard from her since she drove past.

“We got the last one!” she yelled.

Fuck . It was over. Done. Everyone who mattered was safe.

The setting sun disappeared behind a cloud, and a breath jerked from me. Garrett and Freddy caught up with us and gazed down at one of the four men who’d lost their lives today.

Relief tinged the heavy atmosphere, and no one spoke at first. I could only imagine the thoughts going through their minds. Until today, they’d lived peaceful lives, and we’d obliterated that sense of security in minutes.

Freddy was the first to break the silence. “Is this how you’ve been living since everything stopped?” he asked. “Is this what it’s like out there?”

“Not always—and not everywhere.” Jonah slid his knife back in its sheath and looked from Freddy to Garrett.

“It’s shocking, I know,” I said. “And if there was any other way to deal with people like this, believe me, we’d never go down this path—but this is how we take care of our people now.”

Blood had pooled under the man’s torso, and a trickle made its way toward my boot. I slung the rifle strap over my shoulder and stepped away from the body.

Liv pulled over and jumped from the car, leaving the door hanging open as she rushed over to us.

At a glance, I knew she was the one who’d delivered the final blow. The lower half of her legs were splattered with red, and her expression mirrored the feelings I was still trying to process.

Guilt and relief. Disgust. Acceptance.

With panting breaths, she scanned every face, then her eyes locked on mine. “You’re all okay.”

I nodded and held her gaze.

Murder had never been on the cards for us today. We were supposed to show up in town, spend a day or two looking for what we now knew of as Harmony Ridge, then take our time acclimatising to our new surroundings—a bland series of events in a less than ordinary world.

Instead, we’d ended another day in the worst possible way.

I dragged in a long breath through my nose and blew it out again, telling myself the worst had passed now.

When she came over to me and slipped her arms around my waist, feeling her warmth pressed against me helped put it all into perspective.

Ro called out through the passenger window, “Nice work, hot assassin!”

She had a way of knowing when to lift the mood, and a reluctant smile tugged at my mouth. “The thoughts in your head don’t always have to come out of your mouth,” I reminded her. “I don’t know if anyone’s ever told you that.”

She cackled. “And where would be the fun in that?”

Liv planted a kiss on my cheek, then whispered, “You did good,” before she pulled away to address the group. “Let’s clean up the streets so no one else has to see this. We’ll put him in the car with the guy Ro and I took down.”

She opened the boot while Freddy grabbed the man’s ankles. Remy moved into position at the other end, and Jonah helped lift the bulk into the car. When he was done, he grimaced and wiped his bloody hand on the man’s jeans.

I’d seen some messed up shit before the fall, but it floored me that we could casually tidy up multiple murder scenes like it was a routine part of our day.

“You want to head back to the house with the others?” I asked Jonah. “I’ll stick around with Liv and Garrett. Freddy, too. We’ll dump the bodies over the town boundary, near the spot they were working on this morning. Send Dolan over if you want, and we’ll take him home before we come back for you.”

“Will do. See you at the house.”

By the time we’d transferred the bodies to the open land outside the new boundary, we still hadn’t run into the missing man from Garrett’s group. I was optimistic about finding Eric, though. Straight after the cull, Liv had been focused on cleaning up after ourselves, but the gang wouldn’t have given a shit about leaving a body out in the open for others to find.

If they’d killed him, we would have come across him at some point.

“Why don’t we grab the rest of your people and head on up to the Ridge?” Garrett suggested.

We skirted the last car in the unfinished line and headed through the long grass back to the road where we’d parked. With three working vehicles now, we had more than enough seats to transport our group and Garrett’s, but I reconsidered the idea.

“Not tonight.” I flicked a glance at Liv and hoped for her backing. “We’ll come up in the morning after you’ve explained what’s going on.”

She didn’t hesitate to jump on board. “Cruz is right. Your people are going to be even more worried about you after hearing the gunshots. Showing up with a bunch of strangers just before dark won’t exactly put their minds at ease.”

“You’re sure?” Freddy asked as we stopped at the car.

Dolan appeared around the corner up ahead, slowing as he assessed the scene, then picking up pace.

“It’s the best way to handle the situation.” I opened the driver’s door for Liv and gave Dolan a nod of acknowledgement as he joined us. “We’ll drop you off at the gates and come back tomorrow at nine.”

The guys climbed into the back while Liv drove. I sat beside her with the rifle across my lap, my muscles still taut, my mind alert. I wouldn’t relax until we had all our people together again, safe and under one roof.

“So… you’re a stunt driver now?” I asked Liv as the men discussed Eric and his potential whereabouts in the backseat. “Did your dad teach you that trick?”

“Ha. That was accidental. Pretty cool though, huh?” Our headlights cut through the growing darkness as she took one turn, and then another. “I don’t know why I ever wasted my time sitting in an office before the pandemic. I’m clearly made for this stuff.”

“Clearly.” With a laughing breath, I looked out the window. There were no moving shadows in Bridgehill, no death lurking.

The wind coming off the ocean blew stronger as we climbed the hill, and the temperature inside the car dropped along with it.

The conversation stopped as we turned onto the road running along the peak. After heading to the right for a couple of hundred metres, Liv swung onto the driveway that Garrett had pointed out from the base of the hill, the ocean views cloaked in darkness now.

As she pulled up in front of a set of imposing double gates, my stomach rolled with anticipation. We may have opted out of going inside tonight, but we were right here on the doorstep of our future.

“All set for tomorrow?” I asked as the headlights showcased the ornate metalwork on the gates.

“See you at nine,” Garrett confirmed.

“We’ll keep an eye out for Eric tonight,” I said, “and if he doesn’t show by morning, we’ll kick off a search.”

“I’m hoping he’ll come back on his own now it’s getting dark.”

Garrett and Dolan thanked Liv for the lift, and Freddy reached through from the back to slap my shoulder. “Thanks,” he said. “Can’t tell you how much we appreciate what you did.”

“No problem.”

As they made their way through the gates, Liv waited, giving them time to reach the house with the help of our headlights.

When we lost sight of them, she reversed out of the drive and headed back down the hill.

I looked across at her in the darkness, more thankful than ever to have her in my life. Whenever the two of us were together, we could take on any situation and come out the other side with a win.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” she asked with a smile in her voice.

“Just feeling lucky.”

“To be alive?”

A long breath eased from me, and all the stress of the past years disappeared. “To have you.”

My admission had a different impact than intended, and as we reached flat ground again, the atmosphere morphed into something sensual and dark.

Liv inhaled sharply and kept her eyes on the road as if everything was fine, but it wasn’t. She shifted in her seat. Her fingers tightened around the wheel, then she swallowed as if trying to keep it together.

All the excitement and adrenaline from the day had somehow been channelled into sexual tension—and we were so tuned in to each other that we both knew what was going on here.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yes,” she said breathlessly. “You?”

“Not right now.”

She turned her head and caught something in my eyes that caused a soft whimpering sound in her throat. The energy in the car all but crackled, and before we reached our street, Liv pulled over hard and shut off the engine.

Hunger thrummed in my veins.

Her eyes glittered in the dark.

A pressure-filled minute passed where my fingers flexed around the rifle and my heart thudded like I’d been on a run. With a hoarse groan, I dropped the gun into the footwell and slid my seat back as far as it would go.

“I need you on me,” I wrenched out, reaching for her and dragging her across the console.

She struggled into position in the confined space and settled on my lap, facing away from me.

We barely had any room, but I’d make it work.

“What are you going to do with me?” she asked.

“As much as I can in the time we have.” My hands slid from her thighs to her abdomen, sweeping under her shirt to close over her breasts. When I squeezed, her back bowed, and her sigh cranked my neediness up another notch.

She fumbled with her belt buckle and lifted her hips, shoving her jeans lower. I followed her lead, and desperation tore through me as I loosened my own pants. With the weight of her still on me, I pushed the material down my thighs and felt her bare skin slide against mine.

“ Querida.” I’d never needed someone this much.

The second we were both exposed, both ready, I guided myself inside her, and our combined sighs filled the car.

While the group waited on our return, we fogged the windows and swayed the car, making the most of our last chance to be together before our lives changed in the morning.