After a moment I stood, and disengaging the gun and tucking it into the waistband of my jeans, strode blankly from the room and straight out the front door. Dusk had arrived. The sky was tinged with pale blues, yellows, and pinks, the air cold, the street lit up with flashing police cars as uniforms stormed the house, setup up police tape, and took over the street.
One hand on my hip, the other wrapped around the back of my neck, I stared blankly at the paved driveway, my mind working frantically to decide on our next move.
“Travis!” A car door slammed and I looked up.
Mitch jogged towards me, his partner Tate on his heels as Casey and Jared reached my side. He spread a directory over the bonnet of the nearest car, and we huddled around while he hurriedly flicked pages.
He pointed and said breathlessly, “Here. Old man Zampetti has a wife. Her sister has a company that owns a rural property along this road. You need to get back on the M4 and head farther out towards the Blue Mountains. The place has a private airstrip. The crew I was talking to think that’s where they could be headed next. Luka drives a black BMW 760 sedan.” He rattled off the registration number. “Those cars can move bloody fast.”
I committed the location and registration to memory and looked up, relieved to have a focus. Mitch met my eyes and gave a nod. “Let’s go.”
We sprinted to our cars and moved out, taking the most direct route to the property, having no idea how far we were behind them, or even sure it was the direction they were heading in.
Jittery, I tapped my hand on my thigh, my eyes peeled to every car in front of us that we eventually reached and overtook. My phone buzzed a message from Mac.
M: Any news? Lucy and Rick are here at the duplex.
I replied as quickly as possible.
T: Working a lead.
We hit a quiet winding road, thick with tall trees and scrub, making the dark nightfall approach that much faster. Mitch and Tate were behind us, two cars of agents not far behind them.
I checked the map on my phone.
“Close,” I muttered.
“Fuck!” Casey shouted and pointed at a right angle through the two seats. I followed his line. Down an embankment, crushed against a tree, was a black BMW and in the fading light I could just make out a partial on the registration Mitch had given us. The entire front and left side was crumpled inwards, the bonnet steaming, headlights blazing deep into the forest.
Jared tore off the side of the road, and I was out of the car and sprinting at a dead run before the car had even peeled to a full stop.
“Quinn!” I shouted breathlessly, my heart in my throat. I grabbed the handgun from my waistband and engaged the slide, skidding my way down the embankment. “Quinn!”
***
Chapter Twenty-Three
“This, Quinn…” Luka lifted the gun again and my heart hammered so hard in my chest I thought it would split wide open. He aimed it at my leg. “…is how we’re going to get Agent McKinnon to talk.”
Seth swept his leg out, connecting with the man standing to the right of his chair. The sudden movement had Luka swivelling the aim of his gun from my leg to Seth, but Seth was a blur. He ripped the gun from the man he took down and fired twice.
I sat dumbstruck, my heart thumping as the man’s body jerked from the force of bullets tearing into him.
“Quinn!” Seth yelled before another man was on him. They fought and another shot was fired, splattering blood up the wall and over my face and chest. I glanced downwards, disconnected from the horror playing out before me. No amount of bleach would save my shirt. A tear trickled down my cheek.
Huh.
Why was I crying over a ten dollar tank top?
“What are you doing? Get out of here!”
I blinked.
“Quinn, goddammit!”
Standing on shaky legs, I wiped at the blood, feeling it smear across my face. Seeing my hands covered in red, cold adrenaline rushed through me. Wiping them on the back of my jeans, I reached out and grabbed the back of the chair I’d been sitting on, and for the second time in my life, I yelled and swung hard with everything I had. It connected and Luka staggered backwards before he could take a clear shot at Seth. The chair splintered from the force, and I stood frozen, holding the empty remains as I met Seth’s eyes for a single moment that stretched for an eternity.
“Run, damn you,” he panted as he struggled against the last two armed men standing. The other two were down, bodies still, blood pooling on the floor.
I dropped the chair as Luka made a recovery too swift for my liking and lunged for me. I turned to run, but his arms locked around my waist and in my ear, he breathed, “Little bitch.”
“Fuck you,” I grunted and kicking my legs, tried to push off against the wall with my feet to unsteady him, but he jerked me backwards towards one of the dead men on the ground. I closed my eyes as I panted and struggled. Reaching into the man’s pocket, Luka dug out a length of rope and started binding my wrists together before dragging me outside and into the back of the BMW. I drew in a breath to let out a scream, but he backhanded me until I saw nothing but stars before it all faded to black.
When I came to, the car was moving along a windy road. It was getting dark so I could see my reflection in the window. It wasn’t pretty. In fact, I looked like utter rubbish, but my whole day had been utter rubbish from the moment I woke up so that was only to be expected. In the passenger seat in front of me sat Luka, the driver was one of his armed thugs, and to my right sat Seth. He was unmoving and watching me.
“I’m sorry,” he mouthed.
My eyes searched his face.
This man was my father. Was I supposed to feel an immediate connection to him?
All I could feel was defeat, the taste of it bitter and harsh.
“Hold tight. I’m coming for you. I promise.”
I’m holding tight, Travis, and I know you’re coming for me, I stared bleakly out the window at my bloodied reflection, but I think my time is finally running out.
Tears spilled over my cheeks and our bodies jerked, the driver cursing as the car bounced over a pothole. The action pulled at my bound arms and I felt the knot loosen.
My breath quickening, I jerked them again and realised my slender hands were slowly working free of the knot. I caught Seth’s eyes and nodded behind me.
He frowned so I nodded again.
He shook his head.
Did he not understand? I pursed my lips. Wasn’t the head nod the universal language of all men?
The car was speeding along and despite seeing it in the movies, actually considering the leap from a moving vehicle seemed impossibly daunting. My hands free, I wriggled them. Seth saw and widened his eyes. He looked at me and then nodded at the car door.
I rolled my eyes at him, frantically trying to think of an alternative. There was no way I could untie Seth without being seen but damned if I was going to sit back and await my doom or watch the man who was my father die.
My eyes fell on the driver and breathless, I realised there was only one other option, and it was a really stupid one. I was sure Travis wouldn’t condone it, nor Casey, or Seth for that matter. But I knew Lucy would, and so would Mac and Evie.
“I can only fight for you for so long before you have to start fighting for yourself.”
Well, Travis, you said to fight, and I’m pretty sure you didn’t mean it like this, but here goes nothing.
Leaping forward between the two front seats, I grabbed at the steering wheel and swung it hard. Surprised, the driver grappled as the car spun. Luka grabbed my arms and pulled but I hung on like a goddamn barnacle, screaming as he yelled and tore at my fingers. Even when the tyres caught loose gravel and started spinning out of control, I held tight.
Seth shouted something at me as the car hurtled down the embankment, but I couldn’t hear through the blood roaring in my ears. I was thrown back in my seat. Breathless, I grabbed for my seatbelt, fighting with trembling fingers to click it into place as trees hurtled towards us at amazing speed. The scream of metal crunching in my ears deafened me, and I lost consciousness.
“Quinn!”
Hands were running over me.
I blinked.
“Quinn!”
With effort, I turned my head towards the sound and blinked again.
“We’ve got to get you out of here.”
“Travis,” I mumbled.
“No. It’s Seth,” he panted as strong hands gripped me and pulled me from the crumpled car.
“Where’s Travis?” I moaned.
My body was flung up and over a shoulder, and my stomach rolled as the jostling flared up all kinds of pain.
“Who’s Travis?”
Did he just ask me who Travis was?
My eyes closed and a chuckle came from deep within me.
Travis was light and safety, beauty and passion, laughter and love…and hope.
Travis was everything.
“Why are you carrying me?” I mumbled. “You got shot. I should be carrying you.”
“I’m fine,” Seth panted as we staggered through the dark forest.
“Where are we going?”
“The driver was killed in the crash, Quinn, but Luka is behind us. We’ve got to keep moving.”
“Oh God,” I moaned. “Why can’t this day end?”
It was his turn to chuckle, but it came out more like a hiss. “Quinn?”
“Hmm?”
“If I knew—”
“Don’t.” Tears threatened again. “I have a family now, and I’m trying to stop living in the past and move on…but…dammit Seth, I can’t have this conversation while I’m hanging over your shoulder.”
“You can’t walk,” he breathed out, pain etched in his voice as his feet crunched over dried leaves, twigs and rocky ground.
“I can’t?”
“You’ve got a deep gash in your leg, Quinn. You can’t feel it?”
My brow furrowed. “No. It feels kinda numb.” I licked my dry lips and swallowed. “Is it… bad?”
“Not at all. You’ll be fine.”
He didn’t sound like it was fine. His voice shook, but he had been shot. And in a car accident.
“Don’t move!” I heard Luka yell.
“Fuck,” Seth cursed softly and halted.
“Turn around.”
Seth turned, softly lowering me to the ground and that leg that felt so numb, didn’t feel so numb anymore. I screamed as pain ricocheted upwards through my body and I crumpled to the ground.
Seth shifted in front of me.
“All this time, Agent McKinnon, you stood with me, worked by my side. Now you have blood on your hands.” He looked up as a chopper came over, circling slowly above us, blinding lights spearing the ground over and over. “But you know I can’t allow you to live. That would send the wrong message. It’s just a shame you’ll die with all those black marks on your soul, and knowing the daughter that was never yours will die along with you.”
A shot rang out.
My breath stuttered in fear, but Seth didn’t jerk back, or fall down. That honour belonged to Luka, and he looked surprised before he didn’t look like anything at all.
“Quinn!” Seth crouched and picked me up, cradling me in his arms and a fresh round of sweat broke his brow from the effort. “What a f**k of a day.”