Queen of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #4) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,110

and he’d blow both of us to hell, so I wasn’t exactly reassured by his words.

I hurried after him as we made it to the foyer and Niall threw the grenade before I even knew what was happening. Soldiers started shouting and running away as the grenade bounced across the carpet and the timer within it ticked down. Niall dragged me toward an emergency exit just as a bang filled my head and a cloud of pink smoke and glitter burst over us. I glanced back in surprise, the grenade clearly just a decoy as it filled the foyer in a shimmery fog while Niall yanked me out into an alley.

“What now?” I demanded, but Niall didn’t answer, shoving the emergency exit door shut and casually hanging a Christmas bauble on the door handle.

“Now you’re gonna wanna run for your fucking life, lass.” He sprinted out of the alley and I didn’t need to be told twice by Mr Psycho, tearing after him and making it around the corner just as a deafening boom came from behind us, making my heart thrash like crazy.

Niall kept running, continually checking that I was behind him as he powered along the street. And I sure as hell was. I wasn’t gonna stray a foot from his side because the guy was showering crazy through the city and maybe that was what we needed to get out.

“Hey – stop!” a woman shouted then a rattle of gunfire rang in my ears and I ducked my head with a gasp, pushing myself even faster.

Niall stopped dead in the street, taking a pistol from his hip and returning fire. “Keep going!” he barked at me. “Down that alley.” He pointed to the right and I fled into it, pressing my back to the wall at the very edge of it and peering back the way I’d come with my gun lifted. There was a huge armoured vehicle at the end of the street with soldiers pouring out of it while two of them stood firing at Niall. The crazy asshole shot at them out in the open, ducking and weaving left and right like that would give him some protection.

“Niall!” I shouted anxiously as bullets whistled past him. He launched another grenade down the street and shouts for cover came from the soldiers as it pinged along the ground.

Niall ran after me as a deafening boom split the air apart and I gawped at him as he clamped his hands over my ears to protect me from the noise.

“Do you even know what’s a bomb and what isn’t?” I asked as he dropped his hands.

He shrugged. “Sometimes. Mostly it’s a lucky dip what I pluck outta my belt. He patted the tactical belt around his waist then charged ahead of me down the alley, hefting the sledgehammer above his head and slamming it through a wooden door in the far wall. He shoved his hand through the hole, unlocking it and swinging it wide, bowing to me as he gestured for me to go ahead. “My lady.”

His methods were next level insanity, but I just had to back them and hope they paid off. I ran inside and he jogged after me, shutting the door and we ran up a dark stairway as more shouts sounded somewhere back on the street. I ran full pelt, the two of us moving faster and faster as sweat beaded on the back of my neck. My desperation to get out the city and reunite with my Night Keepers drove every one of my movements. I wasn’t going to let them down. I’d return to them no matter what.

“Get to the roof,” Niall insisted just before the roaring of a helicopter sounded overhead. “Alright, don’t get to the roof.” He pulled me roughly out of the stairway and shouted a battle cry as he charged down a door ahead of us, sending it flying off of its hinges as he fell flat on his face inside someone’s apartment.

A woman screamed as I followed him into the place and she dove off of her couch, hiding behind it as Niall rolled and leapt to his feet again.

“No need to be dramatic, love,” Niall said, jogging up to the sliding door that led out onto a balcony. He opened it, jerking his head to beckon me after him and I threw an apologetic look at the cowering woman before following.

We were up three floors overlooking a large park that stretched out toward