going off road."
I managed to force my way onto a seat, half sitting in Blake's lap as I reached around the chair in front of me to grasp Tatum's hand.
She looked back at me with a wide smile, her eyes sweeping over all of us like she was making absolutely certain we were all okay and I found myself laughing as I realised we were.
“You almost gave me a damn heart attack making me wait like that,” she said, trying for a pout but unable to keep the grin away for long.
“Sorry about that,” I replied.
"They'll be chasing us," Saint said, his voice stern like he was warning all of us not to get over excited about our escape.
"Good point, lad," Niall said, flicking the headlights off and plunging us into darkness.
My gut plummeted as he continued to accelerate, driving deeper into the forest with hardly any light to show him if there was a tree coming up ahead of us.
"Are you insane?" I asked him, gripping hold of the headrest in front of me as I took in Kyan's uncle. Niall was grinning as he drove, his dirty blonde hair pushed back out of his eyes and a collection of tattoos crawling over his bare chest and up the side of his neck. He had tattoos coating his hands where they clasped the wheel too and he flexed his fingers like he was brimming with energy that was desperate for an outlet.
“Some people say I am,” he replied with a nonchalant shrug which said he didn’t care. Or maybe that he wasn’t sure.
I turned around to look out the back of the car, finding nothing but darkness and trees all around us as we drove further and further into the forest.
"Where are we heading?" Saint demanded.
"Don't know," Niall announced with a smile. "No one can predict yer movements if you don't have a plan to follow."
"You have no plan?" Saint blanched, looking like someone had just taken a shit on his pet cat and styled its fur into a poohawk.
"It's the best way to be," Niall said and Tatum breathed a laugh as Saint looked like he was about to start up a tirade.
Kyan punched him in the arm before he could start that though and he gave us a pointed look as Saint shot him a glare.
"I told you assholes that Tate is safe with Niall. The rest of you though? I don't like your chances if you piss him off,” Kyan explained.
Niall laughed loudly as the car hit a bank and my stomach dropped as it felt like we were only driving on two wheels for a couple of endless seconds before it banged back down onto solid ground.
"Does someone wanna take the wheel?" Niall called. "My arm is hurting like an arse that just got fucked with no lube."
He didn't actually wait for anyone to respond before slamming on the brakes and jumping out of the car and as he opened his door, I noticed the bloodstains on his seat.
"What the fuck happened to you, old man?" Kyan asked as he opened his door too and stepped out. I followed right behind him, looking at the blood that was dripping from Niall's left arm down to the floor.
"I got shot a little." Niall ripped a makeshift bandage off of his arm which looked like it had once been his shirt. His heavily inked and scarred muscular torso was flecked with red and I sucked in a breath as the blood pissing down his arm began to drip from his fingertips.
"I told him to do something about that," Tatum insisted as she got out of the car too and Saint took her phone from the cupholder, clearly deciding that he’d be the best one to make the plan if Niall wouldn’t.
"It's nothing, lass," Niall said, waving her off as she tried to get a better look and he unbuckled his belt before slipping it around his arm and cinching it tight above the bullet wound.
He strolled around to the back of the Jeep and opened it before grabbing a roll of duct tape and I took Tatum's hand as we followed after him, my eyes falling on the weird array of items he kept in his car.
"What the hell is all of this shit?" I asked as I looked over the assortment of tools from axes to hammers to a nail gun, the four rolls of duct tape, thick coil of rope, box of fireworks, bolt cutters