looked around. Forest on one side, rushing river on the other. Good place for an ambush. But the sun shone down, bright and brilliant.
The breeze came off the water again.
Ronan halted. “I smell—”
The Kurjans attacked from the forest first, and then a squad rose from the river, having hidden in its depths just under the ice. Adare immediately pivoted, putting his back to Ronan’s and whipping out his gun. He hit the first Kurjan in the neck and the second in the eye, but took several bullets to his torso. The lasers turned to metal and dropped harmlessly on the ground. Then a round hit his arm, and he winced as pain flew along his bicep and blood spurted out.
What the hell? The Kurjans weren’t wearing protective gear. The sun glinted off the nearest Kurjan’s skin, turning him pink but not burning him to death.
“I’ve got two down and six coming,” Ronan hissed.
“Two down and two coming,” Adare said, looking for a way out. How was this happening? “Forest or river?”
Ronan’s shoulder jerked, hitting Adare’s arm, and he groaned. “Fuck. The river. On three.”
“Three,” Adare bellowed, ducking his head and running full bore for the first soldier as Ronan turned and ran for the other. Bullets struck his back and legs, but he kept going, tackling the asshole into the ice and through to the freezing depths.
He slashed and diced with his knife, finally plunging it in the Kurjan’s neck and sticking him to a rock at the bottom. Ronan crashed into him, and Adare turned them both, staying under the surface and letting the current take over.
The Kurjans ran along the river, firing wildly.
Bullets pierced the ice, several impacting Adare’s other leg. Blood flowed around him, but they kept going. The water punished them, smashing them against rocks, but they stayed under until they reached a large pool where the water slowed.
He shoved himself up, along with Ronan, and they both gasped air into their lungs.
Adare looked around a fairly busy park. The pool was deep but the water kept moving around a bend toward the city. The Kurjans were gone. Adare partially stood, his legs protesting. Blood poured from several wounds along his arms and legs as well as one in his neck. He sent healing cells immediately to the injuries, stomping across river rocks to the bank.
Ronan slugged along beside him, bleeding from a wound in his cheek.
A woman walking a baby all bundled up in a stroller paused and then screamed.
“Shit.” Ronan held up a hand. “We’re okay. We were working upstream on the electrical grid and fell in. The rocks did a number on us.”
“Electrical grid?” Adare muttered under his breath.
Ronan shrugged. “She stopped screaming.”
They climbed up the decorative rocks to the brick walkway that led to several stores and restaurants. In the late afternoon, the coffee shop to the right was busy, and most of the patrons watched them with wide eyes.
Adare nodded at the crowd and kept on walking. “We need to get out of here.”
Ronan hustled up to his side. “Can you run?”
“Yep.” He might be a little dizzy, but he’d get to the helicopter. They’d hidden it in the forest, far from the meeting place. “We have to go by that Bobbi’s apartment. The Kurjans have obviously gotten to her.” It was probably too late, but for Grace’s peace of mind, he needed to check.
Ronan ducked his head and loped into a jog. “We’ll go by there, but it’s a waste of time.” He was quiet, his speed increasing. “The Kurjans were in the sun.”
“I know,” Adare said, keeping pace and running toward the sun. The sheer magnitude of that fact was too much to comprehend right now. The Kurjans had somehow modified themselves so they could venture out in the day—which altered things considerably. In the Kurjans’ favor.
Everything had just changed. Again.
Ronan’s phone buzzed, and he drew it from his pocket, halting in a parking lot for a movie theatre. Water dripped from the device, but he pressed the button anyway.
Adare stopped and scouted the area for threats.
“Hello.” Ronan put the phone on speaker.
“Ronan? It’s Emma. I just received an email from Faith saying she’s stuck in Adare’s lair and that Grace is gone.”
Everything inside Adare froze and then heated. “Gone?”
* * * *
Her hands were tied, but Grace managed to lever herself up and look into the back of the SUV where Benny lay on his side, blood pouring from a wound in his neck. Half of his hair