We had a whole lot more than a pillow to apologize for now.
If I’d had any doubts about racing after him, they were resolved in an instant by the boom of our apartment door exploding open behind me. Yeah, we had definitely overstayed our welcome here. I hurled myself through the smashed opening after Thorn.
He’d already barreled right through the neighbor’s apartment and out the other end, leaving another gaping hole in the kitchen wall. Shrieks spilled from the living room. As we ran by, I saw a young woman frantically hopping up and down where she’d jumped onto her couch, as if she thought she were dealing with a very large mouse that might come scurrying up her leg.
Add another person to the list of apology letters I was never going to send.
Shouts rang out behind us. I pushed myself faster, through the kitchen’s hole and past an elderly couple sitting frozen in shock with their dinner forks halfway to their mouths. “Really sorry!” I managed to toss out to them as I raced by.
“Send the bill to the bunch coming after us,” Ruse suggested with a breathless laugh.
A waft of outside air swept in from the hole in the couple’s bedroom. Jagged edges of cinder block and brick protruded around it, framing the night and the parking lot lights. As I reached it, I gulped. I’d known Thorn was strong, but—fuck, he was a demolition machine. Was there anything he couldn’t bash through?
I already knew the answer to that: silver or iron or both. Which the villains chasing after us would no doubt be carrying plenty of.
Thorn stood on the ground two stories down. He held out his arms. “Leap! I’ll catch you.”
He meant me, obviously. Snap disappeared into the shadows and emerged next to him a moment later. Ruse gave me an encouraging nudge.
“I’ve never seen him do this before, but I think you can count on him being very invested in making sure you don’t go splat,” he said with a wink, and then glanced behind us. “Unlike our tenacious fan club.”
My sense of self-preservation was torn between fear of the twelve-foot drop and fear of the weapons the enemies charging after us might be carrying. At least, like Ruse had said, the guy below wanted me to survive. I sucked in a breath, clutched my purse to my chest, and sprang into the open air.
My stomach flew to my throat and my hair whipped up from my head. I had only a second for terror to burst through me before my body smacked into two incredibly strong arms.
Thorn caught me with just enough give that the impact left only a fleeting ache in my back. He didn’t put me down, though, but sprinted with me toward the SUV. My head jostled against his expansive chest. The smell of him filled my nose, musky with a smoky edge like coals that had just stopped glowing: warmth and a warning wrapped together.
Ruse had whipped past us through the shadows and was starting the engine. Snap peered at us through the rear window from the back seat. Thorn wrenched open the door on the other side, tossed me in beside Snap with a slam behind me, and dove into the front passenger spot.
I landed in the middle of the seat, my hip jarring against one of the buckles, but I couldn’t really complain about the warrior’s haste. Yells and thumping footsteps carried from far too close behind us.
The second Thorn materialized inside the vehicle, Ruse hit the gas. The SUV tore backward and around. I tumbled farther to the side, bumping into Snap’s slender frame. He grasped my arm to steady me as Ruse burned rubber, roaring down the drive and out into the streets.
“Sorry,” I said to Snap, fumbling with my bags. I tucked my purse in the far corner on the floor’s shag rug where I figured Pickle was least likely to get crushed.
“It’s all right,” Snap said softly. The light of the streetlamps passing by glinted off his eyes. As the roar of several other engines reached us, they opened wider. “Will they be able to catch us, do you think?”
Ruse let out a rough chuckle. “I swear on my libido, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure they don’t.”
“We can’t stay in this vehicle,” Thorn said. “They’ll be familiar with it now. As soon as we can, we must abandon it and continue by other means.”
“No kidding. I think I’d better