Page 8 of Everything We Found

“What the fuck, Tom?” She groaned and her hand touched the back of her head.

Another round of shots went off and Nadia, wide-eyed with terror, locked her gaze with his as they waited for it to end. Every window in the back of his house that overlooked the valley had to be gone now.

“What is happening?” Nadia asked before another volley of bullets came. Thomas counted.One, two, three…

He kept his focus on Nadia. Her face had gone stark white under the trails of blood.

“Who’s shooting at us?” she hissed at the next lull.

Thomas shook his head. Fear wouldn’t let him vocalize who’d found him.

“They’re destroying your house.”

“Least of my worries.”

Hidalgo Cartel activity along the border had picked up under the leadership of Fernando Ruiz’s sons, and he’d been having a bad feeling for months. He shouldn’t have asked her to come. He couldn’t live with himself if something happened to her because of him.

“We need to get out of here,” he said, speaking against her ear when the firing resumed. He counted the number of shots in his head. Each magazine had ten rounds before the marksman reloaded. That would have to be their short window for escape.

Four… five… six.

Whoever was firing was taking longer between shots.

“When it stops, we run.”

Nadia nodded. “We have to call 9-1-1.” She patted her hip. “My phone.”

Thomas searched the floor and spotted her phone among the broken glass. If he had his way, he and Nadia would be long gone before the police arrived, but he agreed they couldn’t leave her phone behind.

“I got it. Think you can stand?”

He suspected she was concussed but she nodded tightly. He counted the tenth bullet and quickly stood, keeping hunched over. “Go, go, go,” he said, assisting her to her feet.

She weaved and stumbled, her hand flying out for balance. “Dizzy.”

“Lean on me.” His arm went around her waist as he scooped up her phone, slicing his finger on a jagged glass edge. He grunted.

“You okay?” she asked.

“Fine.” He bit out the word as they raced from his room and down the exposed hall toward the garage. They made it to the kitchen before the shooter started firing again. They dove behind the island with Nadia trying to shield him.

“What are you doing?” he shouted.

“They’re shooting at you, not me.”

“Christ, I don’t think they care who they hit.” He grabbed her wrists and pulled her around to his front, bent his body over hers as they tried to make themselves a smaller target and ride out this wave. “Head for that door when I say so.” He pointed at the door to the garage with a glance at her. He had to look away from the blood on her face. The sight of it enraged him as much as it frightened him. She could have been killed. They both might die before the day was over.

Locking it all down, he narrowed his focus on their escape route and counted. He reached nine before the shooting stopped, and he momentarily wondered if he’d miscounted when he heard the crunch of glass.

Nadia turned her head, her uninjured cheek pressing against the side of his face. He felt her breath on his lips when she said, “Someone’s in your bedroom.”

“Yeah.” The sniper had either been close or wasn’t acting alone. They had to leave.

“Now,” he whispered harshly, grabbing her hand.

They ran to the garage. He was taking a risk going there. He didn’t know who they’d run into out front, but he was betting whoever was shooting at them from the back had come up the valley. Attacking from the front in broad daylight would be a bold move even for them. Thomas had neighbors. Their homesweren’t close, but they did have his house in their line of sight. Triggered by the sound of gunfire, it was possible someone had already notified the police. While he hoped so, he wasn’t going to wait and find out. Right now, his priority was getting Nadia into his car and driving them to safety.

He slapped the garage door opener, pressing himself and Nadia against the side wall and out of view while the door opened. He watched and he waited a beat before he said, “Go.” He didn’t see anyone outside and nobody was shooting at them. Though it wouldn’t take long for whoever was inside to realize there weren’t any bodies and that they’d escaped the house. They might have already figured it out.