Page 59 of Shattered King

“Good choice. See you a little later.” The phone disconnected and I stared down at it.

“Who was that?” Hunter asked.

“Ruby. Apparently we’re having a girl’s night tonight.”

Hunter smirked. “Jesus.”

“What?”

He just shook his head, that smirk front and center.

I shoved my phone in my back pocket and started to get in. That’s when the rear window of the car beside us exploded. I screamed and covered my head.

Hunter shoved me toward the front seat. “Get in!”

Something hit my right arm as I dove for cover, but I barely noticed. All my focus centered on getting in the car, getting to Josh.

He was screaming in the back. I needed to make sure my baby was okay. There were shots being fired all around us, and I scrambled into the back seat and threw myself over my son.

Hunter crouched low, wrenched open the driver’s door and jumped in, yelling into his phone.

“The glass is bulletproof, but keep your fucking head down, Lulu. And put your goddamn seatbelt on.”

Then Hunter revved the engine, backed up, and roared out of the hospital parking lot. I quickly buckled up and held on as he tore out onto the street. He cursed as he shifted through the gears, tires squealing around corner after corner.

Josh was screaming. I did my best to calm him, but he was terrified, and only after we’d been driving a while and Hunter had slowed down did he start to settle, his screams turning to shuddery, hiccupy little gasps. I kissed his chubby cheek and held his hand, all I could do with him strapped into his booster.

Hunter kept driving, keeping quiet, but the energy coming off him was frightening. I kept my mouth shut, knowing he’d tell me what was going on when he could. He was checking the rear-view mirror, scanning the street around us constantly. After a few more minutes, he grabbed his phone and punched in a number. “We’re clear.”

He was quiet a moment. When he spoke again his voice was steel, edged with barely-contained violence. “Someone just shot at us, at my woman, again, with my kid in the fucking car.” I was in the back, but I could still see his jaw getting hard, the way he gripped the steering wheel. “We’ll be there in ten. The cops can come to us. I want them home where I can keep them safe.”

Then he disconnected.

“It was Pierce, wasn’t it?” I whispered, fear reaching up and taking me by the throat.

Those flying bullets weren’t for me. My stepfather wanted Hunter dead. He wanted me and the information he thought I had. His little set-up with Bret hadn’t worked. I’d gotten away. Pierce wouldn’t be happy about that. And now the cops were after him as well. Staying here in New York was stupid, even if he believed the painting was his ticket to freedom. That meant he wasn’t only desperate, he was out of his damn mind. Was capable of anything. He was convinced I had the painting, or knew where it was, and he wouldn’t stop until he had me again. So, yeah, Hunter had been his target. Shooting me didn’t make sense.

“Don’t know. But I’m gonna find out.” Some of the steel left his voice when he spoke to me, but his body was still rock hard, tension rolling of him.

Josh popped his thumb in his mouth, and I kissed him again. “It wasn’t me he was trying to hit, was it?” If Hunter was out of the way, I was a much easier target.

“I’ll take care of this, Lulu. I promise you.”

A wave of nausea hit me. Two thoughts coming at me at once. Hunter could take care of this, or he could die trying. He would put himself in danger to protect us. I loathed that with everything in me. So much so I could actually feel my blood pressure spike, sending black spots dancing across my vision, making my limbs weak.

The second thought sent panic, terror through me so hard and fast, I struggled to breathe. “What if they’d hit Josh?” I shoved down the thought. It was unthinkable, unbearable. “What if they come after us again?” The adrenaline that had been thrumming through me burnt away with the rush of intense fear, and that’s when I felt something warm trickle down my arm. That’s when I felt the pain.

I looked down and gasped. Blood covered my right arm, soaking through my shirt, dripping onto the seat.

“Lulu?” Hunter glanced at me in the rear view mirror.

I grabbed a T-shirt lying beside me on the floor and pressed it to my arm. “I think . . . I think I’ve been hit.”

“What?”

“I’m bleeding.”

The car wrenched to the side and Hunter angled his body, reaching through the seats and pulled the shirt away to get a look. I winced.