Zarina heard Lillie’s big automatic go off several more times, but it sounded farther away, like she was leading the men toward the perimeter. By the time she and the kids reached the entrance of the main building, the shooting stopped. Zarina held her breath, praying she’d hear it again, but she didn’t. Even as she banged on the door of the building, she knew there was something wrong.
The door swung open, and eager hands reached out to pull them inside, but Zarina resisted.
“I have to go back,” she said firmly as Burt tried to tug her in.
“What’s wrong?” he asked urgently.
“Lillie is out there. I think she’s in trouble.”
The other man didn’t hesitate. “Let me get my weapon.”
He disappeared from sight for a few seconds, then slipped out the door, carrying the same kind of rifle she’d seen Tanner with earlier.
“Where’s the last place you saw her?” Burt asked, yanking a handle on the top of the weapon, then releasing it with a metallic clank.
Zarina turned and stepped off the porch, trying to remember exactly which direction Lillie’s last shot had come from. She knew she didn’t have a hybrid’s tracking ability, but she was sure she could find the girl.
“Follow me,” she said, hoping she sounded confident.
As they ran toward the north side of the camp, she realized she didn’t hear much gunfire. She prayed that was a good thing.
As they rounded the last row of cabins before entering the tree line, she saw a man lying on the ground, bleeding from a gunshot wound, while two big men dressed in black tactical gear dragged Tanner into the woods. Lillie was nowhere in sight.
Heart in her throat, Zarina ran after them, not sure what the hell she was going to do. She wasn’t deluded enough to think she was good enough with her revolver to hit the men taking Tanner while not hitting him.
The pair must have heard her, because they both spun halfway around and fired off a burst of rounds in her direction. Burt tackled her, knocking her to the ground behind the dead man. That was fortunate, as the guy’s body absorbed half a dozen bullets while they hid behind it.
She was trying to make herself as small as possible when she saw the man’s face had been clawed open. Tanner’s work for sure. She also saw Lillie’s big automatic pistol lying on the ground beside the man.
Crap. There was no way Lillie would have given the weapon up without a fight. That meant the guys who had Tanner probably had Lillie, too. If she was lucky.
The gunfire coming their way abruptly stopped, and she looked up to see the men disappearing into the woods. She climbed to her feet, but then hesitated, her eyes darting toward the machine gun beside the dead man.
Zarina didn’t think about the fact that she had no idea how to use the weapon. She only knew it was better than the small revolver she was carrying. Shoving the pistol into the holster on her belt, she grabbed the machine gun and took off running after the men who had Tanner.
Burt ran after her, but she ignored him, focused on catching up to the men she was after. Despite carrying someone as big as Tanner, the guys moved fast. It was all she could do to keep up with them, much less make up ground. Every time she did, one of them would turn around and shoot in her direction.
Zarina was gasping for air by the time she saw the three SUVs ahead of her and Burt. Even as she watched, they tossed Tanner in the back of one of them alongside Lillie and a big man she thought was Spencer.
The blond-haired man who’d abducted Tanner turned slightly as he opened the passenger door of the SUV, and Zarina gasped when she saw it was Ryan.
She kept running, not understanding what Ryan was doing here or why he’d taken Tanner and the others. Beside her, Burt stumbled over something near the base of a fir tree, but she paid no attention. All she could focus on was Tanner and getting him back.
All three of the vehicles were pulling away by the time she caught up to them. She pointed the machine gun in the general direction of the tires. She knew if she missed, she could kill Lillie. Tanner and Spencer would survive a bullet, but the girl might not. Zarina had no choice though. She couldn’t let them get away.
She did her best to aim, even though her hands were shaking like crazy, then pulled the trigger. The weapon bucked in her hands, and the passenger side windshield of the front SUV exploded into pieces.
She held the trigger down and lowered the weapon, trying again for the tires, but she missed. Undeterred, she kept shooting until the SUVs had completely disappeared from sight.
Zarina dropped to her knees, tears streaming down her face, her whole body trembling with fear. She wasn’t a shifter or a hybrid or any kind of hero like that. She wasn’t a fighter or a spy or even a computer hacker like everyone else at the DCO. She was simply a normal woman who wanted to help the man she loved, but she didn’t have a clue how she was supposed to do it.
“Come on,” Burt said, gently taking her arm. “I found Peter back there. He’s still alive. We need to get him back to the main building, then let Chad know what happened. He’ll know what to do.”
She let Burt help her to her feet, not understanding what the man was saying about Peter until she saw the hybrid lying unconscious on the ground, two tranquilizer darts sticking
