I unsnapped my seat belt and carefully rolled Ciana onto the floor, which caused her to finally startle awake. “What’s going on?” she demanded when I fell on top of her.

I didn’t have time to answer, though. Cali was still sitting upright, her eyes wide in fear. She looked like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming eighteen-wheeler. I grasped her wrist and jerked her down beside us, pulling her as close to Ciana as I could so I could cover them both with my small body. The limo gained speed just as I reached for my phone.

Refusing to let my fear overtake me, I hit Ryan’s number and counted the rings before he answered.

“Hey—”

“Someone is trying to wreck the limo!” I cut him off.

I heard his sharp intake of air, but his voice was notably calm when he spoke. “Where are you?”

I lifted my head in an attempt to look out the window in hopes of seeing a street sign or landmark to let me know where we were, but a bullet hit the glass. If the window hadn’t been bulletproof, I would have been hit right between the eyes. Not all of them had armor-piercing bullets, it seemed. A good thing, or I would have been dead on the limo floor. “Fuck!” I ducked my head again. “I don’t know. We just left Medusa’s and were headed in the direction of Cali’s apartment.”

Police sirens joined the chorus, so loud they sounded like they were right behind us, but I didn’t see the flashing of lights.

“I’m coming, baby.” Ryan’s voice was low, deadly, but still eerily calm. “Don’t be scared. I’ll take care of it. I swear. I’m coming to get you.”

“I-I love you,” I whispered. “Remember that, okay. No matter what happens, I love you.”

“Nothing is going to happen!” he bellowed, the calm fading as I tried to prepare him for the very real possibility that I might not survive this. “I’ll be there soon. I promise.”

The sound of a powerful engine getting close was the only warning I had before we were hit again, this time from the back. Without the protection of seat belts to hold us in place, we rolled forward. I dropped my phone. Ciana and Cali screamed, and I heard Pietro shouting to hold on to something because our driver was out cold.

I clutched at one of the bench seats when I fell against it, my shoulder hitting it at an awkward angle. I cried out in pain, my entire arm and shoulder feeling as if they were on fire. Instinctively, I knew it was dislocated, but too much was going on for me to fully understand what that meant.

“Stop, stop, stop!” Ciana screamed. “We have to stop. Why aren’t we stopping?”

Holding my injured arm against my chest, I sat upright and came face-to-face with her. The fear on her face nearly made my own choke me. “C, calm down. It’s okay.”