“No!” Brent vehemently shook his head. “If you face the Desaltis with just one or two men, they’ll kill you. You can’t go anywhere. We’ll go back together. No one’s leaving until all the drug is in our trunks.”

“Alright. I’ll wait.” I leaned on the hood of one of the cars.

“Do you hear that?” James asked when he stopped next to me.

“Hear what?”

“That sound.”

I strained my ears but I couldn’t figure out what he was hearing. There was just too much noise as my men carried the drugs, and their feet crunched loudly against the gravel and stone. They also weren’t particularly quiet while talking to each other. But just as I was about to tell James that I had no idea what he was talking about, I heard something like buzzing, which only grew louder until I realized what it was. My eyes went wide as I met James’ gaze.

“Cars! Someone’s coming,” I said, and looked in the direction of the sound, but I couldn’t see anything from here, although the moon had peeked out from behind a cloud and was shining down on the fields and grass that was moving gently in the breeze. Whoever was coming, their headlights were turned off, which meant they were definitely coming for us.

“Hey!” I yelled to Brent. “We need to go! They’re here! The Desaltis!” Either it was them or someone they had hired, but it didn’t matter. Brent immediately rushed to get some more of the packages into one of the cars as he yelled for the men to prepare for an attack.

“How did they find us here?” I asked. If they’d followed us, wouldn’t they have showed up much sooner?

“Someone betrayed you,” James simply said. The noise of the engines was much louder now, and a few seconds later, multiple cars pulled over not far from us. Men jumped out of them and opened fire.

Chapter 15

“ARIANNA, HIDE!” BRENT yelled as everyone pulled their guns out and hid behind the cars. I had my gun out too as I crouched behind one of the cars. James was right next to me, and I tried to find a spot from which I could get a better aim at our attackers.

Gunshots rang out everywhere, and I managed to shoot at one of the attackers. But the Desaltis were gaining ground, and if James and I didn’t find better cover, they’d get to us soon. James tapped my shoulder and I looked at him. He pointed toward the car behind us and indicated we should run for it. I only nodded, then took a deep breath, raised my gun, and pulled the trigger as James and I raced from one car to another.

I pressed myself against the car. “Shit.”

“We might be able to make it to the house,” James said.