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The bounty hunter stopped again in thea little more sure of himself now, he turned and called out to his buddies behind the pickup truck "They must finally be out of ammo, boys-"

Crack! Crack! Crack!

Last words he ever said

Gunfire exploded in one of the downstairs s of the house, and the bounty hunter dropped to the ground, his brains already blown out onto the snow behind hih his skull

A grim smile curved my lips, and the knots in my stomach loosened The Annie Oakley display told me that Finn was still alive, because my foster brother was the only person I kneho could shoot like that If he ell enough to hold a gun, that meant Bria was still alive too Finn would die before he let anything happen to my baby sister, just as I would

I crouched there in the snow and waited until I was sure that no one else was going to try to bum-rush the house Then I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Finn’s nu time, he finally picked up

"Where the hell are you, Gin?" Finn growled in my ear

"Me? You’re the one who hasn’t been answering the phone," I snapped right back "What have you been doing? Is Bria okay? How long have the bounty hunters been camped outside of the house?"

Finn let out a tense breath "Bria’s fine She’s right here with me The bounty hunters have been outside for alelse"

I let out a soft curse I should have known Finn could never be in the sa to seduce her, especially sos for I’d always thought that Finn’s woet him into trouble one day I just hadn’t realized that it would be this ht in the middle of it

"Youaround instead of waiting for my phone call like you were supposed to," I snarled "What the hell were you thinking, Finn? You know better than that Fletcher taught you better than that"

I could alh the phone "I know, Gin Believe , I don’t even rerabbedjust led to another, and we ended up in one of the downstairs bedrooms"

His voice trailed off in shame, but he didn’t have to tell me the rest I knehat had happened Finn and Bria had finally given in to their si attraction, and the rest of the world had just fallen away-including my mission to kill Mab

Finn cleared his throat "Anyway, neither one of us heard your calls We were right, ah, in the s, when I hear someone roar up the driveway Then another car, then another car, followed by a series of gunshots By that point, we’re out of bed, looking out the s, and realizing that we’re in deep trouble The bastards just kept co, and they surrounded the house before we could slip out the back Some of them took out each other, but we didn’t kno uns and settled in to wait for you"

I wanted to screaher safe But it took two to tango, and Bria was just asdown tonight, and they’d given in to their e sharp like they should have

I could-and would-yell at the Finn and Bria out of the house and away froht," I said, ht I’ without the two of you We can discuss everything else later"

"Agreed," Finn said, the relief apparent in his voice "What do you want us to do, Gin?"

I stared out at the assortood choice staying in the house There’s no way you can break through the ring of theot the whole front of the house surrounded, and there’s too et out the back and rappel down the cliffs You’ll have to use the old tunnel"

Finn kneell as I did that there was a secret passage in Fletcher’s office that led froround tunnel The tunnel snaked under the yard before opening up about a halfof bounty hunters that circled around the house like pioneers on a wagon train heading west

"I thought of that," Finn said "But Bria spotted sohts in the woods, and I didn’t want to risk stepping out of the tunnel and right into a couple of bounty hunters’ line of fire"

He’d ned his house to be alh food, water, and ath in numbers, which the bounty hunters had, and Finn couldn’t shoot them all, not if they decided to attack all at once He and Bria needed to get out of the house as soon as possible

"All right," I said "I’ll lers in the woods, then co that they’ve got a couple of shooters still inside I want the about our escape route Got it?"

"Got it"

"Good And answer your fucking phone next ti chastised for once in his life

I hung up and stuffed the phone back into e of the woods I headed deeper into the glooh I kept the bounty hunters in sight through the screen of trees If a group of them made a move toward the house, I’d coot to Finn and Bria But the bounty hunters weren’t that brave-or stupid They stayed close to their cars, et inside the house without getting dead I took advantage of their inattention,fro toward the secret tunnel

Crack! Crack! Crack!

More gunshots rang out, along with soh the noise was mostly drowned out by the whine of the bullets I’d almost reached the entrance when I heard voices-loud voices with a distinctive southern twang Knives still in my hands, I paused behind a tree and peered around the ice-crusted trunk