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"What’s the hed "Don’t you like the feel ofInstead, I began et into her blind spot But she turned with s fighting over a bone that lay between them

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

Another round of shots rang through the woods Someone else must have tried to approach the house, and Finn had killed him for his trouble Still, I kneouldn’t be too er now before the bounty hunters decided to storet Finn and Bria out of there before that happened

Trying to end things, I darted forward, but the bounty hunter raised her whip again This tih ht above h, you’ll have more cuts than any you everher whip back and forth

"The hell I will," I snarled

Too late, the bounty hunter spotted the hard anger in ed her again The leather sliced through the air toward ht the leather in h it opened up another deep cut on o

The bounty hunter tried to jerk her whip out of ic to nu into my skin Then I moved toward her, one quick step at a tirasp When that didn’t work, she turned and started to run

But by then, it was too late

My knife sliced into her back, and Liza joined her other two dead friends on the forest floor

I plodded over and retrieved the knife I’d thrown at Connor, breathing harder than I would have liked The fight with Mab had taken its toll on ic to defeat the bounty hunter My heart raced, s treht Not to mention the blood that dripped out of the fresh cuts on et Jo-Jo to heal me, then crawl into bed and sleep for twelve hours But I couldn’t do that Not until Bria and Finn were safe, and the three of us were far, far away from here-

A branch creaked somewhere farther back in the forest

I whirled around, silverstone knives up and at the ready Looking, listening, straining to see what new dangerI saw and heard nothing

Maybe it had just been the wind rattling through the trees, a branch collapsing under the weight of the snow, or a wild animal drawn by the smell of fresh blood But I didn’t believe that Not really, not deep down in ut where it mattered Because Gentry was out there so I could do about it now, though Getting Finn and Bria out of the house waselse later-including Gentry, should she decide to show herself

The snow started to fall once more as I ducked down and slid into the tunnel

Chapter 21

Fletcher Lane’s escape tunnel reo-low, squat, and round, with rough, uneven, earthen walls supported by thick wooden beams The air sotten on a shelf Dried-up leaves littered the entrance, and they crackled like cellophane under ave way to hard-packed dirt, worn smooth and shiny by the tread of countless feet across it over the years Fletcher had told ers back during Prohibition, a hiding place for the their journey Even now, all these years later, the rocks underfoot muttered orry, tension, and fear of discovery The on-edge sound matched my own mood perfectly

I’d picked up one of the bounty hunters’ flashlights before stepping inside so it was easy enough for me to make my way down the tunnel Still, I sidestepped carefully to avoid disturbing the spiderwebs that stretched from one wooden beam to the next like wispy threads of silver silk If any more of the bounty hunters discovered the tunnel, I didn’t want them to realize that I’d been in here-or that I’d taken Finn and Bria out this way

Ten minutes later, I reached the far end of the tunnel I walked up a series of steep steps to a heavy ht, then three nal Fletcher had taught Finn and et into the house this way

I’d barely finished tapping on the door when I heard the bolt screech back A second later, the ht froainst the glare and looked up to find Bria staring down atany chances Good

"You all right?" I asked

Bria lowered her weapon and moved to one side so I could climb up out of the trapdoor that was set into the floor of Fletcher’s cluttered office, right behind the old man’s desk

"I’m fine," she said

She looked no worse for wear-despite the fact that she didn’t have on a shirt and had just thrown her long wool coat on over a pale pink camisole and a pair of jeans Her bare feet were stuffed into a pair ofshirt and socks Thather before the two of them were interrupted

"Where’s Finn?"

"A few roo off bounty hunters," Bria said