We pass Franklin Square and make a left onto North 5th. Panic pounds the blood coursing through my veins, making me dizzy, and making it harder to focus. As far as I can tell, we’re near Penn’s Landing, but heading further away. Three more blocks, then another right. Jesus, where are we?

“Did you lose the tail?”

“Yeah. Back by Vine.”

“Good. Let’s get this done. Take the next left, and go straight past the old section of warehouses where we left the car.”

My heart pulverizes against my chest, its vicious beat flooding my ears. Curran and I are supposed to have lunch with his family tomorrow. We’re going to build a house, get married, have our first baby. How can my life be over, when it’s just begun?

“Please,” I beg, my terror splintering my voice. “I’m twelve weeks pregnant. Please don’t hurt me.”

“I said, shut up!”

My pleas earn me another jab to the head. But it’s the clicking sound that freezes me down to my bones.

“Oh, fuck,” the driver says. “Our tail’s back.”

The seat squeaks behind me and pressure eases from the base of my skull. “He alone?”

“Looks like it,” the driver answers.

“You sure?”

“Yes, asshole. There’s only one car.”

“Turn here,” the man behind me says. “Damnit, right here. We have to finish this shit now.”

“What about the tail?”

“We gotta kill him, too.”

No…please, no.

The driver pulls to the curb along a quiet street lined with crumbling buildings, stopping beneath an unlit light. Ahead of us in the cross street, cars speed along, but they’re too far and driving too fast to notice us. This is a place these men are familiar with. They’ve taken people here before.

I want to scream, run, and lash out. I don’t want anyone telling Curran I’m dead—that his baby and I are gone. I don’t want him to suffer—not after what he’s been through. But the hard metal digging into my skull reminds me that I may not be able to spare him from this.

The lights from the car behind us shine in the rearview mirror, illuminating the menacing stare of the driver and expanding as the car closes in. My hand inches toward the handle. It’s Lu—I’m sure of it. I have to warn her.

A gun rams into my ribs, keeping me in place and paralyzing me with fear.

“Don’t move—stay quiet or die quicker,” the driver mutters, pressing the barrel harder.

Terror stabs my racing heart like a dagger. I can’t breathe. I don’t want to die. Jesus Christ, I don’t want to die!

The familiar stomps of heavy boots close in before Lu appears at my passenger-side window, smiling. “Wassup, girlie? Boyfriend taking you for a joyride?”

I don’t see her raise her gun. I only see Curran, his first shot taking out the front window, and the driver.

“Get down!” he yells.

I dive forward as sprays of bullets fire from all directions. Someone grunts, falling hard as the rear side doors fly open. More shots, more glass breaking, and above it all, Lu’s pained voice, screaming our location, barely audible over the firing weapons and racing footsteps: “Officer down. Repeat, officer down.”

“No!” I hit the seatbelt release and throw the door open. Lu lies on her back against the dirty walkway, blood seeping from her shoulder.

I scramble to her on my knees. “Get back in the car, and stay down!” she hollers.

“Where’s Curran?”

Her face hardens. “He went after the other two.”

Somewhere in the distant shadows, three consecutive shots fire, followed by an agonizing scream. The blood drains from my face. I’m certain Curran’s been shot. Two against one. The odds aren’t in his favor no matter how good he is.

The blaring sirens and flashing lights tell me help is near, but it doesn’t come fast enough. Lu’s widening eyes and her lifting gun send a warning a second before I’m yanked from the ground by my hair. “Try it and she dies, bitch,” a deep voice booms in my ear.

The hot barrel of a gun digs into my scalp, singeing my skin.

Lu keeps her weapon trained forward as she forces herself to her feet, joining the other men and women in blue who are suddenly there, announcing their presence.

“Drop your weapon.”

“Hands on your head!”

“Step away. Step away now!”

I barely hear them, my stare locked on Curran as the blue and red strobe lights smack repeatedly against my face. He stalks forward, through the throng of law enforcement arched around me, his stance rigid and his focus trained on the man holding me.

He’s alive. Somehow, Curran survived.

“One more step and I’ll kill her,” my captor warns. His voice is that of a desperate man, out of options and outgunned.

Curran freezes, the gun in his hand steady. He should appear torn, yet he’s not.

He makes his decision and carries it through.

The air explodes around me as the grip to my hair loosens and I collapse to the ground.

Curran

I recognize that look, the one that shifts in a perp’s face. It’s the same one that kid had right before he reached for his gun and shot Joey full of holes. This perp, like that teen, knows there’s no going back, not after what he’s done.

He’s going to kill Tess, the mother of my child, my soon-to-be wife, and the woman I promised forever. There’s no doubt in my mind.

He makes his choice.

And I make mine.

My target is his left eye, and that’s precisely where my bullet strikes.

I bolt to Tess’s side when his body buckles and her knees give out. From one blink to the next, she’s in my arms. I wrench her to her feet and drag her away, over to where McMullen and two others are seeing to Lu.

“You all right?” I ask Tess. “You hurt?”

She points in the direction of the perp with one eye and a busted skull. I think she means to say something about him, but instead asks, “How did you find me?”

My hold on her tightens as I remember the call. “Lu saw them take you. She phoned me and half the precinct. With all the traffic this time of night—and festivals going on down at Penn’s Landing—no one could get to you fast enough. For the time being, we knew we were on our own. So we formed a plan as soon as we got a handle on where you were headed, and moved in.” I motion ahead to our left. “I parked on the block before this one. Snuck through that small alley and stuck to the shadows. Lu took her time pulling up behind you and getting out, giving me time to get in position. It worked. Perps never saw me coming.”

“I see,” she says, two seconds before she almost collapses. I ease her down on the curb. “Your job sucks,” she stammers, breathing hard and clinging to my shirt with white knuckles.

Maybe, but it’s what I’m meant to do.

I kiss her forehead, because that’s all I can do right now. What I want to do is snatch her to me and never let her go. She almost died—Christ Almighty, my girl, my kid, I almost lost them, just like that.

I kiss her again, this time a little lower. Her glasses are crooked. I try to fix them, but they’re bent from the throw-down. “They thought I was Declan’s girlfriend,” she says, her voice continuing to tremble.

“Then my guess is Montenegro’s wife put a hit on you.” I shrug to make like everything’s fine, and that I’m not freaking the fuck out over her being kidnapped and held at gunpoint at twelve goddamn weeks pregnant. “Women are funny when it comes to their men.”

I don’t mean to make her tear up, but that’s what she does. She clutches the front of my shirt and loses it, crying so hard I can barely understand her. “I thought you were dead. You were outnumbered; Lu was hurt. D-did you kill them—all of them?”

I nod, anger reverting me to cop mode.