She slumped into the buttery leather seat. Tears were clinging to the corner of her eyelids. She sniffled them back. There was no way she was going to let them fall. She didn’t dare. The dam would break and she’d bawl like a baby. So not good for her strong-can-handle-anything look. She had one like that… Didn’t she? Hell no. She’d had one like that way back. Her initial reserve on meeting someone often gave them that impression of her. Cool. Unaffected. Disinterested. And she’d done nothing to break that barrier down to make it easier for everyone. Her father would say show them who’s boss right from the get go. Then you could pick and choose who to befriend. That was after you figured out who were your enemies. 

His method clearly hadn’t worked so well in high school and just added to her cool edge. 

She stared down at her ragged nails. They’d been perfect pale ovals once. Now they were short, jagged and bloody. She had a couple she could still use as weapons if she had to. But her fighting days were over. Hopefully. 

On that reminder, she glanced out the windows. Good-bye small town. Good-bye jaunt in the back woods. Hello more scary helicopter ride and more military. 

The military she’d take any day. Now getting back into another helicopter–so not. 

Her stomach knotted at the reminder of her free-fall the last time. It would be good to go back in, just like falling off a bike. You had to get back on again immediately. 

This was a whole different story. She’d do the bike thing any day. The helicopter, however… She took one deep breath, then another deep breath. The third one almost felt natural. 

Until she noticed the driver keeping a careful eye on the road. She knew Suho wouldn’t have let her leave if he didn’t think it was safe to do so. But what if they were being followed? What if someone had tracked them to the house and was waiting to make their move. 

Suho really shouldn’t have let her leave alone. She hated that she only felt safe with him beside her. It was understandable after what she’d been through but… that was going to be difficult in the future. 

Damn it, her mind was back on Suho again. And that long lovely expanse of bare skin she’d woken up to. She’d always been a morning person. To think he’d been there in her bed, and she didn’t have the right to touch. She could have persuaded him… maybe, but she didn’t want a ten minute bounce in bed. She wanted to get to know him. Yeah right. She wanted to jump his bones. But she couldn’t have handled rejection this morning, and he would have turned her down. 

With a groan she leaned her head back, determined to forget the man. And that wicked kiss he’d laid on her. 

“You all right, ma’am?” Baekhyun asked her, concern written on his face. 

She mustered up a bright smile. They were all lovely men. “I’m fine. Just not looking forward to going on another helicopter.” 

“You’ll be fine.” 

Right. She was pretty damn sure she’d been told that right before the last helicopter blew up. But there was no point in bringing that up again. 

“I’m sure I will.” The second man pointed at something in his rearview mirror. He had some kind of phone in his hand, but it looked big, odd. More like a GPS unit but with other capabilities. Interesting. She loved technology. She and Min-seok had both been big on computers growing up. 

Now she wished she had something in her hands. She had no phone, or purse, so no ID. She felt cut off from the world. 

Especially without Suho. 

Then her world exploded. 

The first shot shattered the rear window and punctured a hole right through the front windshield. She screamed and leaned over. That was when she realized Chen’s blood was all over the front dash. And Baekhyun was swearing a blue streak. 

Oh no. Oh crap. Oh Lord. Please not again. She unbuckled her seatbelt and hit the floor. 

“Hang on,” Baekhyun yelled at her. 

But the SUV was zigging and zagging so severely across the road as the driver tried to avoid letting the shooter get a clean shot at him that it was damn near impossible to hang on. She leaned forward over the center console where the passenger was slumped and checked if he was breathing. She hadn’t seen where he’d been shot, but she didn’t need to look twice. 

Except… he held a gun in his hand. She reached forward and pulled it free. It was covered in… yeah, she didn’t want to know. She wiped off as much as she could but kept being knocked over with Baekhyun’s evasive maneuvers. She tried to pull herself up enoug