NO SAFE ROAD

The Chian pt 2

.The word landed like a weight.

Mara shook her head once. “To who?”

Cole’s expression went darker. “That’s what I’m going to find out.”

She stared at him, shaken by the certainty in his voice. He didn’t sound curious. He sounded already committed.

The office door opened without warning.

Mara startled hard.

Tessa stepped in, one hand on the frame, expression wary. “He’s still outside.”

Cole didn’t turn. “Who?”

Tessa’s eyes flicked to Mara, then back to him. “Derek didn’t leave alone.”

Mara’s stomach dropped.

Cole’s jaw tightened. “How many?”

“Two still in the lot. One at the front gate. Maybe more parked out on the road.”

Mara’s pulse started hammering again. “Why are they still here?”

Tessa’s mouth flattened. “Because they want you to come out.”

The room tightened around that.

Mara’s skin went cold. “No.”

“No,” Cole agreed, voice hardening. “They want pressure.”

Tessa crossed her arms. “And they’re getting it. People in town are already calling.”

Mara looked between them. “Calling who?”

Tessa’s expression went flat. “The police.”

The floor seemed to drop beneath Mara.

Cole’s face didn’t change, but it was suddenly all business. “Who called?”

“Could be anyone. A neighbor. A witness. Somebody looking to make sure they’re on the right side of whatever this becomes.”

Mara’s breath stalled. “Oh my God.”

Cole finally moved, coming around the desk with quick, controlled steps. “Did they say anything else?”

Tessa hesitated. “One deputy asked if there’d been any shots fired.”

Mara stared at her. “Shots?”

Tessa’s look turned grim. “Which means somebody outside thinks this is going to get ugly.”

Mara’s hands went numb.

Cole was already halfway to the door. “Lock down the lot. Nobody leaves.”

Tessa nodded and moved back out.

Mara stood frozen. “Cole.”

He paused just long enough to look at her.

“This is going to get worse,” he said.

“That’s not exactly soothing.”

“No,” he said. “It’s accurate.”

She swallowed. “Are you in danger because of me?”

His expression shifted—just slightly, but enough.

“Not because of you,” he said. “Because of what you know.”

That should have hurt more than it did.

Maybe because it was true.

Cole held her gaze for one beat longer, then said, “You’re staying in here until I say otherwise.”

Mara stared at him. “I’m not hiding in an office like a problem you can shelve.”

His jaw worked once. “Then don’t give me one.”

Before she could answer, the clubhouse erupted with a loud, hard crash from the front room. Voices rose. A shout. Then another.

Cole’s head turned toward the sound immediately.

Mara’s blood turned to ice.

Cole was already moving for the door again, but this time he stopped when he reached it and looked back at her.

Whatever he saw on her face made something in his expression sharpen into warning.

“Whatever happens next,” he said, “don’t open that door for anyone.”

Then he was gone.

Mara stood alone in the office, listening to the noise outside swell again.

A moment later, a voice she did not know shouted from the front room, loud enough to carry through the walls.

“Blackwater needs to answer for the girl.”

Mara’s breath caught.

And then the first gunshot cracked through the clubhouse.