“True,” Cypress concedes, but then he leans forward and takes a peek around one of the crates. “They might do better, though.”
I don’t need to ask who. The shot that splinters the crate a moment later, no more than an inch from where Cypress’s head had just been, lets let me know that Maddock and the rest of his men have made good use of the distraction to reclaim their weapons.
“Fuck,” I mutter. “Where the fuck are those deputies?”
Cypress laughs. “Home. With their feet up.”
“I sent the old guy to go get them,” I say, counting shots as another series hits the containers beside us. “The one with the cigars.”
“Clayton?” Cypress asks, and I wonder again how he seems to know everyone and why he seems towantto. “I’m sure he’ll try, but…at this point, I have more faith in divine intervention than I do lawful. If they arrive, it likely won’t be to help us.”
“Don’t need them to help us,” I reply, not needing him to explain this to me. “I just need them to inconvenience Maddock enough that he might decide you’re not worth killin’.”
“Not sure that’s going to happen.” He ducks down lower as another bullet flies over our heads. “But I admire your sudden bend toward optimism.”
I roll my eyes, count off four more shots. “They’re all shootin’ at once. In a second, they’re going to have to reload. Run when they do. Got it?”
Cypress nods, looking toward the back alley behind the buildings. “We can both swing right, head west. I can draw them after me while you go get our horses out front.”
I curse, thinking of the message he’d made that boy at the stable bring me. “Isthiswhy you had him tell me to ride my horse down here? You knew this was gonna happen?”
“Wasn’t thinking it would tonight, but always a possibility. So best to be prepared. Which is why I should’ve—” Cypress stopshimself, barely audible over another round of shots and yelling when he starts again. “Wait, why did you think I wanted you to—”
“God only fucking knows,” I reply, not sure why I suddenly feel embarrassed in addition to everything else. “All right, wait two more shots, then you run for your horse.”
“What about you?”
“Let me worry about me.”
“Aiden—”
“Now.”
I break from my position, Cypress right next to me as we both sprint for the alley and somehow manage to turn the corner without either of us being gunned down. Certainly a mark of success, but I’m far from letting it make me cocky, considering I can hear them right behind us.
“Go,” I order, pointing toward the next side alley as we come up on it fast. “That way.”
He shakes his head, matching me stride for stride. “We’ll be separated. I’ll go with you.”
“No,” I reply, not wanting to waste the air in my lungs on talking. “Go.”
“But—”
“Cypress.Go.”
He looks like he wants to argue again, hesitating long enough for my eyes to meet his, for my gait to falter a bit, too, as I realize this might be the last time I see him. That there’s a part of me that doesn’t want it to be.
“We’ll find each other,” I tell him, a bit softer this time. At last, he nods, cutting down the other alley before I can say anything else, my moment of relief fading fast when I hear Maddock and his men emerge into the alley behind me.
The first shot that rings out from their newly reloaded guns strikes the building next to me, the wood siding splintering as Idash down a different street.
The second strikes the ground, scattering the dirt near my feet once I break for the other side of the road.
The third strikes truest to its mark, singeing a streak along my left arm before it cracks through storefront glass.
I don’t think it’s deep, but even if it is, the blood loss will take me a lot slower than another bullet might. The stable is a few more blocks away. I only need to get there.
“Stop!” There are new voices behind me now, people that had been out on the street, and I don’t know if they’re yelling at me or the men chasing me, but I’m pretty sure if I do stop to look, I’ll be dead before I figure it out.