Phantom Warriors: Riot by Jordan Summers

fingers. He
needed to get himself and Nina out of here before he lost
consciousness.
    “When I say go, I want you to shrug off these
ropes and run. Don’t stop. Don’t look back. Just get out of here,”
he said.
    “What about you?” she murmured.
    “I’ll be fine.” And if he wasn’t, at least
Riot would have died honorably.
    She turned her head toward the sound of his
voice. “I’m not going to leave you. These men may not be bright,
but they do know how to hunt.”
    “Who are you talking to?” Mark asked. “She’s
talking to someone, Hank. I heard her.”
    Hank stepped forward and looked around.
“There ain’t no one here.”
    “I’m telling you. I heard her,” Mark
insisted. “She’s whispering to someone or something.”
    “Who are you talking to?” Hank asked.
    Nina shook her head. “No one.”
    “Only crazy people talk to themselves,” Mark
said.
    “Call the bear again,” Hank ground out
between clenched teeth.
    “Go! Now!” Riot shouted and shoved Nina to
the side.
     
    ***
     
    The ropes dropped from her wrists a second
before Riot pushed her. Nina stumbled out of her bindings, and
scrambled on her hands and knees to get away. She still couldn’t
see Riot, but she knew that he was there.
    “Get her!” Hank shouted.
    A roar shattered the silence. Something
shimmered like sunlight on water and Riot appeared.
    “Shoot him!”
    Shots rang out. Bullets struck the trees
around her. Nina ducked her head and kept moving. She stopped when
she reached a dip in the woods and dropped to her belly,
waiting.
    Cries, grunts, and screams filled the air.
She thought she recognized Mark’s voice at one point, but the
warble was cut short. Fear gripped her as shot after shot punched
the air, deafening her. Gunpowder clogged the small clearing until
she could no longer see the truck. There was a loud crash, then
Riot stumbled out of the putrid cloud, his fur covered in
blood.
    Nina screamed and jumped to her feet, racing
toward him. She didn’t see the other men.
    His eyes were glazed and it seemed to take
him a moment to recognize her.
    “I have to get you back to my office. I
have…” Her vet go bag. They’d tossed her kit and her purse into the
back of the truck, when they’d abducted her. Nina ran in the
direction of the vehicle.
    Fear slowed her limbs, when she finally
spotted the beat up truck. What if Hank and Mark weren’t as hurt as
they seemed? What if they caught her again? What if they shot her?
She heard a loud animalistic moan. None of that mattered. Riot had
saved her life. And right now, he needed her.
    Nina quickly scanned the area, then rushed
forward. She grabbed her bag and purse out of the back of the truck
and raced to where she’d left Riot. He was sitting now, his head
sagging toward the ground. She glanced in the direction of the tree
she’d been tied to. The cloud of gunpowder was beginning to clear.
“We have to go. It’s not safe. Can you move?”
    Riot grunted and stumbled to his feet.
    “Come on. This way.” Nina guided him back
toward the private property signs. They had to get off this land.
It would be safer once they reached the Qualla Boundary or the
park.
    “Get on my back,” Riot said. Each word took
effort to speak.
    Nina glanced at the blood dripping down him.
“I can’t get on you. You’re bleeding too badly.”
    He looked at her. “We don’t have time to
argue. The gunshots will have drawn attention. There were too many
not to go unnoticed. I don’t want us to be here when the bodies are
found.”
    Her eyes widened. “You killed them?”
    Riot shook his massive head and swayed. Nina
reached out a hand to steady him. “I only wounded them. They shot
each other.”
    She nodded in understanding. “I still need to
get you back to the clinic. I have more medicine there and better
equipment.”
    “My health and safety isn’t important. Yours
is.” He took a shuddering gasp.
    Nina crossed her arms over her chest. “Says
who?” She didn’t