Mick (The A'rouk Brothers Book 1) by Serena Simpson Page B

walked quietly, carefully, not wanting to give themselves away. Ash opened the barn door that was also well oiled, so it didn’t make a sound.
    An alarm went up. There was a voice yelling that they were escaping. She looked over her head to see that someone had turned around and caught sight of them.
    Their pace picked up as they went into the barn. Even running it would take a while for the men to reach them. The barn was a good distance away from Ash’s home.
    She walked in to find at least twenty different hover cars. Ash was wealthier than he let on. Maybe it was because he lived so many years on the Earth that he accumulated so much wealth.
    He reached down to pick Brook up and take her to a hover. Her breathing was sounding strained, and she didn’t look like she could stay on her feet much longer. Jaz turned to follow them, but Mick caught her and directed her to another hover.
    “We’ll be taking different hovers. It’s safer that way and will make it harder to pin one of us down when they’re looking for the car holding you.
    She agreed. There was less chance of Brook’s life being in danger if she wasn’t in the car with her. Mick told her to get in but she couldn’t. She ran to the hover Brook was in and hugged her one more time just in case she never saw her again. Jaz wanted Brook to know just how much her friendship meant to her.
    With a watery smile, she ran back to the hover Mick was standing by and climbed in.
    “Ash?” Mick called.
    “I’m going to blow the structure, but I need them to be a little closer. Make sure you raise your shield.”
    Mick nodded. Ash would take some of them out and reduce the chances of them being able to fire at them as they gained altitude.
    Ash pushed a button in his hover and the cars that weren’t in use flipped over and slid underground.
    The voices were close now, and they tensed up waiting.
    “They’re in here, bring the laser pistols.”
    Blowing the barn was going to give them a rocky ride and the technique was unproven. If Ash calculated correctly, the structure would blow outwards while the roof went straight up breaking into small enough pieces that they would be able to get the hovers through it.
    He waited until he could see a mass of shadows around them before he blew the barn. The structure flew outward catching the men standing close to it about to fire up their weapons.
    A quick touch on the instrument panel had the hovers lifting straight off the ground.
    Jaz kept her eye on Brook’s hover as it took the lead position. Mick touched the panel again checking the integrity of the shield around them. Laser fire finally came from the Earth only to bounce off the shield. Brook’s hover broke the barrier where they were no longer able to be reached. Jaz looked down at the men on the ground. Were they trying to aim that ship killer at them?
    Next, they broke the barrier where they should be safe. She could no longer see the males on the ground. Now all she could do was look at Mick and wonder what was next?

Chapter Eight
     
     
    “Are we safe?” She knew safe was a relative term but at that moment she needed just a little reassurance.
    “For the moment, the men on the Earth can’t reach us, but we are still being pursued.”
    How could she have forgotten the mysterious Darkness? It was easy. She focused on the thing she knew and not on those things that were simply a black shadowy figure in the corner of her mind.
    Taking a deep breath, she relaxed into the seat and watched as Mick took them up through the layers of the atmosphere.
    They were on the first layer. When man first made his move into the atmosphere, this was where the wealthy lived. Things were different now. This layer housed the people who were just wealthy enough to make it off the ground. No one looked down on you if you lived here but everyone knew you didn’t quite make the cut.
    They merged into the next layer of the atmosphere. Here was the warehouse section. No one with a