End Game Read Free

I’m not—what the hell are you wearing?”
    “Your one minute is up,” Jolaine snapped. “Grab something for your feet. We’re getting out of here.”
    “Just another minute—”
    Jolaine grabbed his biceps and pulled. This was about survival. If she had to beat him senseless to save his life, she was perfectly willing to cross that line.
    “Let me go!”
    Jolaine ignored him, just as she ignored the distant sense of satisfaction that came with hurting him a little. Adolescent angst and anger had hit Graham with staggering force over the past twelve months, turning him into a monster.
    Not quite five-nine, the kid weighed nothing, so when Jolaine pulled, he followed. She worked out, he played video games.
     
     
    Why was she being such a bitch?
    Okay, Jolaine was always a bitch, but that was part of her job, and at some corner of his brain, Graham realized that he brought that side out of her, but this was at a whole new level. He yelled as her fingernails stuck into the soft, sensitive flesh of his armpit, but she didn’t seem to care. As he dug his heels into the carpet to slow her down, she merely squeezed tighter and pulled harder. He had no idea that she was that strong.
    “Are you serious?” he asked. “Are we really leaving?” And what was with all the military crap she was wearing?
    Graham wasn’t even sure his feet touched the stairs as he more or less flew to the first floor. That’s when he saw the blood. That’s when it all became real. The man on the floor writhed in agony. “They know,” the guy said. “Oh, God, they know, they know . . .”
    Mom and Dad were arguing about something—they seemed really angry—but if Graham could hear the words beyond the thrumming of fear in his head, he couldn’t understand them. They came out as random sounds: fight, die, kill. He even heard his own name in the mix. He tried to pull away from Jolaine, to be with his parents, but her grip was like iron.
    “Mom!” he yelled.
    Sarah’s head snapped up, but her face wasn’t the face he was used to seeing. Her eyes had a dead set to them, like a doll’s eyes, and her mouth was set in a tight little line. “Get out,” she said. “Go with Jolaine.”
    “Where?”
    “I love you, Graham. Never forget that.”
    That was the line that triggered the panic in his gut. So simple, yet so final. Of course she loved him. She was his mother. Why would she think that he would assume anything else? Her words had a finality about them that made him want to cry.
    He started to say, “I love you, too,” but before the words could form, the front door burst open, as if propelled by explosives, and a bunch of men dressed in black flooded into the foyer. His dad shot one of them in the head at point-blank range, and the air turned red.
     
     
    At the sound of the bursting door and the gunshot, Jolaine pushed Graham to the ground and planted a knee in his back to keep him there while she brought her M4 to bear. The collapsed stock plate found her shoulder and her finger found the trigger without thought. She popped one of the invaders with a shot to his chin that all but sheared his head from his shoulders. It always sucked to be one of the first people through the door.
    Then the enemy adapted and the shooting started in earnest. Sarah and Bernard both dove for cover as the front wall and windows exploded in the fusillade of incoming rounds. Within two seconds, Jolaine realized that she needed to leave while there was still some chance of getting out alive. If they hadn’t done so already, the attacking forces would soon surround the house, making escape impossible.
    Do your job.
    Easing the pressure on Graham’s back, Jolaine grabbed the nape of his neck and pulled him first to his knees and then to his feet. “We’re going out through the kitchen,” she said softly into his ear.
    “But what about—” The rest of his question was lost in the next volley of gunfire.
    Jolaine focused on the solution, not the