CHAPTER 2VIOLET REACHED FOR AMAYA, WRAPPING her up in her arms and lunging for the side of the building just as the explosions went off. She slammed her back against the wall, keeping the child clutched tightly against her as a man’s body thudded to the ground a yard from her feet, his body torn up with shrapnel.
“Don’t look, Amaya,” she whispered emphatically, though she knew there wasn’t a chance the child would listen. The girl was the most curious being she’d ever known. Gruesome or not, Amaya would look.
The explosions had passed but gunfire still rang out. She had to get Amaya out of there. She dashed across the few gravelly steps to her car and flung the child into the driver’s seat, not waiting for her to move over before she began to slip inside, the keys already in her hand. Bu
