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Chapter 1 - Paolo
“Well, that should be enough to survive for another month,” Louis says with a joking smirk and turns the open suitcase to me. It’s filled to the brink with rows of dollars, and I chuckle at my cousin’s little jest.
Surviving sounds like a joke even though our life is nothing but.
“The deal was really good.” I nod with a smirk and reach to take the suitcase out of his hands. “But there’s something more important—”
“Shit,” Hector curses under his breath from the driver’s seat, and Louis immediately closes the suitcase.
“What happened?”
But I see the reason already and let out an exasperated sigh. There’s a line of orange cones and bright vests in the darkness in front of us. The city administration is repairing the roads all over again, and today they have to do it exactly on our way to the base. The cars in front of us slow down into a line of red lights, and it looks like we’re stuck here at least for another ten minutes.
“Should I turn around?” Hector looks at me through the rearview mirror, but I shake my head. It would take just as long to get out of here, and I’m not in the mood to deal with the police today.
“Just keep—”
“Paolo!”
Louis yanks me closer to him the moment I hear the first gunshot. The whole car vibrates from the bullet attempting to pierce the armored door—and then the rain of a dozen bullets follows, accompanied by the lightning of firearms. The cars behind us start honking and backing in panic, but the one at the front stays still, not allowing us to drive forward.
Shit. I only have a second to assess the situation, but it’s enough to understand one thing.
“It’s a trap!” I yell over the deafening vibrations of the car and slap Hector’s shoulder. “Drive at the workers! Get out of here!”
Even before I finish the sentence, two bullets reach the windshield, and we both startle away from it—but the bulletproof glass holds the impact. Only the spiderweb of cracks spreads all across it, but it’s good enough. All we need right now is the red lights of other cars and orange vests glowing in the darkness to guide us.
Hector doesn’t need to be told twice. He sharply backs into the empty space behind us and steers the car into the Mexicans—because, of course, who the hell else would it be? I can see their ugly faces through the window, their guns aimed at our car as if they genuinely think they can get us, and it makes my blood boil.
The Messina Clan would never give up so easily, so I lower the window and fire at the orange vests, hearing the screams of other people even clearer.
“Those rats,” Louis spits out next to me and reaches over Hector to the control panel to open the window of the passenger seat. It’s enough to give him an open view of the Mexicans, and he immediately aims his gun and shoots the one standing the closest.
“Buckle up!” I can barely hear Hector over the sounds of the firefight, and the next moment I hit the back of my seat from the speed of his takeoff.
The whole car shudders and jumps as he drives through the work zone, uncaring about the cones he sends flying into the air and freely running over a Mexican stupid enough to stand in our way. His partner manages to jump away, but his bullet reaches our windshield—and it becomes the last blow it can take.
The glass explodes on Hector, making him hiss and lose his grip on the wheel for a second. With its speed, the car immediately starts swirling in every direction and almost flies off the road—but at the last moment, Hector takes control of it. He says nothing, gritting his teeth, but I can see blood dripping down his face. Goddamnit.
“Just take us out of here,” I yell at him over the whistle of wind through the gap that is left of the windshield and turn around. The lights of the Mexican car are right behind us, and it won’t take long till they catch up. “Hurry up! Louis, open fire!”
I follow my own command and join Louis as we turn around in our seats and try to shoot the car through open windows. There are no more cars on the road, and I know the police helicopters are gonna show up soon—which makes it more important to get as far as possible from here.
Our bullets reach their windshield, sending the same cracks all over it, and the car immediately sways in its line. Their driver is nowhere near as good as Hector.
As soon as we make sure that the Mexicans’ car stays far behind us, Louis and I close the windows and turn to Hector. Now, there’s only one thing left.
“We have to get off the road.” Louis taps his shoulder, raising his voice over the wind from the gap. “Find a good place to stop, and I’ll take over.”
It’s too dangerous to stop on the freeway now, where every car driving in the opposite direction can see us, so Hector takes the next exit and drives off the ramp. The darkness of the night hides us from unwanted eyes—and I don’t mean the police. No matter how much I despise the Mexicans, if they were to catch up with us now, we wouldn’t have enough strength left to fight back.
It takes Louis and Hector only a few seconds to swap seats, and soon enough it’s Louis who turns the ignition key and meets my gaze through the rearview mirror. “The car is too obvious.”
With dozens of bullet holes and a destroyed windshield? Yeah, no shit. But we don’t have time to wait for someone else to pick us up.
I glance at Hector—it looks like he lost most of his energy as soon as he hit the passenger seat. The blood keeps gushing out of the open wounds on his face and neck, and I don’t know how much more he can afford to lose.
“It’s nothing.” I meet Louis’ gaze for a moment and nod at the arc of the ramp above us. “We’re close. Let’s keep moving.”
