AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I had no idea what he was planning to do until he instructed me to park at the mouth of the auction house’s side alley. There was a black sedan, similar to one of Viktor’s cars, sitting there with its engine running. I pulled to the curb as instructed, then saw him reaching up to open the sunroof. “Hey, it’s raining!”
“Yes, apologies.” He stood up suddenly, and before I could react, fired at the sedan’s windshield. The whole thing shattered inward, chunks of safety glass pelting the two startled, bloodied men sitting inside. He fired again, and I looked away just in time for the results to just be a red blur in the corner of my eye. The guy riding shotgun had to be dead.
“Oh God,” I mumbled as I struggled to process what had just happened.
He dropped back down into his seat and pulled the sunroof closed, keeping the gun handy. “Get us out of here!”
I pulled out into traffic and entered its flow, shaking the whole time. A few seconds after we left the curb, the sedan roared out of the alley and knocked a subcompact aside as it turned the corner to follow us. The interior was a red mess just beyond the shattered windshield, with one furious man glaring at me from behind the wheel.
A million crazy things ran through my head as I sped up, weaving through traffic as carefully as I could to try to keep a bit of distance between myself and that maniac. What enemy was after us? How had Viktor guessed that the cellphone jammer was in that car? What was being caught in a car chase-gunfight combo going to do to my car insurance? “Who are these guys?”
“It’s probably best I don’t tell you,” Viktor said, voice still as cool and smooth as the silk of my dress. “Suffice it to say that the streets of Cambridge aren’t going to be as safe as they were for a while.”
“Great, wonderful. So now what?”
“Let him keep you in sight for a while, but don’t let him get too close.”
“What if he shoots?” I asked, trying to steady my breathing while keeping an eye on the car in my rearview mirror.
“He’s the just the driver, but keep a good distance from him. I’m hoping he’s not stupid enough to try and start a gunfight right here in public,” Viktor said, as he tipped out the remaining bullets and reloaded the gun with what looked like shotgun cartridges.
I wasn’t sure if this was a comfort or not, but drove like my life depended on it, because it did.
Both of our phones buzzed back to life suddenly, dumping a load of vibrating message alerts. Then Viktor’s phone rang.
Still holding the gun in his other hand, he put it to his ear. “Boris! No, I led the car away from the building. I’ll soon be making my escape. Get the boys to capture a few of those bastards and wrap them up for me for questioning. I’ll be back home in…” he glanced at me, and there was so much heat in his eyes that it made my heart pound. “…four hours. Just keep them on ice until then.”
Now he was kidnapping people and letting me overhear it. Well, if my first instinct was to jump in and help him get away, this came with the territory. But I really didn’t know how to feel about it, at least besides somehow horny and terrified at the same time.
“They’ll be able to wrap things up handily with their communications back.” He hung up, smiling confidently. “Now, let’s take this fool on a merry little chase. Right turn two blocks ahead, please.”
I huffed nervously. “Sure. Okay.” I took the turn and headed for the highway, wondering where we would end up. Fifteen seconds later, the sedan screeched around the turn, making the cars behind me let out a chorus of honks. “Yeah. He’s definitely still on us.”
“I’ll disable the car once we’re near the on ramp,” he said in the same calm tone, seeming unconcerned that he was getting closer to us by the second. I sped up, trying to keep enough distance between us that the man behind the sedan’s wheel wouldn’t take a shot at us. “Keep on the side street, nobody uses it. No security cameras either, and I don’t want any bystanders getting hurt.”
That surprised me a little, but I just nodded, set my jaw again, and tried not to think about the sedan creeping up into my rearview mirror again. The neighborhood got crappier and the street more full of potholes as we neared the on ramp.
The wind picked up, rocking my rental and the tires skid a little on the nearly flooded street so I had to slow. I turned the corner just as a shot went off behind me. “Oh crap,” I mumbled, as Viktor sighed and reached for the sunroof latch again.
This time when the unholy bang of his hand-cannon echoed in my ears, I kept my eyes on the road. I didn’t know if he’d just blown out one of the tires or simply shot the driver in the face. I didn’t want to know.
I was trembling by the time we got onto the highway, my system flooded with adrenaline. The car stank of gun smoke, my head was pounding, and I was starting to feel sick. I breathed deep and slow through my mouth as I rolled down my window.
“Are you all right?” he asked me softly as he tucked that giant pistol away.
“No,” I managed when I could get the words out.
“Do you need me to drive?”
I looked over at him, realizing that I was having trouble feeling my fingertips and toes. My lips were tingling like I had been out in the cold too long. “Yes,” I said finally, and got off on the next exit to find a place to stop.
We switched seats, he sprayed something from his pocket that smelled like ozone and killed the cordite smell almost right away, then buckled in and started the car. I sat beside him as he drove back onto the highway, face in hands, struggling to pull myself together.
I remembered the entire windshield blowing apart as the safety glass shattered. The gun he used was a revolver, if a huge one. “What the hell were you loading?” I asked finally as I lifted my head. I still had the headache, but now that the stink was gone, I could handle it.
“It’s a small shotshell,” he said as mildly as if we were discussing where to get dinner.
“You walk around with a damn shotgun-revolver?” I asked incredulously.
