The sound was deafening, like fireworks going off next to my face. Shrapnel from a broken window glanced off my cheek and tore a long, jagged cut. I pulled my gun from my jacket and waited for the guys to stop shooting.
I heard voices and a door open.
That was when I made my move.
I popped up, gun ready, and caught one in the open. He must’ve thought we were dead, since he stood in the no-man’s land between the two cars. I shot him once in the head and again in the chest as he fell then turned my gun toward the truck. The guy behind the wheel cursed and tried to get his gun up, but it was too late. I shot him in the head and had one more second to fire off another round that missed before the guy in the passenger seat began to return fire with a long rifle.
I ducked back down.
Cora trembled next to me, eyes wide. I grabbed her arm. “We have to run.”
“Run?” She could barely say the word. “Run? Run?”
“Cora.” I shook her hard. “Look at me. I’m going to get you through this. Do you understand?”
“They’re trying to kill us.”
“I’m going to get you through this, goddamn it. Now you need to get ready to run, do you hear me?”
She nodded, eyes still wide, but they were focused on me at least.
“All right. When I say, you run as fast as you can toward the end of the block. Stay low behind the cars. Do you hear me?”
“Run. Cars. I got it.”
I grunted and looked down the line of parked cars. There were a couple gaps between our position and the end of the block, but not too many.
The rifle fire paused and I jumped up. I squeezed off two bullets as the guy in the passenger seat jumped out of the truck. I didn’t know where the second remaining guy was, but he was somewhere nearby. I fired the rest of my clip, reloaded, then grabbed Cora’s arm and started running.
Bullets riddled the cars around us but we kept going. I returned fire, shooting wildly, not trying to hit anyone but trying to keep them pinned down. If they flanked us then this would be over. Cora kept on her feet and moved as fast as she could, but she let loose wild screams of terror as the bullets flew around us.
I shoved her down behind the last car in the row and turned as the second man appeared in the street.
He raised his rifle toward me and for a moment the chaos stilled and my heart became a thudding beast in my chest.
I knew him. Fucking hell, I knew him.
He shot first. I ducked down as his rifle bucked and screamed. I cursed and Cora screamed.
A siren wailed nearby and the rifle fire stopped.
Cora crawled toward me and I put an arm around her, pulling her against my chest. She wasn’t hurt as far as I could tell, which was a minor miracle. My car sat on the sidewalk, half wrecked and riddled with bullets, smoke curling from the engine. I watched as the passenger side guy shoved the driver’s dead body from the truck and got behind the wheel.
The man in the street still stood there, his red hair shining in the sunlight.
“You got lucky,” he shouted. “But I won’t miss next time, Reid.”
I came up and took a shot. He laughed as it missed him by inches and fell back, running toward the truck. I fired again and again, narrowly missing him each time until he dove into the bed of the truck. He stared at me with a wild grin as the sirens got louder and the truck drove away.
I stood and took Cora’s hand. “Come on.”
“We can’t. The police… they’re coming.” She looked around in a panic.
I took her by the shoulders. “We have to go. Are you ready?”
She took a deep breath and shook her head. “Reid.”
“Cora. My wife. Trust me.” I pulled her against me and kissed her.
For one insane minute, the taste of her delicious lips mingled with the iron tang of the blood that dripped from my forehead. We kissed for half a second until she realized what was happening—and pulled away.
Fire flashed in her eyes. “What the hell are you doing?”
I grinned and took her hand. “There you are. Now come on, we have to run.”
She didn’t have time to argue. I yanked her along, getting away from the scene of the attack as fast as I could. The sirens got closer, but we kept moving, until the car was left behind, and it was safe to make a few calls.6CoraI sat in the bathtub and watched the water turn pink from blood. I had a long, nasty cut on my arm from a piece of metal that snapped off the car from all the gunfire. My ears rang and I felt sick, like I might throw up, but I kept telling myself that if I didn’t move then I’d be okay.