Trent stiffens beside me, and the fact that he doesn’t snap back at Dickers for calling him a dumbass tells me he’s unsettled by what Dickers said.
Even Jacob is quiet for a few seconds before he says, “We’ll discuss this later.”
“Yeah, later.” Dickers chuckles. “When we’re already six feet under the ground. Right next to Cronin.”
“Dickers—” Jacob starts to warn before Dickers cuts him off, sounding more serious.
“Look, I thought I owed it to him too, to save her from those fuckers. But she said it herself, she didn’t want to be saved. And now? Now that she’s heard what she’s heard? It’s her or us. Pick.”
Silence falls over the car again, and I can almost feel the last seconds of my life ticking away.
Maybe… maybe if James wasn’t dead it would actually bother me. But it doesn’t. The only thing that bothers me is that I might not get to hurt any of them before they take me out.
“Damn you, Dickers,” Jacob finally growls, and I know he’s turned against me.
I glance over at Trent, wondering if he’s finally turned against me too, but he only looks confused. Like he doesn’t understand yet.
“Now or after we stop at the station?” Dickers asks, as if the matter is settled. “This is our exit.”
Dickers hits the blinker to turn right, but the blinker just clicks and clicks.
At first, I wonder if it’s because he’s waiting on Jacob to answer, but then Dickers curses. “Stupid fuck beside me won’t let me get over.”
Jacob sighs, sounding tired. “Speed up and go around him.”
“Can’t,” Dickers says. “The fucker in front of… Fuck!”
“What?” Jacob asks.
I feel the car start to slow a little only to speed up again.
“We’re fucking boxed in!” Dickers growls. “They’ve got us surrounded.”
20
Sophia
“Fuck!” Dickers curses and slams his phone down on the console between the front seats.
For the past five minutes, he’s been trying and failing to reach someone on his phone.
“No answer?” Jacob asks, unable to keep the concern out of his voice.
“Can’t get ahold of Harris, and no one else is picking up,” Dickers growls, his hands squeezing so tight around the steering wheel his knuckles turn white. “There’s goes all our fucking backup.”
Silence falls over the car, and while the men around me seem tense and uneasy, I feel a spark of hope flaring to life in my chest.
Is James alive? Did he manage to kill all the men Dickers left?
It doesn’t seem probable or the least bit likely…
But when has James ever been predicable?
If anyone could pull it off, it would be him.
I’d bet my life on it.
The little spark inside me grows and grows until it’s a blazing fire that gives me the strength to fight on and try to survive this mess.
Glancing out his window at the black SUV beside us, keeping pace with us, Trent breaks the silence by asking, “What do we do?”
“I don’t know,” Dickers says, and I catch his eyes in the rearview mirror.
The murder is still there, oh yes. But there’s also a touch of fear. And deep in my bones, I know fear is a dangerous thing in a man like him.
Especially now that I want to live and see James again.
“Can you call the Russians and ask them for help?” Jacob asks.
Dickers laughs at that and shakes his head.
Beside me, Trent squirms and seems to shrink in his seat.
Glancing back at Trent, Dickers continues to laugh, as if he finds something hilarious.
Growing irritated, Jacob asks, “What’s so funny?”
Looking over at Jacob and his angry face, Dickers’s laughter dies down a little, but dark amusement drips from his voice as he explains, “We can’t call the fucking Russians and ask them for help. After the shit that went down with Cronin, they want nothing to do with us.”
Jacob scowls at him. “Are you sure? Maybe you could explain and make a new deal with them. Maybe there’s something—”
“I’m fucking sure,” Dickers snaps, cutting Jacob off. “They’re just as likely to kill us as the men boxing us in. Their big guy, Alexei, got fucking burned alive because of the shit Cronin pulled.”
Like his son, Jacob shrinks back.
“All of our backup is unreachable. Either dead or incapacitated,” Dickers goes on like he’s trying to bash Jacob in with his words. “We can’t call into the station for help now because I’ll have to explain what the fuck happened to the team, and I don’t know what the fuck happened to the team. Plus they’ll want answers about her, and I’m pretty fucking sure she isn’t going to clear us of any of this shit!”
“We’re fucked. Totally fucked,” Trent groans.
As if the universe wants to show them just how fucked they are, the black car to our left starts to squeeze in on us.
“What the hell?” Dickers growls as the cars around us force us off the exit. “Where the hell are they taking us? There’s nothing out here…”