Two bikers approached on each side, bullets coming from both sides. Trying to disorient me.
“Hang on!” I shouted.
As soon as they were close enough and shooting, I jerked the wheel to the right and hit the brakes, I clipped one of the assholes and sent him flying through the air.
“Oh!” Vanessa wrapped both arms around her head, shielding herself from the bullet or the sound, I couldn’t tell. All I knew was that she was shaken. Terrified.
“You all right?”
“Yeah, just shaken up. A little.”
“It’d be weird if you weren’t.” It had taken me a long time to get used to the sound of bullets flying around me, and that was only after the government put in tons of time and money to train me.
“We’re a long way from Ashby Manor, but it’s our best and safest bet. Just keep your head down.”
Three bikes still followed, too fucking close for comfort, and I had to slow down my pounding heart in order to focus. Eyes on the road. Hands on the wheel.
A bullet shattered the back window. “Shit!”
The roar of one of the engines came close. Too close.
“Stay down, Nessa!” I reached over to shove her down again but the stubborn woman ignored me and slid away from me, curling her legs up to retrieve something from the glove compartment.
A moment later, she produced a plain black nine millimeter.
“It was a gift from Lance. Never used it,” she said as she checked the bullets and disengaged the safety. “But I clean and load it regularly.”
With a nervous smile on her face, Vanessa hit the button to open the window and stuck her hands out, turning towards the two bikers on the right.
“Deep breath and squeeze, deep breath and squeeze” she whispered to herself and pulled the trigger.
“Holy shit, I got one of ’em!” she squealed. A wide, childish smile appeared on her face as she turned to me with a little shimmy.
“Shit, good job, babe.” Her accuracy was impressive and I swear, I fell a little more in love with her in that moment. “Now, get down. Please. There’s still two more assholes back there.”
“Oh, fine,” she growled and slid back down to the tiny space between the passenger seat and the glove compartment.
My foot pressed down on the gas so hard I felt a cramp starting to form in my right calf muscle, but I kept going, knowing that getting as close to Ashby Manor as possible was our best chance of survival. It’s time to start packing that heat. If things stayed like this with Vanessa, then I would have to be prepared to keep her safe whenever.
Wherever.
Two bikers still followed us, close but not so close now that they knew we would fight back. Instead of charging straight ahead, I slowed down and swung the ass of the car from left to right, forcing the bikers to slow down to avoid falling over. It wouldn’t keep them away for long, but I needed time to think.
“You got any backup ammo in here?”
She smiled and nodded. “Just a box. Maybe another in the trunk.”
One of the bikers kept shooting while the other gained on the right, pulling up right beside Vanessa, close enough that I saw his kutte. Black Jacks, just as I suspected.
“Gun,” I ordered and held one hand out but she hesitated as the biker started smacking the window. “Vanessa! Gun!”
Her blue eyes snapped up to meet mine and she nodded absently.
“Right. Here you go.”
Fumble.
The gun fell to the floor before it hit my hands, and I felt a sense of dread wrap around me when I spotted the two bikers heading right towards us.
“Stay calm, babe.” I wanted to tell her it would be fine, but I couldn’t, not when it looked like we were about to be ambushed by more bikers. With my foot pressed down on the gas, I braced myself for impact.
It never came.
I heard more gunshots. But they weren’t aimed at us. I slammed on the brakes and looked behind me. I saw two bikers still standing and two lay on the ground. I eased the car over to the side of the road.
“What the fuck?” It didn’t make sense, and I stared in the mirror at the scene behind us, trying to figure out what in the hell had just happened.
“What? What’s going on?” Slowly, Vanessa unfolded her body and tried to look at the road without being seen.
I had no fucking clue, but I watched the two men walk forward to the car.
“Gun, Vanessa. Now.” My words were short and low, leaving no room for arguments. This time, she quickly retrieved the gun from the footwell and pressed it into my hand, and I aimed it at one of the men, knowing I could only get one of them before they downed one of us.