Chapter 10 #2
Before I know it, we’re heading out of the main part of town toward the Southern Highlands, where Patrick’s house is. This isn’t how I expected to go there, but I’m glad we aren’t waiting to find out if there’s a problem.
A sudden jerk has me hitting the limit of the seatbelt.
“Down,” Hayes orders me, and I lean over my knees and start to pray for my and my possible baby’s safety.
Gunfire erupts around us, but the SUV holds its own. The windows show a cloudiness from the glass being impacted by bullets.
“Son of a bitch,” Hayes yells. Then the SUV jerks hard before it feels like we’re airborne.
We land hard, and glass and debris explode around me as I scream. I hear grunts from the front, then nothing but the beeping of an alarm and breathing.
“Daria, are you okay?”
“I think so,” I tell Hayes as I shake my head.
We’re on our side. My seatbelt is holding me in place. I hear a groan and look up to see Sloane hanging from his seatbelt, his head lulled to the side before he finally jerks.
“They’re coming in,” Sloane says from his upper position, and I watch as Hayes moves from being seated and belted in front of me to slipping between the seats and coming to stand over me.
Sloane unbuckles and falls to the passenger side before standing with a gun aimed at the driver’s side that is in the air. Hayes reaches behind me and pulls something up to cover me. I realize it’s a bulletproof vest.
I hear the saw before I see the blade cut through the door. Sloane waits until the door is opened before he fires his gun. There’s a grunt, and then bullets fly around the cab of the vehicle.
“Come out with no guns, or we’ll kill you all,” a thick Irish-accented voice says.
“Broderick, Paddy is on his way. He will kill you for this.”
“I’m already a dead man as far as he’s concerned. I know he has Eireen. She’ll tell him about his parents. So, he will kill me. Save yourself, Hayes, and come out with the Russian bitch.”
“You’ll have to kill me.”
“No, Hayes.” I look up at him. “I don’t want you to die for me.”
“Listen to her, Hayes. Save yourself.”
I lower my voice. “Is he really on his way?”
Hayes nods.
“Send him to find me.” I hold up my wrist with all the bangles on it, knowing Patrick will find me. “I’ll come out, but you can’t hurt my guards anymore,” I yell loud for Broderick to hear me.
“I agree,” Broderick says.
“I don’t agree to this,” Hayes says.
“I won’t have any more deaths because of me.”
I unbuckle my belt and stand up. Pain radiates throughout my body, but I have to ignore it to make it through this. I just hope my baby is safe.
Arms reach in, and Hayes reaches up to take them so that he’s pulled out first. He reaches in to help me up. As he pulls me close, he whispers in my ear. “Stay alert. I don’t trust him. Patrick will find you.”
As soon as Hayes has me off the side of the SUV and I’m walking toward Broderick, I hear gunfire and swing around.
“Hayes,” I yell when I see him on the ground.
I start to run for him, but I’m grabbed hard by a man I recognize as one of Patrick’s soldiers. His grip is right over my bruised flesh from March. He pulls me away, and I’m twisted around to face another man. He’s about five-foot-nine. In my heels, I’m looking him eye to eye.
“So, you’re the bitch my nephew is ready to start a war for.”
“Patrick will kill you for this.”
“Oh, sweetie, he’s going to kill me for so much more. But him watching you die will be my revenge.” He looks at the soldier. “Do you have the signal jammer for her bracelet?”
“Yeah. I heard Hayes gave it to her a couple of weeks ago, after the shooting.”
“That’s where I know you from.” I spit at the soldier. “You were there after Patrick was almost shot. You’re dead too.”
“I don’t care. You and your tainted blood are going to ruin our family.” He grips my jaw tightly. “But I’m going to enjoy finding out why Paddy had to keep you.”
None of them know we’re married. I don’t wear my rings at work, so they aren’t on my fingers.
But the fact they have a signal jammer means that neither Hayes’s nor Patrick’s bracelets will be able to help me.
I also realize my phone is in the inner pocket of my wool jacket I’m wearing.
No wonder they aren’t taking it from me.
Broderick steps over to an Escalade and starts to get in.
“Put her in the trunk of the car. When we get to the yard, move her into the car. He won’t make it on time. Let’s get out of here before he shows up.”
The soldier drags me to a large, old vehicle that saw its better days about twenty years ago and opens the trunk. It’s huge, and he pushes me toward it.
“Don’t make me hit you. Get in.”
I’m about to fight him when I see the signal jammer in the trunk. I climb in and use my coat to cover it so he doesn’t realize it’s there. If I can figure out how to turn it off, Patrick will be able to find me.
Patrick
As soon as my phone pinged, I knew it was going to be bad. But pulling up to the scene and seeing the carnage has me jumping out before the SUV comes to a complete stop.
I spot Hayes’s body and rush over to him. He groans and gets up. I see where a bullet grazed the side of his head and several impacted his vest.
“Check on Sloane.” He groans again. “She let them take her because he promised not to kill us.”
“Son of a bitch.”
“It was the better option. He would have killed her to get her out of there.”
“I’m okay,” Sloane yells, and men help him out. He’s got a bullet in his shoulder and is all banged up, but he’s alive.
“Where did he take my sister?” Alek demands.
“I hit my head, so I didn’t see anything else. But that asshole Bolt was with him. He turned on you. He knows I gave her that bracelet.”
“That’s why the signal is dead.”
We’re trying to figure out how to get the equipment we need to read the VHF tracking chip I have in her shoes when all of a sudden I hear a loud ringtone. It’s the song from Suicide Squad called “Wreak Havoc.” I know that’s Daria’s favorite movie.
“Daria, where are you?” Alek answers the phone on speaker.
“I’m in the trunk of a car. I just disabled the signal jammer. Can you find me? Tell Patrick I love him and that I’m trying to stay safe, but Broderick is planning to kill me while he watches. Don’t let him stop living if you don’t make it on time.”
“Daria, don’t you leave me,” I bark into the phone.
“Patrick, please know I forgive you if you can’t find me. I love you.” The line goes dead as we hear someone yelling. I know they found her.
I look down at my phone as her GPS signal pings, and I run for an SUV, not waiting for anyone.
The location isn’t far. I won’t allow her to give up on me. Alek, JJ, Jordon, and Hayes jump in with me before I take off.
“I don’t care. Kill Broderick as soon as you see him. He’s got her at an automobile junkyard where they crush cars. He purchased it years ago.” Other vehicles surround us, and I know the army is coming.
“I’ll stop the car crusher. That’s the only thing he could put her in where you’ll have to watch as she dies,” JJ says, and I nod.
“You and I are getting Daria,” I tell Alek. “My men will get Broderick and his men.”
“Andrei and the others are with us too.”
“I only care about my wife.”
Gravel sprays as we almost spin out when I yank the wheel and turn into the junkyard.
The car crusher is running, and before I even come to a complete stop near it, we’re all out.
Gunfire cracks around me. Bullets fly past, but I only have one focus.
The large ’80s-model Cadillac in the car crusher.
It’s the kind that doesn’t squeeze from the sides but comes down from the top. I watch the trunk, where my wife was last, start to be crushed, and her screams tear through the air as a bullet slams into my vest. I don’t care. I stay on my feet and keep running. She is my only priority.
The crusher stops as more gunfire erupts. Something tells me to check the back seat while Alek goes for the trunk. Sure enough, when I open the door, she’s lying along the floorboard. I pull my wife out and hold her tight. I’m never letting her go again. No one can protect her like I can and will.
Looking around as I step off the equipment, all I see are my soldiers, Bratva soldiers, and Italian soldiers too. Broderick and his men are all dead or dying on the ground.