Chapter 33
Nolan fought like a man possessed. And he was. He needed to find Helena and needed to find her now. Every man attacking the café stood in his way of doing so.
“They took them!” Nolan yelled, taking down another man.
Kuol and Abu shared a look, and Nolan was heartbroken that two teenagers were in the middle of this fight.
However, Helena had told Nolan that Kuol had been her security when visiting South Sudan.
There was a reason for that. The young man did Ahmed proud, even as it hurt Nolan to watch the fact that someone so young had no innocence left.
“Jesus Christ!” Nolan shouted after the man he was fighting stabbed him. Nolan was able to move enough that the knife cut along his side, but not anything that would endanger his life.
“Not Jesus, just his messenger.”
“And his bride.”
Nolan looked up from where he was bleeding to see Father Ben, the former Special Forces Catholic priest, and a nun standing there. Father Ben’s knuckles were bleeding and there were two unconscious men at his feet. That and the nun was holding a bible like a club. What was going on?
“Sister Bernadette!” Fiza and Nafisa called out, rushing by the firefighters who had been protecting them. The café was filled with bodies of Garang’s men. Some were alive. Some were not.
They enveloped the nun in hugs as Flint strode to Nolan’s side. “We need to bandage that.”
“We don’t have time. They took Helena, Lamya, and Zarifa.” Nolan pushed the tables out of the way and cursed. “Flint! Get Jace back here. Zinnia is unconscious and bleeding from the head.”
“Zinnia!” Poppy screamed when she heard Nolan. She ran from the front of the café where she had just arrived with Yana and Eufrasia.
Jace shoved through the crowd and examined Zinnia, who was already waking up. “The baby?” Zinnia muttered.
“We’ll do an ultrasound, but its heartbeat is strong,” Jace told Zinnia as she fought to open her eyes.
“You’re pregnant?” Miss Lily gasped. She was holding a broom in her hand. Miss Daisy stood next to her with a wooden spoon, and Miss Violet with a spatula.
“Poppy, is your baby okay?” Zinnia muttered.
“Oh, sissy, we’re both safe. I’m just worried about you.”
“You’re both pregnant?” Miss Daisy practically shouted.
“Of course they are,” Miss Violet said with a roll of her eyes. “I told you the husbands were hovering more than normal. And Lucas wouldn’t stop showing me polar bear cub photos.”
Talon dropped to the ground next to his wife and pulled her into his lap. “I’ll kill them. Where are they?”
“I got them on my drone,” Ahmed called out.
Nolan and Talon rose from the kitchen floor. “Poppy?” Talon asked, but Poppy was already sitting down to take care of her sister while Jace examined her further.
“I want payback for what they did to my sister,” Poppy said, looking straight at her husband and then at Talon, “and I mean now, boys.”
Gone was the joking, smiling, polar-bear-loving man. Lucas looked lethal. “Where are they?” Lucas asked.
“Heading out of town to the north.” Ahmed turned the screen and Nolan, Talon, and Lucas watched the minivan speed down the road.
“They’ll be near the highway soon. What’s in that direction?” Talon asked.
“There’s a private airfield about twenty minutes from there,” Ahmed answered. “I bet that’s where they’re heading.”
“I’ll take the lead,” Talon said.
“Not without me.” Nolan was about to look away from the video when he saw with horror the minivan not turn with the curve of the road and smash head-on at full speed into a tree.
Several people screamed. Sister Bernadette and Father Ben said a quick prayer, but they were already on the move. “I have my medical bag in the car!” Sister Bernadette called out. “I’ll drive,” Father Ben said.
“We’ll bring the ambulance and fire truck,” Flint told Nolan.
“Take my car. You’ll get there faster. Nolan drives. He knows the roads better.” Ahmed handed him the key fob to his McLaren. Talon and Lucas each grabbed two guns before everyone made a scramble for their cars.
“How the hell will we all fit in this?” Talon asked looking down at the two-door sports car. “Screw it. Sit in my lap.”
Talon got in and then Lucas wedged himself onto Talon’s lap. Nolan got in, pressed the start button, and the engine purred to life. He stomped on the gas, expecting the chugging warm-up that his old truck had, but the sports car shot off and was over sixty in just seconds.
Behind him the sirens from the fire department sounded and a trail of car lights filled the night. “Hang on, Keeneston is coming,” Nolan whispered.
Helena blinked her eyes open. Everything was blurry and she couldn’t remember where she was, but something smelled like gas.
“Helena! Wake up, Helena. Please!”
Lamya. Why was Lamya with her?
“Helena, please! Garang is waking up.”
It all came back in a rush. The kidnapping, the threats of murder.
Garang, Zarifa, and the tree. Helena’s eyes shot open and even though everything was moving and she felt as if she would throw up, she saw what Lamya was talking about.
Garang lay in the center console between her and Lamya.
He was bleeding from where his head smashed into the dashboard, but he started to groan.
“Where’s Zar—” Helena didn’t finish the question. Her seatbelt was suddenly wrapped around her throat.
“I’m right here, you bitch.”
Lamya screamed and fought to get free, but both she and Helena were trapped by airbags, seatbelts, and the front of the crumpled minivan.
Helena felt her air being choked off. Her lungs burned.
Her throat hurt. Her vision began to fade.
She couldn’t go out like this. She frantically felt around for anything that could help.
That’s when she felt it. The seat lever.
She pulled it up and slammed her body back.
The back of the driver’s seat flew back, slamming into Zarifa’s face.
The seatbelt loosened and suddenly Lamya shoved something into her hand.
It was a knife. A knife that had been in the hidden sheath of her dress.
Lamya couldn’t reach Zarifa, but Helena could now that her seat was reclined back.
Helena clenched her teeth, held on tight to the hilt, and stabbed the knife backward over her shoulder.
She felt it hit resistance, and then that resistance gave way.
Zarifa screamed, but Helena held on to the knife as Zarifa struggled.
“Hang on!” Lamya yelled, even as Helena felt her energy fade. “You can do it. Please, Helena, just hang on a little longer.”
Garang groaned again and Helena took a deep breath, holding on to consciousness the best she could until Zarifa stopped struggling. “Is she dead?”
“I don’t know, but she’s not moving.”
Helena yanked the knife free with a sickening feeling as it slid through flesh. Sirens sounded in the distance. “Are you hurt?” Helena asked.
“I’m stuck. I can’t get my seatbelt off. I think I might have a broken arm, but nothing too bad,” Lamya answered. “The dress seemed to stop any metal fragments from puncturing me.”
“Here,” Helena handed her the knife. “Cut yourself free.”
Lamya took the bloody knife and began sawing through the seatbelt.
Helena heard sirens and relief flooded her as much as the scent of gas.
But then Garang moved. Lamya screamed when his eyes popped open.
He lunged for Helena, his hands outstretched.
He grabbed the wheel and pulled himself up.
There was nowhere for Helena to go. She was practically lying flat as Garang flung himself on her and wrapped his hands around her throat.
“Get off of her!” Lamya yelled. Helena saw the knife arc through the air and then Garang roared as Lamya drove the knife into his back.
Suddenly the glass shattered next to her and Garang was yanked off her and out through the window.
Nolan had never hit speeds this fast before as he drove Ahmed’s sports car. He made it in record time. He didn’t even know if he’d made it to a complete stop before they were out of the car. His feet hadn’t even touched the ground yet when he heard Lamya’s scream to get off her.
Nolan grabbed his hatchet as Talon ordered Lucas to the passenger side. “Smash it,” Talon ordered, but Nolan was already swinging his hatchet into the glass.
The airbag curtain blocked their view, but that didn’t stop him from breaking the glass and reaching for the airbag.
Glass shards tore at his hands as he ripped the airbag at the same time Talon reached inside the minivan.
Talon was a big man, but he was so gentle with Zinnia that it was easy to forget he was with FBI Hostage Rescue.
Talon yanked Garang off of Helena and through the window as if he were nothing more than an annoying Chihuahua.
“Help!” Lamya screamed as Helena coughed and coughed.
“I got him. Go.” Talon growled between clenched teeth as he lifted Garang and slammed him onto the ground so hard the knife lodged deeper and the breath whooshed from his lungs. “You touched my wife and my baby. You won’t touch another person ever again.”
“Hel!” Nolan called out, trying to open the door. But the door wouldn’t open.
“Nolan! I smell gas,” Helena said between coughing fits.
“Lamya, close your eyes and cover your face,” Lucas ordered and then used the butt of his gun to smash her window after trying to get her door open and failing.
Nolan leaned into the window and reached down for the seatbelt. It was stuck and wouldn’t release. “Zarifa’s unconscious, but alive.”
“No!” Lamya cried out right as Zarifa’s eyes opened.
“Are you hurt?” Nolan asked her, but instead was greeted with a gun pointed right at him.
“Well, that’s a twist,” Lucas muttered before dropping to the ground and disappearing from view.