Chapter Four
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Cassie hit the brakesand threw the transmission into neutral, turning the wheel hard to the left.The Rover’s tires slid over the sandy asphalt as the big vehicle slung around to face the opposite direction.
Her stomach dropped as the vehicle coming at them from the north braked and cut across both lanes, blocking their escape.Behind them, both other vehicles had spun around too and were closing in from the rear.
She tapped her earpiece.“I’m being boxed in by three vehicles,” she said on comms.There was a small turnoff a few hundred yards to the south.If she could make it there, she might be able to cut past the pursuers and get away.Or, if necessary, hopefully lose them in the dunes.
“Where are you?”Tristan demanded, voice taut.
He and Ryder would be able to pinpoint their location using the tracker on the vehicle.“Access road just north of the dunes,” she said, cranking the wheel and spinning them back around to race south for the turnoff.Penny cried out but Cassie ignored her, all her focus on what was happening around her.“I need backupnow.”
The vehicles to the south suddenly angled across the road and screeched to a stop, blocking the lanes.Both passenger doors opened and two men wearing balaclavas jumped out holding rifles.
Her heart constricted, her focus divided on the threat ahead and her only escape route.The turnoff was still about fifty yards ahead—
She sucked in a breath when rounds pinged off the hood.Jesus.“We’re taking rifle fire.”What the hell was happening?
“Got your position.We’re coming to you.Can you get away?”Tristan sounded like he was running.
She instinctively ducked as a round hit the windshield and jerked the wheel.The shoulder was too narrow to drive on.Their only chance was getting to that turnoff.“Negative.”
Another round hit the passenger side of the windshield.The vehicle behind her was right on her ass.
She hit the brakes hard.“Two shooters ahead and another pursuer blocking us from behind.”As she said it, the vehicle behind them stopped and another man wearing a balaclava jumped out with a weapon.
They were in deep shit.
Using the vehicle as a weapon to ram them was too risky.Getting any closer might prove deadly.“Make that three shooters.”
“We’re in the vehicle.Ryder’s calling it in now,” Tristan said, voice urgent.“Hang tight.”
Cassie’s heart hammered out of control as more rounds punched into the Rover.She was out of options.Moving in either direction would put them closer to the shooters.
“Get on the floor and lie flat,” she ordered Penny as she drew her weapon.The pistol had a short range, was laughable protection against three men armed with rifles, but it was all she had.“Don’t move.”
She flinched as more rounds punched into the windshield, forming white spiderwebs around the impact sites in the bullet-resistant glass.Penny’s scream of terror raked over her already taut nerve endings.
Every second felt like an hour.Cassie calculated the damage as the seconds ticked past with agonizing slowness.The specialized glass and armor plating wouldn’t protect them indefinitely against rifle rounds.Ryder and Tristan had to get here fast, hopefully with help.“Just stay down.”Her voice sounded calm, but inside she was anything but.
More shots slammed into the rear window.Within seconds she had zero visibility through it.The plating and glass couldn’t take much more.Another minute, and bullets would shred the interior.
Fuck this.She couldn’t just leave them sitting here waiting to die.
She slammed the transmission back into drive, cranked the wheel and hit the accelerator, ready to run the gauntlet and ram through the single vehicle blocking the way north.“Brace yourself,” she warned and aimed straight for the lone shooter, steeling her body for the impending impact with the back of the SUV.
A barrage of rounds punched into the hood and windshield, obliterating her field of vision.
Swearing under her breath, unable to see a goddamned thing, she jerked the vehicle to a halt, shoving back the cold wave of fear crashing over her.This was it.They were blind and trapped.Their only chance was for her to make a stand, try to disable the shooter ahead to even the odds and give them a prayer at escape.
“We’re three miles away,” Tristan said through her earpiece.
