“Oh,shit, for reals?” Then he coughed, tried to sound less excited. “Yeah, we’re on it.”
“Watch for the tail and don’t take out our fucking tires. We’re coming in from the north.” I disconnected. “You okay?” I asked Aidan again, while I weaved in and out of traffic. It was still early evening, so at least there was no gridlock.
That would have been a death sentence.
“Aidan,” I barked. “You okay?”
He had his arms braced on the dash and he was pale, his lips moving. I saw then that he had his rosary in one hand pressed on the dashboard.
“Get your hand off there,” I said. “If the front airbag goes off, it could break your fingers.Now!” I barked, when he didn’t move fast enough.
“Please stop,” he begged.
“I stop, they kill us.”
“But the car isbulletproof!”
“Bulletresistant, and it ain’t smash proof. No, we got one chance—shit.” I swerved to avoid a car that had come to a stop at the traffic lights, then again to avoid getting T-boned by the traffic starting through the intersection from the other way. We were close, close to home, but every light on the dashboard that suggested something was wrong with the car was blazing and flashing.
And the Hummer, when I glanced in the mirror again, was closing on us.
I threw the town car around a corner as late as I could—one last chance to throw off the Hummer—but with screaming tires it made the turn too, and the noise of shattering glass and crunching metal from the cars it took out along the way echoed down the street.
“Teo,” Aidan pleaded. “Please—”
Please what, I didn’t know and didn’t have time to find out. I took one last turn back onto Fifth Avenue and floored it. I could see the townhouse stoop three blocks down, could see my brothers running out onto the road, taking up positions, but the Hummer had made up the distance by just smashing through things where I had tried to swerve, and had caught up. It smacked into the back of the car, and I had to fight with the wheel to keep the car straight.
“—pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death,” Aidan gasped out.
It was the perfect time for a Hail Mary, I figured. The town car couldn’t take another hit; the engine was already smoking and I was pretty sure that front wheel had blown. I pushed the car forward again in one last attempt to get away from the Hummer and she responded with her last breath, putting a few extra feet between us and our assailant.
“Get ready,” I told Aidan, but behind us came a great squeal of brakes as the Hummer peeled off down a side-street.
I struggled to keep hold of the wheel, but the town car had had it. The only option I had was to brake hard and keep Aidan as protected as possible. I took my hands off the non-responsive steering wheel and twisted to throw my arms over Aidan, pressing him back into the seat. The car pinballed off a parked van, careened up onto the footpath, and slammed into the brick wall surrounding Central Park.
The front airbags exploded as we hit, punching me hard in the side where I was half-turned toward Aidan. But all the pain died away as I held Aidan there, shivering and panting, his face hidden in my neck. I put my mouth close to his ear. “Still with me?”
He gave a muffled noise of assent.
I wasn’t sure what had happened behind us since the car had dovetailed with the wall.
“You were right,” he said softly.
“Huh?”
“The airbags. I didn’t realize they went off so…hard…”
He was in shock, I decided. I could hear sirens by then but they were several blocks away; it figured that the cops would time showing up until justafterall the shit went down. “Are you hurt?” I moved back a little and hissed as a sudden pain in my ribs caught me by surprise.
“Areyou?” He reached over to move his hands over my side carefully.
“Yeah, I’m—ah.” I winced as he touched a tender spot. “I’ll be fine if you quit doing that.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, looking up at me. It hurt to try to move away, so I didn’t. His lips were slightly apart, pinking up as he bit the bottom one.
For one crazy moment I thought about biting it myself.
A rapping at the window startled us both, and I had to swallow down another noise of pain as I automatically grabbed for my weapon. But it was just Carlucci, his face fierce and angry. I gave him a thumbs-up and tried the door handle on Aidan’s side. It took Carlucci a few tries to wrench it open.
