A pause. “Something.” Ember jerked her head toward her window. “Fucking gunship.”
I felt my pulse race as Artur and Grigori both lunged at the window I was now glued to, squinting just over the tree line where a damn gunship flew dangerously low, stalking us at a safe distance. A masculine string of violent curses filled the air. Daniil was already hitting the button to lower the partition to the driver, growling, “Get us there as fast as possible.” He rolled up the window I had been staring through.
Grigori was on the phone. “Zane, it’s Grigori. Listen, we’ve got a gunship coming at us that must have been hidden in the damn woods somewhere. We’re less than twenty minutes out from the house. You need to get to us as soon as possible.” He hung up.
I thumped the window, stating as calmly as I could, “It’s not getting any closer. Why the hell not?” I paused, and it occurred to me just why it wasn’t advancing when it was already too late. Rounding a corner, we all saw why through the front window a hundred and fifty yards ahead. There was a damn blockade of at least fifteen trucks and SUVs in our path, men everywhere with assault rifles aimed at us.
And that’s when the gunship started rapidly advancing.
“Jesus Christ,” Roman choked, staring wide-eyed out the window.
Grigori flipped a panel down from the ceiling just as gunfire exploded at us.
Ember jerked as a hail of bullets hit the limo.
Grigori murmured under his breath, “Code. Code. What the fuck is the code?” His fingers hovered in front of a clear glass piece with numbers on it.
I was staring, shocked, out the front window as bullets hit the limo, nothing piercing its armor, thank fuck.
“Move,” Daniil ordered harshly and moved Grigori to the side.
Daniil typed in the code. The clear screen lit green.
Grigori shook his head, still staring at the screen. “Papa, you are one sick bastard.”
“I know,” Daniil growled. He pressed in another set of numbers.
The screen turned red.
“What do you want me to do?” the driver called back, sounding too damn calm for the situation.
“Speed the fuck up and keep going,” Grigori shouted.
Something under my ass clicked. Ember and I stilled, staring down at the seat under us.
“Get up,” Grigori ordered over the racketing gunshots. We moved, and he lunged at the seat, pulling the connected bottom cushions forward, and then up.
Daniil ordered the driver, “You’re clear to fire on them.”
The driver hit buttons on his own panels, our car jerking hard. Three SUVs exploded from the blockade, and a machine gun lifted from a hidden compartment in the limo’s hood, rapidly firing in an arching motion in front of us. I fell into Daniil’s arms as my body started to tremble, and Grigori bent over and started pulling out an arsenal from the hidden compartment under the seat, tossing weapons at everyone as we crouched on the floor. He pulled two large duffels from its depths before slamming the seat back into place.
I glanced down at the weapons I had been given, one lone knife to hold between my bandaged hands, and actually felt a little jealous seeing that Ember had been given a—very illegal—machine gun. Grigori threw himself back into his seat while Ember and Roman started digging through the duffels. Daniil held my body close against him, crawling us back to our seat in preparation for us ramming through the SUVs that were on fire, not fifty yards away.
And then we both saw it through the back window.
I blinked.
Daniil shouted, “Incoming!”
Everyone’s gazes darted where we were staring before they all exploded into action.
A fucking missile blasted from the gunship that flew right over the road behind us.
The driver yanked the wheel hard to the right.
Daniil slammed us down onto the floor.
Grigori grabbed Ember and Eva, throwing their bodies down right next to us.
