“Reno?” Her voice was barely a whisper.
Reno had to lean all the way down to her mouth to be able to hear her. “Yes, babe, it’s me. It’s your husband. It’s me. You’re going to be just fine.”
“Take me home,” she said as tears fell from the sides of her eyes. “I wanna go home, Reno.”
Reno’s heart dropped. Because he could see in her eyes and hear in her voice that something was terribly wrong. Something horrific. And it had nothing to do with her injuries.
“Okay, babe,” he said as he squeezed her hand and fought back his own tears. “I’ll make arrangements right away. Don’t you worry about that. You’re going home with me, you hear me? You’re going home.”
And when Trina actually found a way to smile at him, his heart soared. And he was more determined than ever that evenif everything Javon told him was the truth and nothing but the truth, he was still standing with Trina. She was his road dog although he rarely took her anywhere. She was his ride or die even though he didn’t deserve the loyalty she always showed to him. He was standing by her. No matter what, he was never deserting Trina.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
There was a convoy of SUVs in the front and back of the medical ambulance, with a helicopter hovering above for air support, as they journeyed from the hospital to the PaLargio. It had been forty-eight hours since Trina first opened her eyes and spoke those words to Reno, and the chief surgeon finally gave his okay for the move.
That same surgeon was onboard to make certain she remained in stable condition during the move home or Reno agreed that they would return her to the hospital. But she was fine. She was even sitting up on the adjustable bed with Reno seated on one side of her, still holding her hand, and the chief surgeon on her other side.
Tommy and Sal were also in the back of the ambulance, riding shotgun, while Mick was monitoring convoy activity on an iPad. He was looking for trouble. But there was nothing out of the ordinary. It was a smooth ride home.
Monk Paletti was also in the ambulance, riding shotgun on the front passenger seat alongside the EMT who was driving the vehicle.
All was going well. The traffic was light enough at that time of the day, and there were no slowdowns or traffic jams. They were on a glidepath straight to the PaLargio.
Until Mick heard what he thought was a tire squeal. He immediately looked on the iPad’s security monitors. At the back of the convoy he saw the last SUV suddenly lift up and flip on its side as if it had suffered a silent attack, and then it started sliding across the highway.
“We got a hit!” Mick yelled out as the next to last SUV lifted up and slammed on its side too. “They’re working from the back up!”
“Where’s incoming?” Sal asked as he and Tommy grabbed their weapons and began to look out of the side windows.
“I can’t tell yet,” Mick said. “But they’re working from the back to the front.”
“Frankie take the wheel!” Reno was yelling as he began hurrying toward the front too. “We’ve got to get out of formation,” he yelled as the third SUV in the back took a hit, too, and flipped on its side.
But just as Monk was making the move to take the wheel, the EMT driving the ambulance was shot in the throat from bullet that flew in through the windshield, and Monk was shot in the arm, causing him to grab his arm and duck.
At the same time, the chopper hovering above the ambulance was struck, too, and it twirled around and crash-landed on the roof of the ambulance.
“Gotdammit, that’s close!” Sal yelled in shock when they heard the deafening crash just above their heads.
“Get out of formation!” Mick was yelling, too, as he threw down his tablet and pulled out his shotgun.
Reno was hurrying even faster toward the front when he saw that the driver was dead and Monk was incapacitated. Although Monk had been hit, he was still attempting to push the EMT off of the driver seat so that he could take over. But the man was too big and one arm couldn’t cut it.
Reno took his feet and shoved the big man out of the door as he plopped down on the driver seat. He was ducking and dodging incoming firepower as he slung the ambulance to the right with all the might he had, causing it to ride on two wheelsas he turned down a side street and got out of formation. He had slung it so hard that the crashed chopper flew off of the roof.
But Reno knew what he was doing. Trina was in that ambulance and no way was she going through all that shit she’d just went through only to die on her way home. In Reno’s eyes, there was zero chance of that happening!
“It’s a drone attack,” Tommy finally said when he saw the source of the incoming. And their following the ambulance. “It’s a drone attack!”
“How many?” Mick asked as he pulled an improvised explosive device out of his white coat and attached it to his shotgun.
“Two,” said Tommy. “I see two. One to the right. One to the left.”
“Shoot at the right one,” Mick said, and Sal and Tommy started aiming their guns at the one on the right. As they fired, they could see movement from the drone, but their bullets weren’t affecting the drone’s trajectory.
But when Mick aimed his enhanced shotgun at the left-side drone and fired, it had the power to rip it apart. It dropped from the sky.
As Tommy and Sal continued to fire on the right-side drone with enough firepower to keep it discombobulated although not disabled, Mick loaded up another IED and fired it at that second drone. It tore apart midair too.
