Page 47 of Blood Money

“Alex!”

Gray. She nearly sagged with relief.

“Someone tried to grab us on the subway. They’re still following us.” Her voice was shaky, partly because she was all but running down a busy Manhattan sidewalk and partly from outright fear.

“I’m half a block away. Stay calm.” Gray’s voice echoed his words. Steadfast, a soothing balm to her mind shrieking in terror. “I see you and Nicky on the opposite side of the street. I’m in a blue Chevy Impala. Dom is behind me in a tan Durango.”

“Please hurry.” She looked over her shoulder to see her pursuers eating up the distance between them. Without disconnecting the call, she shoved her phone into her pocket and picked Nicky up to carry him.

“Mommy, who’s following us?” His face reflected what she was feeling. Fear.

Looking up, Alex caught sight of a dark blue sedan weaving in and out of traffic. The sedan cut across three lanes, sending other cars veering to avoid a collision. Brakes screeched. Horns honked. The blue sedan drove halfway onto the sidewalk, cutting off the pursuers. The driver’s side window rolled down.

“Get in!” Gray shouted from the open window.

Alex flung open the door behind Gray and shoved Nicky onto the seat. She slid in after him and slammed the door shut.

Tires screeched as Gray shoved the car into reverse. The car jerked from side to side as it backed off the sidewalk. Loud honking sounded all around them. Alex clasped Nicky tightly in her arms. The car rocketed forward, flinging them back against the seat.

“Get down!” Gray yelled to Alex over his shoulder. “Dom, chase those assholes down. Do not let them get away.”

“Ten-four,” Alex heard over the police radio. “Those boys took off in the other direction.”

Hunkered low in the seat as she and Nicky were, Alex couldn’t see where they were headed but felt the car weave in and out of traffic at a high rate of speed. It was all she could do to keep them both from landing on the floor.

A few minutes later, the car picked up more speed, no longer shifting lanes. Looking over Gray’s shoulder, she could see they were racing up the West Side Highway.

“Mommy, what’s going on?” Nicky’s worried face stared up at her.

“Shhh, baby. It’s all right.” She stroked his hair, holding him protectively against her. “Everything’s going to be fine.”

“You’ve got company,” Alex heard Dom announce over the radio. “White van closing fast. Assholes made it to their wheels before I could stop them.”

“Shit.” Gray glanced again in his rearview mirror. “Alex, get on the floor and don’t get up until I say so.”

She did as he commanded, sliding to the floor of the sedan, hugging Nicky to her. “Sweetie, I’m so sorry. It will be okay, I promise.”

Alex prayed she would actually be able to keep that promise. She had to trust that Gray would protect them. And she did. No matter what, she believed in him, that he would fight to the death to keep her and Nicky safe. Even with everything that had come between them, that was his way.

The car picked up more speed, occasionally swerving left and right. A moment later, she heard gunshots. She knew the sound from when she lived in the Bronx, where gunshots were a weekly occurrence.

Next a loud boom. An explosion?

The radio crackled with Dom’s voice. “Threat neutralized. The van took a dive over the guardrail. I got this. Keep going.”

“Ten-four, you good?” Gray’s voice was eerily calm, given the circumstances.

The radio squawked. “Good as gold.”

Gray looked down to where Alex and Nicky were huddled on the floor of the car. “You can get up now.”

Tentatively, Alex pushed herself upright, pulling Nicky with her onto the seat. Big brown eyes looked up at her as she stroked a lock of hair from Nicky’s forehead. “Are you all right, sweetie?”

Nicky nodded and hugged her tightly. She helped him out of his backpack then eased him onto her lap, rocking him in her arms. She sucked in a shaky breath then turned in the seat to look behind her. A plume of gray smoke spiraled upward from around a bend in the highway. “What happened back there?”

“They chased us,” Gray said as he changed lanes. “That’s why they bolted when I picked you up, so they could get their wheels. The van went over the guardrail.”

Alex met Gray’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “Are they—are they dead?”