Chapter 4 - The Highway Ambush
BANG!
The heavy armored vehicle lurched forward as a massive lifted pickup truck rammed us from behind, sparks flying across the wet highway as metal ground against metal.
"Report!" I barked instantly, pulling my sidearm and leaning over Leo to shield his body with my own torso.
"Two heavy trucks closing in on our flanks, Boss!" Viktor shouted from the front passenger seat, pulling an assault rifle from the center console. "They cut off our lead escort! It's Moretti's heavy enforcers!"
Outside, automatic gunfire erupted through the night, heavy caliber rounds slamming against our bulletproof glass, creating spiderweb fractures across the rear windows.
Rachel screamed, pulling Leo down into the footwell beneath her, covering his head with her arms. "Victor!"
"Stay down!" I commanded, reaching across to pull a heavy ballistic blanket over both of them. "Viktor, take out their front axle! Don't let them pin us against the guardrail!"
Our driver slammed on the brakes, causing the pickup truck attempting to pit-maneuver us to overshoot our side. Viktor lowered his window two inches, poking the barrel of his rifle through the rain slit, and fired a three-round burst directly into the pickup's front tire.
The truck's tire exploded violently at eighty miles an hour. The heavy vehicle flipped sideways, rolling three times across the slick highway before slamming into the concrete median in a massive fireball.
"Clear on the left!" Viktor yelled.
"Keep driving!" I ordered. "Get us to the mountain pass!"
As our driver accelerated through the wreckage, I looked back down at the floorboards. Leo was trembling, his small hands clutching Rachel’s coat, but he wasn't screaming. He was looking up at me with those golden-brown eyes—frightened, yes, but watching how I moved, how I protected them.
I reached down, resting my heavy hand over Rachel’s shoulder, feeling the frantic shaking of her body.
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"I won't let them touch you," I promised, my voice cutting through the smell of hot engine oil and gunpowder inside the cabin. "I lost ten years with you, Rachel. I am not losing another second."
She looked up at me through her tears, her hand reaching out from under the blanket to cover mine—a tiny, fragile touch that felt like the first ray of sun after a decade of winter.
