Page 94 of Coup De Grâce
I felt it in my feet first. That steady rumble as an explosion went off, vibrating up my bones, rattling every cell in my body. The sound came second—the detonations that sounded more like an earthquake mixed with fireworks on the Fourth of July.
I distantly heard the guys shouting, but a sharp, piercing sound cut through all of that as a plume of dust surrounded me, followed by a wave of power so strong that it knocked me off my feet, sending me flying through the air.
My arms whirled as I grasped at anything I could, desperate not to be flattened like a pancake from flying debris. My body hit the ground hard, my back taking the brunt of the impact, sending shocks through my body.
Smoke and dust coated my lungs, making it impossible to breathe or see. A loud ringing was the only sound I heard as I forced my body into a sitting position.
I pressed my finger to my ear, but the comm piece was gone. “Thumper!” I shouted, though the words were muffled to my own ears. Searching through the dust, I couldn’t find any of my guys, and moving was painful at best.
Still, I shoved to my feet, ignoring the throbbing in my back and the way something pinched in my spine. I stumbled a few steps before I finally saw FNG lying on the ground, apool of blood spreading out beneath his head. I stumbled in his direction only to stop when I saw a man standing in the distance, staring directly at me.
I couldn’t tell who he was. Not at first. Not until I saw the telltale signs of the man I had been working with only days before.
Iron.
He had been on the secondary team. Positioned on another rooftop, he had been there as backup, but he must have been the one to take the shot. As I looked one last time at FNG’s prone body, I knew I had only one choice. The farther away from him, the better. Anyone close to me would end up dead.
Turning, I sprinted in the other direction, racing out into the street to escape the man on my heels. It was by sheer luck that I spotted a man getting out of a vehicle, dropping something on the ground, giving me just enough time to slip into the driver’s side and snatch the keys from his grasp.
He shouted something in a foreign language as I started the car and hit the gas, tearing down the street. It wasn’t long before headlights behind me illuminated the night, swerving around traffic to catch up with me. I was unfamiliar with the roads, and even less familiar with the vehicle I was currently driving. It pulled to the right as I took a hard left, narrowly avoiding crashing into a vehicle that was passing a parked car.
I drove up on the sidewalk, honking the horn as a pedestrian darted out of my path just in the nick of time. The vehicle chasing me slammed into the bumper, sending me lurching into a sign on the side of the road. It broke in half, flying over the top of the car as I hit the gas and took a hard right down a narrow alley.
I thanked my lucky stars for the tiny vehicle I was driving, which was way too small for my body. If I had been in one of ourminivans, I never would have made it down this alley without wedging it between the buildings.
Slamming my palm on the horn as I burst out onto another street, I swerved to avoid the sudden onset of foot traffic. I had no idea why there were so many people out at night, or what they were doing, but the chaos was making my escape nearly impossible.
I laid on the horn, desperate to get them out of the way, when I was hit again from behind, sending me into a spin that I fought desperately to control. As the car slowed, I hit the gas again, powering through the crowd and honking at them to move.
As they cleared, I took another side road, turning at the last second and losing my tail. I hit the gas, taking advantage of the clear street. I had no idea where I was going, but with no one on my ass, it was the only chance I had to escape with no one tailing me.
Flames caught my attention, giving me some orientation on my position. I was headed north, just outside the city?—
The jarring impact as a vehicle slammed into the passenger side of my stolen ride rattled my brain. I desperately clasped onto the steering wheel, trying to control the vehicle, but it was too late. The force of the hit tipped the car I was driving, sending me into a roll that I had no hope of containing.
Glass sprayed around me, my head slammed into the window with the force of what felt like a thousand tons, and something dug into my leg, sending pain coursing down the entire side of my body as I was flung around the car like a ping pong ball.
When the car finally landed one final time on its side, it rocked precariously before coming to settle on the roof. Silence replaced the roar of the crash, and smoke filled the air, but it was the ominous set of footsteps outside the vehicle that spurred me into motion.
With all the strength I could muster, I pushed myself off the roof of the car, my neck aching as shooting pain zinged down my spine. Fuck, I shouldn’t be moving, but the price of staying where I was would be death.
Glass crunched beneath me as I grunted, moving as quickly as my body would allow. I fumbled at my hip, desperate to find my gun, but my hand-eye coordination was on the fritz, and the world spun around me as I shoved my way out of the vehicle.
I stumbled to my feet, gazing through a haze of red that flowed freely over my eye. I grabbed the metal of the car, trying to hold myself upright as dizziness washed over me. With an uncertain breath, I turned at the sound of the feet behind me.
Iron stood there, a gun hanging loosely in his hand as he eyed me. “You fucked up.”
Words ceased to exist as my mind sluggishly told me to do something before this man put a bullet in my head.
“Your old man wants a word with you.” He shrugged, glancing away. “That’s if I decide to let you?—”
The shot from my gun rang out in the night like a firecracker. I hadn’t even realized that I pulled my weapon until my enemy fell to the ground with a bullet between his eyes.
Coughing, I ignored the tang of blood that filled my mouth. He was dead, but I would be too if I didn’t get to a safe house soon. Turning on my heel, I limped off into the night, hoping I would find someplace safe to stay before I passed out and was never seen again.
28
CASH
