Page 84 of The Fighter
She threw her hands up. “I don’t know. Maybe we went outside to investigate the noise from the drone. With this rain it would make sense to leave our wristbands inside.”
I raised my wrist. “Mine is waterproof.”
“Yeah, but maybe you forgot that detail.” Laura shrugged. “Remember that time when Magni knocked out Solomon and threatened to kill Marco?”
“Yeah. I mean, I was a kid but I remember.” I felt awful when I silenced my wristband, which kept buzzing with Leo’s calls.
“Well, Magni has gotten a little calmer with age, but the emphasis would be onlittle.”
The sound of three loud shots had Laura jumping in her seat and me clinging to my armrest.
“What the fuck was that?” She stared at me with wide eyes.
“I don’t know, but we’ve got to get the hell out of here.” I was pushing the button to make the drone start up again and this time I didn’t care about the clacking sound it made.
Laura screamed when a man stepped in front of the drone and pointed a large firearm directly at the window. He was drenched and with the heavy rain on the windows, his features looked distorted. “Raven, tell me this drone is bulletproof.”
“It’s not.” I couldn’t take off and risk him shooting us.
A sound of someone trying to open the door on my side made me jerk and turn my face to see a bald man stare at me and slowly let the tip of what looked like a large bear gun slide up the window until it was pointing straight at my face. “Open,” he mouthed and tapped at the locked door.
“I have a man on my side too.” Laura’s voice was low and shaky. “I see three men, Raven. Two of them have Bear Guns and the last has a Gut Cleaner. My numb-gun is no match.”
“I only brought a knife and my smallest gun.” My eyes were still on the man staring at me through the window in the door. Again, he tapped his gun on the window and this time he was shouting loud enough for us to hear. “Open the fucking door.”
“This one looks out of shape. I think I can take him.”
Laura whispered back, “Raven, no. What if they shoot?”
She was right. Laura and I were great fighters, but so were most Nmen and we were outnumbered. I swallowed hard. “Maybe they just want the drone.”
“Yeah, there’s no way they would dare touch us.” Laura’s voice didn’t have her normal ring of certainty to it. “Our best chance is talking with them.”
Laura opened the door slowly and when the man waved his gun signaling for us to come out, I climbed out on her side thinking we were safer if we stuck close together.
“Where are your protectors?” The man who had been in front of the drone had bushy eyebrows and a blond beard.
“They are on their way.” I looked the man straight in the eye when I told him.
He narrowed his eyes and spat on the ground. “I can recognize a lie when I hear one.”
“There’s a problem with the drone so we’re being picked up by our husbands.” Laura swiped rain from her face while I stuffed my hands in my back pockets to look relaxed and hide that I wasn’t wearing a wedding band.
“What kind of husbands let their wives fly around without protection?” Mr. Bushy Eyebrows waved his bear gun, signaling for us to step away from the drone.
I was quick to answer, “I’m sure you’ve heard of Leo da Vinci, who’s a police inspector, and if not, you’ll know Laura’s husband, Magni Aurelius.”
They all stared at her for a second before the bald man smirked. “Nice try, but I’ve seen the Commander’s wife on the news and that’s not her.”
“I assure you that I’m Laura Aurelius.”
“No, you’re not,” the man scoffed. “Laura is much shorter than you and she…” The bald man looked to the others for help. “It’s not her, right?”
“Na-huh. The commander’s wife has red hair, hers is brown.”
“That’s because of the rain, you moron, and I only look short next to Magni because he’s so bloody big.”
The third man was irritated and spoke with a nasal voice like he had a cold. “They think we’re imbeciles. As if the Commander would ever let his wife fly around without an escort.” He snorted and pointed to the large barn. “Let’s take them back to the farm and then we’ll decide what to do with them.”
