Stephanie hauled a dazed Grant Hemmings out of his car and helped him stand. “I’ve got you.” She really wanted to put her fist in his throat and hand him over to Vincent and the FBI, but the situation was still completely unstable. Sirens blared a couple blocks away, too far for her to drag Grant.
One block to her left, Arash pulled away in the second cargo van. She’d watched him fight with Hector and nearly get run down by David in the process. She also saw what his target was now. Olesk. But Arash had a van full of victims. How far would his need for revenge take him?
“Oh, thank God,” Grant slurred. “Get us out of here.” She threw open the side door of the minivan and let him tumble onto the third-row seat. He was swiveling to look out all the windows while mumbling, “The FBI? We paid our guy. Who could’ve called this in?”
She looked to where Arash was as she got into the driver’s seat, but he was already gone. Every screeching tire made her heart leap into her throat. Every second was life or death for her and Arash.
Stephanie shot the minivan forward and sped toward the last place she’d seen the FBI cars, but a dark presence cut her off. David veered just in front of the minivan and she swerved just in time to not get taken out. The Chevy swung around, piling black smoke behind it, then sped at her. She raced away and searched for any advantage against the more powerful car.
“Isn’t he with us?” Grant stared out the back window. “I’ve met him. What the hell is going on?”
Stephanie answered by veering hard to one side of the street. Grant slid across the bench seat and slammed into the sidewall. His eyes spun and he scrambled to grasp the nearest seat belt. Her move had thrown David for a second. He corrected and sped closer again. She took the minivan into a quick left turn that brought Grant hard into the opposite side of the minivan.
David pursued, face furious in the rearview mirror. He was angling her farther away from where she’d last seen Vincent and the FBI. With the Seventh Syndicate man as her cargo, her mission was so close to being complete. But the kids were still out there with Arash, his fate completely unknown.
The minivan rocked hard and the steering wheel was jarred from her grip. David had rammed them and was recoiling to do it again. She got the wheel back in her sore hands and righted the minivan before it fishtailed too hard. Her muscles burned as she regained control while plotting her next move. Instead of gaining speed, she slowed as if the minivan was still lost in a skid. She pulled it into a sideways drift and fought the forces trying to yank her out of her seat.
The side of the minivan would be the perfect prey for David. He bit at the bait she presented and his engine screamed. He sped closer with all the muscle under his hood. She pulled out of the drift and straightened out. He shot past the minivan, hopped a curb, lost contact with the ground and smashed down into the side of a loading dock. The car crumpled, nearly folding in half, spraying fluids and hissing smoke.
“Hey!” Grant shouted from the back seat. “Stop the car and tell me exactly what is going on.” He pointed a pistol at her.
OLESK. FINALLY. ARASH could end it. The van had the power to catch him while he was this close.
But the victims weren’t safe. Their terror clouded the air and Arash couldn’t breathe. Taking out Thom and Hector hadn’t brought Marcos back. There’d been no voice from the cloudless sky thanking Arash for his revenge, or forgiving him for not being able to save Marcos. His friend’s hopes and dreams had ended and nothing he did now could change that.
But there were sixteen humans in the van who still had a chance.
Arash steered away from Olesk and toward the FBI. Stephanie in the minivan blurred between warehouses a couple blocks away, pursued by David. Arash pushed the van as fast as it could go, his blood burning white-hot.
“Status.” Ellie’s worried voice came over the comm. “Status!”
Arash pulled to a stop among two of the FBI SUVs. He didn’t bother getting out of the van this time. Vincent knew the drill and got his Feds to quickly free the kids in the cargo area. “That’s it,” Vincent said, relieved. “They’re safe.”
“Stephanie,” Arash gritted. “Stephanie.” He peeled away to find her.
Ellie kept trying through the comm, sounding more desperate. “Somebody come back with your status.”
Arash picked up the mic. “Thom and Hector are gone.” He saw the minivan in the distance. Stephanie pulled a perfect drift, then snapped straight as David swept past her. The Chevy disappeared next to a warehouse, but from the sound of screaming metal, Arash knew the outcome. “David’s gone.”
Olesk’s voice came over the speaker with a warning. “Arash...”
“You’re next, Olesk.” Arash wished he was squeezing Olesk’s throat instead of the mic. “You’re next because you took money to drive these kids to hell. You’re next because you killed Marcos.” He threw the mic down and drove to where he’d last seen Stephanie.
There she was, intact and still driving. But any relief that started to wash over him chilled when he saw the Seventh Syndicate man in the back of the minivan, pistol outstretched toward Stephanie.
No. Arash should be in that car with her. No.
She slammed on the brakes and ducked. The man’s chest crushed into the back of the seat in front of him. The gun went off and pain flashed through Arash as if he’d been hit. But the bullet flew through the cabin and punched a hole in the front windshield.
Stephanie quickly lunged from the driver’s seat to the rear of the minivan. Arash brought his van alongside and jumped out before it stopped rolling. The man tried to raise the pistol again, but Stephanie twisted it from his grip and it spun to the floor toward the front of the car.
Arash threw the side door of the minivan open and planted his fist in the face of the man. The man sprawled backward, then collapsed forward. When he rose up again, he had a smaller revolver in his hand. It swung toward Stephanie and Arash wrapped both hands around it, trapping the hammer.
Stephanie moved in a blur, snapping a knife out and driving the blade into the man’s thigh, just above the knee. The man screamed, hands going limp to release the gun into Arash’s grip. The deepest betrayal carved into the man’s eyes as he stared at Stephanie. She faced him, unmoved. “You’re finished.”
A siren blasted behind them. Arash grabbed the man’s lapels and yanked him out of the minivan. Vincent pulled up in his SUV just as Arash was dropping the Seventh Syndicate man to the concrete.
“Olesk.” Stephanie pointed up between the rows of industrial buildings. The Subaru sped over the streets. If it hit the highways, it could be gone in a flash. Arash charged through the side door of the minivan and into the driver’s seat. Stephanie leaped into the passenger seat, determined. “End this.”
The wind howled through the open side door as Arash bolted them toward Olesk. Arash reached out and Stephanie took hold of his hand. Fear and fury had numbed him until this touch. New life arced through him. “You alright?” he asked.
“Yeah.” She nodded. “You?”
“Still driving.” He saw her attention was on the side-view mirror and he checked behind them. Vincent stood over the Seventh Syndicate man. Arash said, “You got him.”
“We did.” She focused forward. “We’re not done.” Olesk was still a couple of blocks ahead of them and approaching a freeway on-ramp. Wringing all the speed he could from the minivan, Arash blasted across the asphalt toward Olesk. Stephanie braced herself on the door handle and scanned the area around them. “Olesk drives like a machine. Throw something completely unexpected at him. He won’t be able to process it.”
The Subaru curved up the on-ramp. Arash blew through a red light and wove between two crossing cars. Their surprised horns faded quickly in the distance as he charged onto the freeway. Arash pulled close enough to see Ellie in the passenger seat, preparing Olesk’s pistol. Instead of dropping back, Arash built more speed and passed Olesk while he was jammed in a small knot of traffic.
As soon as Olesk cleared the other cars, he gained quickly on Arash and Stephanie. Arash raced him into an interchange in the freeway with multiple curving ramps at different levels. “Hold on,” Arash warned. Stephanie braced herself and Arash slammed on the brakes in the middle of a curving ramp. The minivan slowed hard on the custom brakes and slid a little sideways.
Olesk wove with indecision, braking at first, then chirping his tires for more speed. Arash stepped on the gas again as soon as Olesk was beside them and jammed the minivan toward the Subaru. Olesk yanked his car away, head turning wildly as he tried to adjust to the changing landscape of the freeway around them. He didn’t have a chance. His car slammed into a guardrail, scattering chips of concrete. The churning tires caught and rocketed the car farther forward, up over the rail and down the twenty-foot drop from the interchange ramp.
Arash drove on. Below him and Stephanie, Olesk’s car lay on its crushed roof among overgrown weeds.
It was over.
Marcos wasn’t alive again. But thirty-two people were free from harm. The Seventh Syndicate was hurt. And Stephanie was safe next to Arash.
While they were still moving, she got out of her seat and closed the side door. He throttled back into the flow of traffic. The minivan dissolved from suspicion. After a mile, he realized he didn’t know where he was going. “Navigate?”
Stephanie pulled out her phone. “Message from Vincent. He says they have it contained and the victims are safe.” She sighed long. “I’m telling him that we’re gone.” After typing she put the phone in the center console. “Take us back to Vegas. I need a room.” She reached out and ran her fingers over the back of his neck. He was still alive. “With you. I need to breathe again.”
He vowed, “I will take you anywhere you want to go.”
She turned to him, dark eyes shining. “I want to go anywhere with you.”