Page 98 of Nikolai (Kansas City Reapers)

I reached out, rushing towards her and grabbing her by the arm, roughly pulling her back to me as hard as I could until she slammed into my chest with a thud that almost took my breath away.

“Niko!” she cried out, gripping onto my arms like a lifeline, her nails digging into my flesh as I ripped open the driver’s door of my SUV and shoved her inside, heedless of anything but getting her behind the armored plating and bulletproof glass of the vehicle.

“STAY!” I screamed, slamming the door shut and praying to God that she would lock the doors behind her. I didn’t have time to hear what she said next as another shot whizzed past me, whistling like a freight train and hitting the rear driver’s side door that Maddy had just exited with a loud ding, denting the armored plating.

I ducked, running for cover around the front of my vehicle towards the house, calling out after Quinn, who I had completely forgotten about since the shots began firing.

“You good, Quinn? Do you have eyes on him?” I hollered out, pressing myself as close to the garage door as possible to avoid line of sight from the roof.

“Yeah, he’s on the roof!” he called back, hunched down behind the trunk of his own car for cover.

Before I could utter another word, the sound of tires screeching pulled my focus to the end of the roughly five-hundred-yard driveway.

“Fuck,” I groaned under my breath. These were definitelynotguys here to help. Peering around my vehicle, watching my six as Quinn quickly moved around to the front of his car to shield himself between the now two dangerous threats, I watched as the passenger door of the black SUV opened. A bald, tattoo-headed man popped up and over the top edge of the open car door, an assault rifle perched on the top to steady it.

Tinny pops sounded from his direction, and bullets began whizzing around us.

Higher-pitched sound this time. Obviously semi-automatic, but not a pistol.

This motherfucker was firing on us with a goddamn AR-15 or something very much like it. Probably equipped with a scope as well, to achieve the accuracy he was displaying.

“Fucking hell,” Quinn swore just loud enough for me to hear as I broke cover to make my way over to his car, years of training kicking in as I stayed low to make myself as small a target as possible. We had to formulate some kind of damn plan if we were going to have any hope of surviving the next five minutes.

“We’re pinned down from both sides,” I seethed back at him as I cleared the distance between our two vehicles, joining him. Both of us knew full well exactly how dangerous this situation had just become. “We have to eliminate the tango on the roof.”

“Cover me,” Quinn hollered back at me, popping up over the hood of his car and trying to find a vantage point with his pistol aimed at the roof. I fired a few ineffectual shots toward the SUV, barely making Tattoo-Head flinch as hereturned fire. Quinn ducked back down behind the car as bullets smacked loudly against the trunk. “Fuck, I can’t clock him.”

“How do you wanna do this?” I asked quickly, scanning everywhere for signs of additional assailants. I wanted to take the lead. It was where I was best suited. Hell, it’s what I was literally trained for. But this was Quinn’s show.

“I’ll go around back, see if I can’t find a way onto the roof. Cover me if you can,” Quinn hissed out. I nodded my head, and he took off like a flash, rounding the house in a few long strides while I turned towards the vehicle blocking the driveway once more. My pistol was no match for the semi-automatic rifle poised over the open passenger door of the SUV, but I did my best, firing shot after shot. I managed to hit the broad side of the black SUV, finally making the shooter stop firing for a moment to duck. Not fucking enough. Not by a long shot.

A very long shot, indeed.

A third shot flew down from the roof, the sniper having perched up higher on the slanted peak to take aim at me from above. Thankfully, he was unable to get a good angle, and the shot ricocheted off the hood of Quinn’s car inches from my head.

I needed to get a better position myself if I had any hope of protecting Quinn. Thank fuck, Maddy was safe in my SUV.

Fuck. My SUV.

I rounded the front of Quinn’s car as hellfire seemed to rain down once again from the assault rifle at the end ofthe drive. Dodging and weaving my way around, I made it to the front of my own vehicle.

It was armored, so that would provide more protection. Crouching down in front of the SUV’s grill, I looked up, trying to find the right angle to get a good shot in at the sniper above.

“Ye bat’,” I swore, realizing that I would need a better vantage point to take a shot. And the only way to do that was to jump up onto my SUV, potentially putting me in the line of fire from both the assailants.

“Fuck it,” I swore, jumping up onto the hood of my car, flipping over onto my back, and praying to God the bulletproof glass and armor would protect me as I lay my back down against the windshield.

Maddy screamed at me from below, her hands pounding on the windshield under my back so hard I could feel the thuds. Training my gun on the roof, I swore as the sniper slipped back behind the peaked slope and out of view.

As I held my aim, I ignored Maddy’s pounding fists against the windshield. She had to be terrified. But we could deal with that later once she was home and safe once again.

My chest ached with the thought of it.

I should have never fucking done this.

I should have never agreed to this.

NO!I screamed at myself mentally. I could not continue thinking about her. Not now.

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