Page 28 of City Of Thieves
“How can you be sure?”
The words are barely out of her mouth when the small distance I gained is replaced by a hard slam to the back as the sedan rear ends us.
“Shit!” The impact slams my ribcage into the steering wheel. “Does that answer your question?”
Thankfully, there’s a lengthy stretch of road between the town car and the BMW in front of us, but the Audi to my right doesn’t fare so well. The back of the town car fishtails before demolishing its entire left panel.
“Do something!” Tatiana’s icy mask cracks as she grips the dashboard.
“I’m trying,” I bite out, between clenched teeth.
“Try harder!” Her frantic demand becomes a scream as her slender body slingshots forward when we’re slammed from behind again.
“Son of a bitch!” I glare into the mirror, ready to turn the car around and meet thisstronzohead on in the middle of the fucking motorway when I see a flash of metal extend from the driver’s side window. “Fuck! Get down!”
Tatiana transfers the death grip she has on the dashboard to the sleeve of my jacket. “Tell me what’s going on!”
There’s no time.Grabbing the back of her head, I shove her face down as hard as I can, just as a blast of gunfire destroys the back windshield. A string of curses fly from my mouth, forming a twisted harmony with Tatiana’s muffled screams.
“You okay?” I glance down to find her resting her cheek against the rough denim of my jeans, her breathing scattered and uneven. “Are you hurt, Tatiana?” I ask again.
“No.”
With that one word, the pressure in my chest releases, only to incite a different kind. One that darkens my vision, flipping a switch that sends familiar black walls shooting up around me, blocking out everything but rage and revenge.
Reaching inside my jacket, I draw my gun from its holster. “Good. Then keep your head low and take the wheel.”
She snaps her chin up. “What?Are you insane?”
“Depends on who you ask.” I release the wheel, the destroyed alignment immediately dragging the car outside of our lane. “I suggest you take control,dolcezza, or a bullet is going to be the least of our problems.”
Gasping, she grabs the wheel with both hands, sitting up just enough to steer. Before this asshole can fire off another round, I lean out of the car and answer with three bullets of my own, sinking one into each driver’s side tire and sending him spinning into oblivion.
Climbing back inside, I reclaim control of the wheel. Only when we’re far enough away from the carnage do the black walls lower, allowing normal thoughts to resurface. Meanwhile, Tatiana’s face is the color of Newark snow.
“What just happened to you back there?” she asks quietly. “Your eyes went completely blank.”
I don’t look at her. I can’t. The black walls are a place she can never go.
She sits up and scrubs her palms down her face, color flooding back into her cheeks. “What have you got me involved in, Mr. Marchesi?”
“An art auction. Nothing more.”
“Nothing more?We’ve barely been in the country for thirty minutes and someone’s already tried to kill us. All things considered, I assume those bullets had your name on them?”
No doubt fired from a gun that has Vasily Belov’s name on it.
“A lot of bullets have my name on them,dolcezza.”
She narrows her eyes. “Is this connected to that trail of blood you mentioned? Is this even about the ‘Atonement’ or is the auction a five-million-dollar excuse?”
“The ‘Atonement,’” I say with a growl, darkness blurring the edges of my vision, “iseverything. And if you enjoy living in your high society, etiquette-fueled world, you’ll keep your eyes on the horizon, and leave thetrailto me.”
“One that leads directly to the British police after the show you just put on.”
I shoot her a vicious smile. “You think the Marchesi name doesn’t extend across the ocean?” Catching sight of a gas station up ahead, I pull off the motorway and into a parking lot next to an empty Starbucks.
Throwing the car into park, I drag my phone from my pocket and call the one person on my payroll who can fix whatever the hell just happened.
