Page 53 of In My Blood
“Keep them chasing their tails until our back up arrives,” Dante rumbled.
“He knows what he’s doing, Cara. We’ll be alright,” Callan assured me from somewhere above.
As though his words had tempted fate to intervene, a loud bang rang out as the car seemed to swerve completely out of control. I cried out as I slammed into the interior of the door hard, and when I looked up out of the window I saw one of the dark S.U.V’s Dante had described driving almost parallel to us.
“Cara, get down!” Dante roared, and I instantly folded over, pressing my head to my knees, trying hard to ignore the pain that move caused to ricochet from my ribs and throughout my torso.
“What was that?” I cried, and my words were much shakier this time, my entire body vibrating as my adrenaline kicked up a gear.
“They’re going for the tyres. Callan, did Arran show you where the guns are?” Dante yelled.
“Yeah. Please don’t tell me we’re gonna need them though,” Callan replied, and I heard a slight waver in his voice too. I turned my head to look at him, but he was too busy fiddling with something under his seat. I gasped when a small compartment slid out from below, and inside of it were two handguns and a ton of loaded clips.
“I can’t get away from them with a tyre blown out. They’re boxing us in. We need to lay down some fire from the car to keep them back until our backup gets to us,” Dante explained. “It’s time to put that gun training to the test, lad.”
“I can shoot a gun too,” I volunteered.
“You just keep your head down, Cara!” Dante barked.
“No, I can. I sh-shot a gun a few times before. I know how to use one,” I argued. Hilton had taken me out to some woods and shown me the basics one afternoon after training. It had been the closest thing to a date I had ever been on, not that it had ended the way I expected it to.
“We might not have many options here, Dante. If she really can shoot straight, we need her, don’t we?” Callan questioned.
“I can. I fired a Glock-19. Hilton said I was a natural,” I hurried to tell them, wanting them to let me help. There were three cars following us. They weren’t going to be held off for long with two guns firing. Three wouldn’t be much more, but it was something, and while I wasn’t that worried about dying right there, I didn’t want Callan or Dante to get hurt. I also did not want to be abducted by some unknown enemy. I could handle dying, but I could not handle any more unwanted hands hurting and abusing me.
“Who the fuck is Hilton?” Dante raged, startling me badly with the ire in his voice.
“That doesn’t matter. I can shoot. Hand me a gun, Callan. What’s the plan, Dante?” I asked more calmly. I refused to allow these motherfuckers, whoever they were, to get their hands on me. Anyone who got too close was getting shot at. I had never hurt anyone physically in my life, but I was done not fighting back. I was done being used and hurt. I was a De Santis – well, sort of. I had been born surrounded by death and violence. Shooting someone to save myself should be a part of me, shouldn’t it?
“There’s an abandoned warehouse up ahead. I’m going to drive in there and try to get us in an advantageous position. Back up shouldn’t be far out, so we just have to hold them back. No one leaves this car. Understood? Our best advantage is staying in here right now.”
“How is this my life?” I uttered, more to myself.
A week ago I had been clock watching in my boring as shit job at the factory. Now I was in the back of a luxury car, a gun in my shaking hand, ready to do whatever it took to protect two men I barely knew, and to actually stand up for myself for once.
“You don’t have to do this,” Callan said as his hand landed over mine where I held the gun. I didn’t feel him shaking, but there was still that slight waver to his voice that gave away he wasn’t as calm as he seemed.
“I think I sorta do have to,” I replied, trying for a joke. “They’re most likely coming for me, right? There’s no way I’m going to hide and risk them getting the chance to take me. At least this way, whatever happens, I’ll know I tried to fight back this time.”
The last word barely left my mouth before there was another loud bang, and the car jerked hard to the right once again. I knew they’d shot out another tyre, which meant we were about to stop wherever we were at that point. I cried out as I was once again slammed into the side of the car, the thing swerving all over as Dante tried to gain back control. Pain rattled through me and I had to bite my lip to keep in any more cries of pain.
“Cara!” Callan cried as he fought to sit up and get to me.
“I’m good. Just my ribs….I’m alright,” I panted, trying to breathe through the pain.
“Fuck! Hold onto her. I need to turn the car around!” Dante called over the chaos. Callan released his seat belt and slid to my side, wrapping his arms tightly around me as Dante swerved the car around 180 degrees in a single move. I clung onto Callan tight, not wanting to be thrown around again, not sure I’d stay conscious through the pain that time. We were still tossed a little, but Callan kept me pressed against his body and my ribs weren’t jolted as badly as before.
The car came to a stop and I heard the others pulling up and stopping close before us. I turned to look out of the front windshield and saw all three black S.U.V’s were now parked in front of us, about ten yards away. No one was getting out, and everything was just still. We were in the car park of some kind of industrial estate, but either the businesses were closed, or the place was out of business, because I couldn’t see a single other car, or person anywhere around us. Just a whole host of closed up warehouse looking buildings.
“How long will the others be?” I asked as I released Callan and pulled back from him. I looked to the gun in my hand. It was a similar size to the gun Hilton had showed me how to fire, but it felt different in my hand.
“Not long. They’re close,” Dante said, and when I glanced to the front of the car, I could see him just staring straight ahead with a deadly glare. There was a gun in his hand, resting against his thigh, and his whole, giant frame was taut and tense.
“Why aren’t they moving?” Callan asked.
“Don’t say that!” I cried. “We don’t want them to move!”
“They’re working out the best way to take Cara alive without getting themselves all killed,” Dante answered, and I gulped loudly.
