Page 130 of I Promise You
I take a deep breath when I start driving onto the path leading to her home.
As soon as I enter her property, I know something is wrong. I see a group of people all over the front yard of Ari’s house.
When my headlights flash across the men in white masks, I know something is going down, and it’s not good. They look like the same men that tried to assassinate me, hadn’t it been for Creature.
Then I see a familiar red dress, sprawled out in someone’s arms, being dragged into a van ruthlessly.
A group of men, and I see a woman, but I can’t make out her face or features when she closes the van’s passenger door behind her.
My best friend lies unconscious on the floor with men hovering over him.
They’re kidnapping Ari. Danny might be fucking dead...why isn’t he moving?!
I reach for my pistol tucked into the center console; and going full send to hell, my foot hitting the pedal with no remorse as these men return with fire. They all shoot at my windshield, the glass shattering all over me, but I don’t stop. I duck underneath the steering wheel. I barely miss Danny, and I run over two of the masked hitmen hard with my car, their bodies making the car jump as I floored.
There’s no way they’ll survive that.
Some of the hitmen crash against the hood of the car hard.
Then I realize the van has sped away with Ari because I hear it roar away, disappearing into the shadows.
Fuck!
Motherfuckers will all die for this.
Every. Single. One. Of. Them. Will die for putting their hands on her.
But four hitmen are left behind as they try to lift Danny and make a run for it in another van.
They're not going anywhere.
I raise my pistol, both hands on it, and shoot two in the head, granting them instant death. They drop to the ground.
The other two return fire on me, and I dodge every hit. They’ve got shit aim, thank God.
I jump out of the car on the opposite side, giving me cover to reload and reassess how to get to Grim.
He better not be fucking dead.
More gunshots ring out from another direction. My hands cover my face and I’m helplessly tensed up against the hood.
Not more of these fucking pieces of shits?!
I’m outnumbered.
I grab my cell phone, prepared to call in our team and the Admiral. My fingers tremble with adrenaline and shock as I try to unlock my phone, missing every number to my passcode, and I have to restart. But then I hear a familiar voice shout into the cruel, wintry sky.
“Pinche cabron, you alive over there?”
Operator Texas.
The cowboy from South Texas.
“Holy shit, I’ve never been happier to be called acabronbefore,” I shout back with gratitude and a smirk. I peek through the car windows to see Lopez sitting in his truck a couple of feet away from Grim, aiming his pistol at the men he just shot.
Fucker saved my life.
I forgot he was meeting me here even after I told him not to.
