Page 54 of Den of Thieves

“Should we break them up?” Lizah asked.

“Why?” Aksana drawled. “Afraid someone will out your secrets next?”

“I-I don’t have any secrets.” Liza gulped, but huddled near Milah, Ivanka and Hana.

Suddenly, two guards opened the door to the cellar and rushed in to break up the catfight.

Karina and Aksana slipped out, but not before locking the guards inside.

The two of them sprinted across the yard to the new helicopter sitting on the previously empty helipad. Karina was out of breath by the time they reached the doors. The chopper was close to an acre away from the main house.

The two of them climbed inside, and Aksana whistled. “I need to tell Dasha to upgrade my eggbeater. Volodya’s helicopter is a work of art!” she exclaimed.

“Can you fly it or not, AK? We have company!” Karina pointed to the hoard of butlers, maids and angry guards that have just realized their two most prized ‘prisoners’ escaped and were racing across the backyard and enclosing in on their location.

“It’s like riding a bike,” Aksana mused as she flipped the controls and started the engine. The propellors kept their handlers from moving any closer.

“You don’t know how to ride a bike!” Karina screeched, putting on her seatbelt and headset.

“Oh yeah, those bipedal actuates are death contraptions.”

Karina made a cross over her chest with her fingers as the helicopter made a few false jumps before finally lifting off into the sky.

“So what’s our plan once we get downtown? I only have 12 bullets,” Karina said into the headset.

“Shit, I only have 9.”

Karina turned around and lifted a black canvas tarp. Ooh hubby has toys, big toys. “There’s a large crate back here filled with M2 Browning machine guns, loaded magazines, and bandoliers?”

“Oh, this is going to be fun,” Aksana cackled.

They reached downtown in no time. What they saw had both of their mouths dropping. The city was officially a war zone. Cars were on fire. Bodies littered the streets. Puffs of light indicating gunfire lit up in the distance.

“Try to get Vladimir on the radio.” Karina suggested.

There was a static noise and then she heard Aksana in her ears once more. “’Nothing. Must be using a secure channel.”

“Smart. Let’s find a place to land.”

“There.” Aksana pointed to an empty helipad on a skyrise.

Before she could zero in on the landing, beeping sounds echoed throughout the cabin.

“AK, what does that mean?!” Karina screeched.

“We got company!” Aksana flipped a lid on the steering wheel. Karina screamed as Aksana veered nearly ninety degrees right. The incoming rounds barely missed them and exploded upon impact on a building up ahead.

“Those motherfuckers have bombs?!” she exclaimed.

“Let’s see what we have.” AK tapped a button on the green screen that displayed a white target.

“We have target missiles!” she cheered. She locked it onto their pursuers, and they countered their missile with one of their own.

“Fuck! We only have one more.”

Karina took off her seatbelt and scrambled into the backseat. She pulled down the leather strap and wrapped the seatbelt around her body. She prayed to the good Lord above and opened the sliding door. Wind whipped past Karina at a dizzying speed, tossing her hair around her face. She was lucky she found a pair of sunglasses on the dashboard.

“What are you doing?!” Aksana cried out.

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