Adverse Possession (The Anna Albertini Files #3) - Rebecca Zanetti Page 0,85
protection there. But why would the Lordes have us hit you if Aiden then got so pissed about it?” She waved the gun wildly as she spoke.
I ducked my head out of the line of fire. “Wait a minute. Somebody told you to ram my car?”
She nodded. “Yeah. Carbine and Crash told us to do it. So we did. I figured you’d killed Sasha, and Aiden Devlin was pissed and wanted revenge. Nobody messes with the Lordes.” She gestured with the weapon. “But then Devlin got pissed off and we got dumped. I don’t understand.”
“Neither do I,” I said, passing a truck carrying a mattress. “But I didn’t kill your friends, and Aiden would never order anybody to hurt me.”
“None of that helps me right now, does it?” She shook her head. “I’m sorry about this, but there’s only one way out.”
My body froze. Like literally. Even my toes went ice cold. I’d have to go for the gun. My mind scrambled. “Wait a minute. Aiden Devlin works for the ATF, and he can get you immunity. No problem. But if you shoot me, he’ll hunt you down for the rest of his life.”
She laughed, the sound high pitched and creepy. “Devlin, the president of the Lordes, is an ATF agent? Right. Good one.”
“He’s undercover and exceptionally good at it,” I said. “Not only that, but he can keep you safe from whoever killed Bev and Sasha. You could go into witness protection.” I had no power to promise that, and I wasn’t sure Aiden would even go for that or had the power to make it happen. “See? There is a way out without killing me.”
She turned toward me. “You are so full of shit.”
“I’m not. Let me prove it to you. Where’s your phone?” My words came out choppy as I fought a panic attack. Maybe I should just plow into the nearest guardrail and hope for the best. Neither one of us were wearing seatbelts.
“In my pocket. If you think you’re going to trick me with my phone, you really are as stupid as Carbine said.” She shook her head.
I sped up and passed a couple of logging trucks, headed toward Washington state. There was only one thing to do.
All right. I took a deep breath and swerved down an offramp, punching the gas pedal with all my strength.
Kay screamed. “What are you doing?”
I sped up, going at least eighty and pushing ninety. We careened down the older road with trees flashing by outside. “Hold on, because I’m slamming this thing.”
“No,” she yelled, the gun aimed at my head.
“You shoot and we die,” I yelled back, my hands tightening on the wheel.
She looked frantically around. “No, you—”
I whipped the car into the parking area of the Lorde’s apartment complex and swung the wheel in a rapid turn. She crashed against the side of the car, and the gun went flying. I hit the brakes, and we skidded into a bike, crumpling the metal and running it over. Then we teetered on top of it, high-centered.
Screaming, I jumped out of the car and started running.
Men hustled out of apartments, including Aiden and Saber. They ran down the stairs and toward us. Tears streamed down my face as I catapulted myself into his arms.
“What is—” he started.
The ground shook. Then the apartment buildings exploded on both sides of us.
Aiden tackled me to the ground, covering me with his body.
The world went dark.
Chapter 32
I was on a cloud. Soft and smooth, the fluffiness around me soothed me. The noise roared in. I opened my eyes to find myself in the back of an ambulance looking up at…James Saber? “Aiden?” I asked.
Saber ducked his head to look closer at my eyes. “Welcome back.” He turned and whistled out the open door.
Heavy footsteps sounded along with crackling. A lot of crackling. “Is she okay?” Aiden’s brogue was hoarse.
I struggled to sit up and Saber helped me. Then I lost my voice. It was like a scene from an action movie. Flames consumed both apartment buildings while debris and ashes scattered through the air and covered the ground. Fire licked at three vehicles, and several motorcycles lumped in a mangled mess. Emergency vehicles with swirling lights threw red and blue through the haze. “What happened?”
Aiden drew closer. A gash bled above his left eye, and soot covered his face and hair, but he wore an earpiece and an ATF jacket. “Explosives.” He motioned a crew toward the brightest burning buildings.