I sigh and settle at the window. It’s open a crack, and I stick the long muzzle of the gun out. “I hope you’re right, Andrius. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
“Me too,” Vasily grouches.
Fuck.
Engine sounds have me looking to the perimeter of the property.
Andrius looks through his night-vision glasses. “Three vehicles, no lights. Three SUVs.”
Shit, I bet they’ve come armored. It’s what I would do. There’s no easy way to tell, either, if these particular vehicles are or not.
I take out my phone and dial Damen. “Can you look into Aram’s vehicle fleet for me? See if any of his vehicles are armored?”
“Yeah, give me five,” he says. He keeps me on the line as he does his thing. After a few minutes, he says, “One is. I’m betting that’s the one he’s in.” He reels off the registration of the armored car.
“Thanks,” I say, hanging up. “Fuck. One of those vehicles, the one with Aram in it, is armored.”
“What, you expected them to come running up the lawn like total idiots?” Luka chuckles.
“I didn’t expect armored vehicles,” I snap. “Marcus said they’d think we were totally unprepared.”
“Doesn’t mean they were going to be, though, does it?” Luka says, annoyingly logical. “No man, they’re going to use those things for cover.”
“Well shit.” Andrius laughs. The mad fucker laughs. “Looks like we’re going to have us an old-fashioned gunfight. This just got exciting.”
“I want to remind you gentleman of the fact that whilst this might be fun and games to you, Cassie is in this house. Try to imagine how you’d all be feeling if it were your women here.”
That sobers the fuckers up some.
The vehicles come to a halt. The four of us are barely breathing as we watch and wait. At first, there’s no movement.
“Give me the glasses,” I demand of Andrius.
I watch, but nothing.
“Thing is, they’ve got to come out to shoot at us. I don’t think they plan on sitting in those vehicles all night,” Luka says.
“Aram might,” Andrius replies. “Which car is the armored one?” he asks.
I check the number plates. “Middle,” I reply.
“Fine. If he stays in the vehicle, and Marcus doesn’t get an opportunity to take him out in there, we target the car and fuck it up.”
“How?” Vasily asks.
“You got anything big and meaty in your garage?” Andrius asks.
“An older Mitsubishi L200, with bulbar. Why?”
“Bulbar is good. We’ll see how this plays out, but if Aram is planning on hiding in that second car, we block him in. He’s already blocked in to an extent, by his own men. We use a couple of your cars to make it so they can’t move forward or back. We get someone in that beast of yours to ram the SUV hard. Two or three times. Cause enough structural damage, and it will weaken the glass; then I can get through it with a gun.”
“The thing about bulletproof glass is it stops a lot of rounds and it buys time.” Luka looks to me. “If you’re working as protection for someone, then you fit a car with bulletproof glass to give you time to react. Time to get them out of the car. Or to fire back. These guys have come to a gunfight in an armored vehicle, which means they need to get out of the fucking thing to shoot at us. If they choose to stay in it, Andrius is correct. Cornered, with nowhere to go, it won’t protect them forever.”
“Trouble is, Marcus is also in that vehicle, so this risks hurting him,” Andrius says.
I think about it then decide he’s a big boy. He’ll know what we’re intending to do the minute he sees the Mitsubishi line up with the side of the SUV. At that point, Marcus can bail or attack Aram the minute we ram the car, saving us a job.
“Vasily, go to the garage. Get the Land Rover and be ready to block these cunts in,” I order. “Tell Bohdan to get in the Mitsubishi, buckle up, and be ready to ram the fuck out of the side of that thing if we need to.”
“Okay.”
Vasily leaves, and we all settle back.
Watching.
Waiting.
What the hell are they waiting for?
Then, finally, fucking finally, the rear door on the third vehicle cracks open, and two men spill out. They crouch low and run to the right side of the house. They round the corner, and a dark figure peels out of the bushes and follows them. Deadly silent.