Page 37 of Bound Bride
I only have time for a pang of sympathy as I glimpse that car flipping and swerving off to the right, only to crash into a parked car and vanish into the night.
"Motherfucker!" Ethan yells. "You wanna shoot something?"
"Yes," I demand back. "Open the window!"
As soon as it's down far enough, I thrust my gun out the window and open fire.
Both vehicles wrestle for space as the road narrows and my other car is forced to fall back to prevent a crash, but they're just as eager to get a shot in as I am.
The attacking car fires back and my window shatters in an explosion of glass that I barely have time to turn away from.
"Bring me level!" I yell to Ethan as the attacking car races forward.
Ethan slams on the accelerator and our car lurches, throwing me back in the seat and momentarily catching my elbow against the door. The attacking car surges forward so I roll the window down further and lean out, only for Ethan's hand to fly out and grab a fistful of my shirt at my abdomen.
"Boss!"
Taking aim, I start firing at the car tires, and finally a satisfying bang rings out as one wheel explodes.
Ethan drags me back into the car as the vehicle in front spins horizontally to us, and Ethan forces us to drive faster.
We slam into the side of the car and shove it along the road until something catches and the car suddenly flips up into the air.
It spins several times while Ethan slams on the brakes, then it crashes down onto its roof. A deafening silence fills the air after Ethan brings us to a halt.
My other team screeches to a stop behind us.
Climbing out of the car, I check my weapon and hold it high as we approach the vehicle.
Its wheels spin and squeak in the air, glass crumbles from the windows and scatters across the ground, and the ding of the disconnected seatbelt follows the first man dumb enough to crawl out of the wreckage.
Any questions I have for him die the moment he grunts and rolls onto his back with his gun aimed high in the air.
I shoot him twice in the head and his arms fall down flat on the ground.
Suddenly, another man pops up from the other side of the car but Ethan shoots him in the head before he gets a chance to open fire.
My men rush past me with their guns trained on the vehicle. Within two minutes, the car is swept clean and both dead bodies rest on the side of the road.
"You alright?" Ethan asks finally, and he winces. "You're bleeding."
I glance down at myself. Crimson spreads across my white shirt from where I must have cut myself leaning out of the broken window. "I am fine."
Ethan scowls but nods. "Anything on the registration?" he asks as one of my men walks up with the paperwork.
"Nah. It's a rental but there's no name," he replies.
I stare down at the two bodies. They're both wearing jeans, with one wearing a shirt and the other a black leather vest. Neither of them are familiar.
"This is bold," Ethan murmurs as he crouches down next to them. "Attacking us out in the open like this? It's fucking bold." He begins rummaging in their pockets and I watch him go through all of them.
As he works, I snap pictures of them on my phone, but then Ethan makes a strange noise and draws my attention back to him.
"Wait…" He pulls something small and silver from the upper pocket of the leather vest and balances it in his palm. "This looks vaguely familiar, I just can't place it." He stands and holds out his hand. "This pin… I'm sure I know it."
The silver pin in his hand shows a small carved skull with a flourishing V in the middle of the forehead. It's not something that strikes any familiarity in my mind so I shake my head. "I do not."
"Fuck…" Ethan kicks at the ground. "I swear I know—!" He cuts himself off and snaps his fingers. "Vasiliev! That's the Vasiliev crest, I'm sure of it. But they're a small family, hardly one of any kind of significance and that…" He turns back to the bodies and stares hard at them, then his shoulders drop and the frustration on his face melts away.
