level 10
The car rocked up on two wheels, creaking and groaning as it threatened to tip. Ty slid toward Zane until the seatbelt stopped him, choking him, cutting into him. He ducked his head and curled, but the handcuffs prevented either of them from shielding their heads or faces as the car rocked back and slammed to its tires.
Ty gasped, fighting the seat belt, fighting his handcuffs. The two cops in the front of the car were both still and silent, either unconscious or dead.
Zane coughed and gagged, struggling to right himself. “What happened?”
“Car rammed us,” Ty answered. He was short of breath, looking around the chaotic scene outside the window. He began to slide his handcuffed hands under him looping them over his feet so his hands were at least in front of him. He scooted closer to the window to peer out. The car that had hit them was a black Yukon Denali. “Oh shit.”
“What?” Zane asked. He was still struggling to get out of his handcuffs. “What is it?”
“It’s them.”
The driver of the Denali stumbled from the SUV and seemed to be shaking off the effects of the crash. He turned to look at them, straightening and beginning to laugh when he saw that they were trapped.
Even if they got out of the handcuffs, they were still locked in the back of a police cruiser. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel.
The driver began stalking through the debris, heading for Zane’s side of the police cruiser as he pulled a gun and suppressor from his jacket. Ty turned in his seat, lying flat and kicking at the window.
“Ty,” Zane gasped.
Ty didn’t stop kicking at the window. He gritted his teeth, refusing to listen to Zane’s words.
“Ty, I love you,” Zane said quickly. “I love you.”
Ty shook his head. “No!” he shouted. He kicked at the window harder, jarring his ankles and knees, bruising his heels. “We’re not dying today, Zane, not like this.”
“Ty!”
“Not like this!”
Zane’s hand found his hair and yanked, and when Ty craned his head to look out the window, he saw the driver of the Denali standing right there, the gun in his hand. An arm was wrapped around his neck and his face contorted as his body arched unnaturally. He gritted his teeth, shouting and trying to point the gun behind his head. The hand around his neck jerked and the assassin’s head whipped to the side, his neck breaking and the life draining from him.
The gun fell from his hand and his lifeless body dropped out of sight. Nick O’Flaherty stood at the window, breathing hard and sneering down at the dead man.
Zane gave a triumphant whoop as Ty began to laugh.
“Fuck, man, you have the best timing ever!” Ty shouted as he struggled to sit up again. He leaned over Zane’s lap, putting both hands on the window.
Nick leaned down and knocked on the glass. “You assholes can’t even get arrested right,” he called.
“You beautiful fucking bastard,” Zane said, laughing.
“Get us the fuck out of here, Irish!”
Nick tried the door, but as Ty’d expected, it was locked and probably jammed shut. He tugged open the front door and checked the driver’s pulse as he reached in for the keys. “He’s dead,” he told them, then searched the man for the keys to the handcuffs.
“Come on, Irish, double time it man,” Ty muttered. Nick tossed the handcuff keys through the wires so they could get themselves loose.
The squealing of tires drew Ty’s attention and he saw two more black SUVs tearing up the sidewalk several blocks away. The traffic from the wreck and the narrow streets were slowing them down, but they would be here in mere minutes.
“Come on, O’Flaherty!” Zane shouted. He banged on the glass.
Nick fumbled with the keys and came back to the door. Ty watched him, leaning over Zane’s lap, silently begging Nick to hurry. He caught sight of movement behind Nick and shouted at the same time as Zane began to bang a warning on the glass.
Nick glanced over his shoulder and blocked the first swing of the man’s knife with his forearm. He swung with his left, wrapping the man up, kneeing him in the kidney. Then he swung again, pounding the man’s face. They grappled until Nick finally got behind him and put him in a choke hold. Nick held on long after the man had lost consciousness, making sure he wouldn’t be waking up.
He finally let him drop to the ground and looked up to meet Ty’s eyes. He took one step toward the car before someone grabbed him from behind.
“No!” Ty called desperately. He banged on the glass, futilely pulling at the handle. “No!”
Nick’s body contorted and his mouth fell open as a knife drove into his side. The attacker twisted it and Nick screamed.
Ty echoed the anguished cry and turned to throw himself against the other window, slamming his fist into the already cracked glass over and over in a desperate bid to get free. He left the cracked glass bloody, but couldn’t get out. He crawled back over Zane’s lap to see Nick on his knees, head bowed, still being held around the neck by the man with the knife. He yanked the knife out of Nick’s side and plunged it in again.
Nick screamed again, but he reached into his boot and came out with a small dagger, flipping it in his palm and swinging it up, jamming it into the killer’s throat.
Blood spurted and both of them fell to the ground.
“Jesus Christ,” Zane whispered.
He and Ty pressed closer to the glass. Nick was still on his knees, holding to the wound at this side. The black SUVs were drawing near, full of more men with guns and knives who no doubt wanted them dead.
Nick began crawling for the cruiser, dragging himself over the road. He reached out with trembling, bloody fingers and jammed the key home. The locks thumped throughout the cruiser, freeing Ty and Zane from their impromptu prison.
Zane shoved at the door and Ty crawled over him to get out. He grabbed Nick by his shoulders, trying to help him to his feet. Nick collapsed in his arms and Ty fell to his knees, holding Nick to him.
Nick stared up at the sky, barely breathing. Tears trailed from both his eyes. He focused on Ty and he nodded.
“It’s okay,” Ty whispered. His fingers tightened in Nick’s shirt, cradling him in his lap. “We’ll get you all patched up and you’ll be fine. Zane, help me!”
Zane knelt at Nick’s other side.
“Run, Ty,” Nick murmured.
“We’re not leaving you here.”
Nick’s mouth barely moved when he spoke. “I’m already dead. Go. Love you, brother.”
“Fuck no,” Ty hissed.
Zane’s hand fell on Ty’s shoulder. He held up a hand covered in a pool of Nick’s blood, cupped like he had held it under a fountain. “Ty.”
Ty fought back tears and shook his head. He looked back down to the man in his arms, but Nick stared back sightlessly.
“No,” Ty whimpered. He grabbed at Nick’s cheek, slapping at it, but Nick didn’t blink or flinch.
“He’s dead, Ty.”
“No!” He gripped Nick’s hair and hugged Nick to him, tears falling against his best friend’s forehead.
Zane tugged at Ty’s shoulder as he sobbed. “We have to go, Ty.”
Ty shook his head, holding tighter to Nick’s body as he bent over him and laid him on the hard asphalt.
“Ty, we have to go. We have to go now,” Zane said, pulling him more urgently.
“I can’t leave him here,” Ty said, almost panicked as Zane pried him away. Nick lay in a spreading pool of blood, his green eyes on the blue sky. Ty began to struggle as Zane wrapped him up and pulled him to his feet. “Don’t make me leave him here!”
“We have to go. He died for us, Ty, we have to go now!”
“I can’t leave him like this. I can’t leave him like this! Please!”
“We’ll come back for him. I promise, I swear to God we’ll come back for him, but we have to go!”
Ty didn’t take his eyes off Nick or stop struggling as Zane dragged him toward the black Denali.
2013年05月26日 20点05分