Page 61 of Ashes

“What are you doing here?” I asked him.

“I’m here to take back what’s mine.”

Before I could answer Mateo, Kai’s voice came back into my ear. “Someone fucking jammed our comms. You’re about to be outnumbered. There are seven more men coming your way.”

The ding of the elevator doors opening on my left rang into the space. Then, bullets exploded as seven armed men stepped out of the elevator.

Ah, les connards.

I ducked my body behind a column and scanned the room. Five of his men stayed on the far left side with their guns blazing, while two were making their way to Mateo, fingers on their triggers.

The exit staircase was on the right, but Mateo and his men were too close for me to make a beeline for it.

“Valentina, we need to create a distraction. Mateo and two of his men are too close to the exit door for me to make it.”

“Got it.”

The exit door slammed open and Valentina walkedthrough it, aimlessly firing her machine gun at the ceiling, debris falling everywhere.

Not the distraction I was thinking of, but it’d do.

Peering through the dust clouding the room, I spotted one man struggling to see and fired straight into his neck. He fell to his knees and his hand shot up to stop the bleeding, but instead, he slammed forward on the concrete floor.

One down, four more to go.

I couldn’t find half of them, but the other half were ducked behind stacked bricks on palettes.

“The cops are five minutes out,” Kai informed us. “I’m parked behind. Hurry.”

I looked over at Valentina, watching her dive her body behind a column next to the exit, reloading her gun. I peered over my shoulder to see Mateo running away, one of his men shielding him while the other shot at us on their way out.

Coward.

Bullets ricocheted against the concrete shielding us.

“Quite the entrance.” I chuckled.

“Yeah, I thought so too,” she replied, giving me a sly grin. “I’ll start firing again on three.”

I nodded.

“Three,” she shouted before shooting from behind the pillar.

One of the men behind the stacked bricks looked over at where Valentina was and I took the opportunity to shoothim in the head. Blood spattered onto his face and he dropped to the floor.

“You guys have to get out now,” Kai urged, the distant wail of sirens growing closer. “The authorities are almost here.”

I glanced at Valentina and she gave me a nod, showing her understanding.

We both came out of our hiding and fired while running toward the exit. We leapt over the first flight of stairs and continued running down the rest to reach the ground floor.

We had three more floors to go when the door from right above us slammed open. Several shots were fired at us and I turned back to retaliate. At one point, I felt heat sear my side but ignored it and managed to shoot whoever was after us in the shoulder.

He slumped back against the wall and I whipped around as Valentina pushed the ground floor’s door open. We rushed over to Kai’s car and as soon as we were inside, he slammed on the gas pedal, speeding away from the cops.

A black SUV chased after us, its sirens wailing furiously. Kai abruptly veered the car to the right, jolting Valentina and me in the back seat. The tires shrieked and he entered a small alley, barely an inch to spare on either side.

He floored the gas again and barreled down the path.