Page 35 of Royal
She scream-whispered, “Hell, yeah!Get me untied!”
White cord wrapped her body, binding her arms to her chest and her legs together. He shoved Twist’s gun in the back of his pants and hoped he didn’t shoot himself in the ass while he yanked at the rope. “Jesus, this is tight. I don’t have a knife.”
He bent to grab Dree and heaved her tubular form over one of his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. Her head hung down his back. She made a little“Eep!”
Turning, he sprinted back toward the door of the warehouse.
Micah saw him coming and started windmilling his arms at Blaze and Logan.
Feet pattered behind him, and Maxence and the three other guys sprinted out of the side door.
As they ran back toward the parking lot, Arthur was talking into his phone.
The helicopters fluttered to the ground past the far corner of the warehouse, beyond the direct lines of fire from the garage door.
The door’s wide opening gaped between Maxence’s party and the chopper.
More bullets screamed out of the opening.
Arthur dropped to the ground again and shot into the warehouse, squeezing his gun again and again. “I’m covering you!Run!”
Gunshots exploded in the air as Maxence sprinted across the open space, carrying Dree toward the helicopter.
Micah, Blaze, and Logan fired into the door as they ran, keeping the other side busy.
Arthur dropped the magazine out of his gun’s handle and slapped a new one in to reload. He followed them, shooting into the warehouse as he ran.
Micah, Blaze, and Logan veered off, running flat out for the second helicopter.
Casimir and Twist were already sitting in the first chopper and stretched out their arms when Maxence got there. He shoved Dree forward with his shoulder, flipping her into the back seat. They caught her and dragged her into the cabin by the cord binding her like she was an enormous fish he’d reeled in. Max clambered in just as Arthur vaulted into the front seat, and they slammed the doors as the helicopter shot upward.
Maxence had Dree’s feet in his lap because her head was oriented at the other end of the seat, resting on Casimir’s thighs. Max grabbed her ankles and knees because those were the only parts of her he could reach, and he desperately needed to hold onto her. “Dree? Are you all right? Tell me you’re all right!”
The motor of the helicopter strained as they cleared the trees. The aircraft was rated for four people but now carried five large men and one soft, curvy, enraged woman, her mouth gaping widely as she yelled something they couldn’t hear over the deafening howl of the engine and rotor blades.
Arthur scrambled to distribute hearing protection headphones to everybody while cramming one on his head.
As soon as Max had his headset on, Arthur kept handing back headsets and said, “I think I hit at least one of them in the leg. Twist might have hit two. He’s a frightening good shot for a prep school kid. I’ll use my phone to call for ambulances. I have a lovely little bit of code on it that blocks my location and identity.”
Twist said, “Nice. I’d love to take a look at that.”
Luckily, there were enough headphones to go around, and Casimir jammed one on Dree’s head over her ears as she lay across their laps.
She shouted, “Get these ropes off of me! I swear to Jesus and Mary and all the saints, if I ever see any of them again, anytime and anywhere,I am going to rip their hearts out with my fresh manicure and eat them without smearing my lipstick!”Dree’s voice thundered through their headphones, and everyone scrambled to turn down the volume on their headset.
“Who did you hit?” Maxence asked Arthur. “Was it Kir Sokolov?”
“I don’t know. It was one of those wankers who were shooting at us. He looked portlier than Kir did in the photos.”
Dree yelled,“I will rip off their legs and beat them to death with their own hairy thighs!”
Twist strained in his seat to reach his back pocket, and then he flipped open a tool, exposing a wicked knife blade that he carefully inserted between the cord and Dree’s plump arm. As soon as he turned the knife, the edge caught the rope, and it popped, unraveling around her.
Dree shook off the coils. “Oh, thankGod.And thank you, new guys I have never met.”
Maxence laughed. “Dree, may I present three of my old school chums and a truly exceptional helicopter pilot, whom I had never met before today.”
The pilot wiggled his gloved fingers in a wave from the front seat.“Je m’appelle Otto.”