Now that that’s done, there’s no reason for him to be alive anymore.
This is the part I’ve especially been waiting for. The part where I get to make Julian fucking Maduro feel all the pain and suffering that he’s inflicted. Where I get to look him in the eye as I kill him and make sure he knows that he brought this on himself and that he deserves every single fucking thing that’s happened to him.
“Knox,” Gage says, his voice serious. “Step on it. Let’s take this fucker down.”
34
Knox
That’s all I need to hear.
Something in me leaps with savage joy as I punch the gas harder and send the car speeding down the highway. I’m in my element right now, and this is the kind of shit I live for. The chase, the fight. Knowing at the end of it I get to help River bring Julian down for good.
Unlike the last time with the drug runner, we don’t have to worry about making it look like an accident or covering our tracks as much. So we can do whatever the fuck we want here to make this work.
“Take out the tires,” I tell the others, knowing they’ll know what to do.
Gage rolls the window down and Priest and Ash do the same thing on their sides in the backseat. They draw their guns and aim for the tires and the windows of the car in front of us. Glass explodes from the windows when there’s a hit, and the car jerks and swerves a little when the driver realizes they’re under attack.
Someone manages to hit one of the tires, and it starts to go flat, making the car lose speed. I yank the wheel to the side a little, and when Julian’s car drops back so it’s almost side by side with us, Gage aims for the driver’s side and blows the window out.
The bullet hits the driver, and I glance over in time to see him slump behind the wheel. The car starts to spin out, out of control with no one driving it. It veers off the road, smashing through the guardrail and crashing into the trees down the short hill.
I steer us off to the side and bring us to a stop. The car is barely off before we’re all getting out, and climbing down after the car.
The driver is dead in the front seat when we get there, but the back door is open and Julian isn’t inside.
“Fuck,” I curse. “He’s gone.”
We all draw our weapons, and I’m glad we planned to be armed up for this. It should have been easy to knock out the car and have Julian be too dazed from the crash to fight back, but at least we’re prepared since shit isn’t going according to plan here.
It’s dark out, but there are five of us and one of him, so we spread out, moving into the trees to hunt him down. He’s not getting the fuck away. We’re going to end this here. Tonight.
Something rustles in the brush, and I turn gun raised. It goes silent, but I cock my ear, listening for the sound of heavy breathing or quiet footsteps.
For a second there’s nothing, but then I catch sight of a streak of white darting between two trees. Julian, with his suit jacket off.
I take off after him, and the others follow, not needing me to tell them Julian is close
He runs faster than I would have expected, but he doesn’t have the stamina that I do, so I run him down, gaining on him as he tries to dart through the trees and put distance between us. He zig zags around, and I just plow straight through, ignoring the branches that whip against my chest and arms.
When he’s close enough that I can hear him panting for breath, he dips into a thicket of trees and disappears for a second, bringing me to a stop.
“Come on out, Julian,” I call after him. “We just wanna talk.”
I hear the others come crashing through the brush after me, and I start moving closer to the trees Julian disappeared behind.
Only, when I get there, there’s no one in that spot.
“Shit,” I hiss, wheeling around in time to see Julian come darting from behind another cluster of trees.
Before I can call out a warning, he races up behind Priest and grabs him, yanking him back.
Priest opens his mouth, but Julian presses the barrel of his gun against Priest’s temple.
“Don’t say a fucking word,” Julian grunts.
His eyes are wild in the darkness, and his chest heaves from the chase. There’s blood dripping down one side of his face, either from the crash or from a branch catching him in the temple as he ran.
“Back the fuck off,” he snarls, grinding his gun tighter against Priest’s head.
Priest’s face is hidden behind his mask, but I can see his light blue eyes flash in the dim moonlight as Julian drags him back even more, farther away from us.
I take a step forward, and Julian jerks toward me.
“Stay the fuck back!” he screams. “If you come any closer, I swear to god, I’ll kill him. I’ll blow his brains out right here and now.”
My muscles tense, and I stop in my tracks.
Everything in me is screaming for me to rush in and attack this motherfucker. It’s possible that I could get to him before he had a chance to shoot Priest, and I want to. I want to murder him. I want to kill him with my bare hands and watch the life drain from his eyes for even fucking daring to put his hands on one of us.
I’ve never been the type to hold back. When we were going after that drug runner, I ran right in, rushing him even though he had a gun and was shooting at me. I didn’t give a shit about anything but getting the job done.
But this is different.
I don’t mind putting myself in danger. Hell, I even get off on the thrill of it sometimes. Escaping something that could have killed someone else, someone with less balls, is a head rush like no other. But this goddamn asshole has my cousin. He’s got Priest, and I can’t risk anything happening to him.
I don’t know for sure if I could get him before he pulls that trigger, and it’s too big a risk to take.
So I hold off. It fucking kills me, but I stay in place, gritting my teeth, feeling the rage snapping under my skin.
All the others hold off too, and I can feel their tension as we watch Julian, waiting for his next move.
He keeps the gun in place, breathing hard, his eyes wild as they dart around. He starts dragging Priest away, and I have to clench my hands into fists so hard that my nails bite into my palms, just to keep myself from following them.
I can hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears, and it almost drowns out that voice in my head that’s screaming at me to not let this fucker run away with Priest.
But there’s nothing I can do.
“Where’s your car?” Julian demands.
“Up the hill,” Gage says. He sounds so fucking pissed, but still calmer than I feel.
“Are the keys in it?”
Gage glances over at us, and Julian snarls a curse.
“Answer my fucking question!” he screams. “I want the keys to your goddamn car, since you ruined both of mine.”
Seems like a long ass time ago that we were laughing about keying the fuck out of Julian’s shiny red car.
Now we’re standing here in the dark, trying to hold this shit together.