That feeling kept nagging at me. Why had that been so easy? Even when we weren’t in a war, Carlos always made shit difficult. But this time he had been accommodating as hell.
I shook my head. It didn’t matter. We were done and we had the money. I glanced down at the briefcase at my feet.
The caravan got to the bottom of the garage and started to turn back out into the street. The first two glided out into the street, and we began to follow.
Then I heard the scream of wheels. I had enough time to look up before a truck smashed into the side of us.
I was rocketed forward but was saved by my seatbelt. One of the assholes in the backseat wasn’t so lucky, and he went flying forward, smashing his face into the front dash.
My ears were ringing and I felt completely dazed.
“Boss,” Rafa yelled.
There was the pop of gunfire. I watched Rafa pull out his weapon and start shooting. I was dazed, my head spinning. The other thug in the backseat pulled his weapon and began to fire as well.
“Vince!” Rafa yelled, getting out of the car.
I came back to myself in that moment.
The truck that had rammed us was a few feet away, and four men were spilling out of it, guns firing at the car. I scrambled over the body of the unconscious thug and rolled out Rafa’s door, putting our car between me and the guys coming at us.
I pulled my gun. The other thug crouched down at the one end of the car and began to fire back at the guys. I realized they were yelling in Russian, and it quickly became obvious what was happening.
They had ambushed us. They had attacked our car because they knew which car to go over. Fucking Carlos had sold us out to the Russians.
I glanced at the thug firing his gun and watched his head explode. He fell to the ground, not moving, his skull a twist of blood.
“Fuck,” Rafa yelled. Our two soldiers were down. I quickly got off a few shots, clipping one of the Russians in the leg. He dropped to the ground, but he wasn’t finished.
“We need the money,” I called to Rafa. “Cover me.”
“You fucking crazy?”
“We need it, Rafa.” I dove back into the car and started reaching over the body of the thug.
The Russians opened fire like crazy. Bullets slammed all around me, filling up the car with debris and explosions. I reached over the body and grabbed the handle of the briefcase, barely getting my fingers on it.
Rafa returned fire and managed to hit one of the Russians in the stomach. He dropped to the ground, bleeding and screaming curses. The other two split up, one going to the front of the car, the other toward the back.
I had to fall back as the guy up front shot at me through the windshield.
I dropped and rolled toward the back, bringing my gun up.
Just then, I heard the roar of another SUV. It was our guys, circling back. They screeched to a halt not far away, and the Russian up front brought his gun around to fire at them.
But too slowly. He was covered in bullets in a second from the guys in that car. They spilled out, running toward us, taking shots at the Russian in the back.
But he took off. He didn’t bother trying to fight a losing battle. He simply turned and ran.
Some of our guys went after him.
I leaned up against the car.
“You okay, boss?” Rafa asked.
“I’m good. You?”
“Fine.”
I looked around at the twisted metal of the two smashed cars and the bodies of our two men. The two Russian guys were still alive. I walked around toward them.
I put my boot on the stomach wound of the one man. He screamed in pain. I put a bullet in his head.
I walked over to the other one.
“Think your guy can get away?” I asked him.
“Fuck you,” he said.
“Wrong answer.” I shot him in the skull.
“We could have used them alive, boss,” Rafa said.
“We’ll catch the guy on foot.” I walked over to the SUV, opened the door, and grabbed the briefcase from the floor. It was dented and covered in blood from thug who hadn’t bothered with a seat belt, but otherwise it was fine.
“What the fuck was that?” Rafa asked. “Why just one car?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe they were going after the money. Or maybe they didn’t know we’d be out in force like that.”
“Shit,” Rafa said. “Bastards.”
“They just made this war real,” I said. “Come on.”
I walked toward the other SUV. I pointed at two of my soldiers. “You two, go make sure that Russian guy gets hunted down.” They nodded and ran off to join the chase.
Rafa climbed into the driver’s seat of the now-empty SUV, and I got into the passenger side. We had four trained guys out hunting for that Russian; he wouldn’t last long.
Rafa pulled out, and the last SUV met up with us at a stoplight. We drove together back toward the compound.
My heart was fucking pounding. That had been an incredibly close one. We were lucky that last SUV came back to check on us, otherwise we might have been dead in the street.