Chapter 5

I looked at the headlights headed in my direction and in the time it took me to realize they were not the Marshal's reinforcements arriving, they closed a lot of the ground between us. There was no time for us to run but, since the last guys ended up in a shootout with a US Marshal to most likely get the girl hiding in the back seat, leaving her to fend for herself seemed like a bad option.

"I'm going to set the phone down, and deal with these two guys," I said setting the phone down.

The guy on the phone was still talking, but I couldn't hear him anymore. I checked my gun and I only had two rounds left. Sliding my weapon back into my holster, I reached down and picked up the Marshal's weapon. It was also low, but she had a clip holder on her belt. Checking it, I found a full clip still there, which I loaded into the borrowed gun.

By this point I could see the vehicle was another black SUV. It had pulled up behind and a little to the passenger's side of the first SUV. I didn't want to try and hold the same position as the Marshal had used. Once the shooting had started, she had been locked down, which had really limited her options.

I quickly circled around the driver's door and crossed between the Marshal's cruiser and the first SUV. Right before I crossed the grill of the first SUV and putting the second vehicle out of view, I saw a flash of the passenger door opening on the new arrival.

I continued making my way around the front of the first SUV in a crouched walk to keep out of sight. Coming around the side of the vehicle I saw the driver had already stepped out of the SUV and was heading towards the Marshal's vehicle. I pulled my weapon up and doubled tapped into his chest the second he came into view, dropping him next to the front of his vehicle.

I waited for a moment to see if there was anyone in the back of the new SUV that might join the fight. Not seeing anyone I moved towards the back of the SUV I was using as cover. Coming around the back of the bumper I caught movement in my peripheral vision the moment I passed into view. I barely made it back into cover before bullets whizzed through the spot I had just occupied. I had moved back fast enough that I lost balance, falling on my back.

Looking under the SUV, past the rear tires, I could see feet slowly moving towards the spot I just vacated. Instead of facing the attacker face to face I rolled to my left shoulder to get a steady position, and fired once into his ankle. He quickly fell to the ground, one hand grasping his ruined appendage. I didn't hesitate at all. As soon as the rest of his body came into view I fired one shot into his head.

I continued lying there for another moment, waiting to see if anyone else was going to come out of the SUV. While waiting, something on the guy's forearm and hand caught my attention. It was a series of tattoos. After it became clear no one else was coming, I hopped up and walked backwards to the Marshal's car, because you can never be too careful. Getting to the rear driver's side door, I opened it and extended my free hand to the girl still hiding on the floorboards.

"It's ok, everything's safe, now. Come on out for a second while we wait for local police," I said.

She just shook her head no in response.

I gave an internal sigh and tried again, "Seriously, you're safe. If I was one of the bad guys, wouldn't whatever was going to happen, have happened already? When you get out, you can look over where they are lying, and see for yourself that they won't hurt you."

She sat for a few seconds longer, considering my words, before pulling herself up and onto the back seat. She did not, however, grab my hand. She waited until I backed out of the way before she would step out of the car. While she was getting out of the car I walked around to the driver’s seat where I had left the cell phone.

"Are you still there?" I asked when I picked it up.

"What happened?" he asked in response.

"Another SUV rolled up with two more guys in it. I had to put them down."

"You are armed?"

"I grabbed the Marshal’s weapon. It was either that or let those two Russians kill me and the girl."

"How do you know they are Russians," he asked.

"I caught sight of a tattoo on one of the guy's arms. Some Cyrillic writing along his arms, and several prison tattoos. I don't remember what these mean, but I recognize them as Bratva symbols."

"How the hell do you know Russian gang tattoos?"

"I was deployed as an observer with the Russian Spetsnaz about seven years ago," I told him and then changed the subject. "How soon until the locals arrive."

"Three minutes," he said but wasn't deterred by my topic change. "You're a soldier?"

"I was."

I was looking down the street when two more sets of headlights whipped around several blocks down. I was paying more attention this time and they were SUVs, similar to the two here. Local cops generally drove cars, not SUVs, and even then not black SUVs.

"Shit," I said to the guy on the phone, "Two more black SUVs. We are getting out of here."

I hung up the phone, grabbed the girl's hand and said, "We gotta go."

She tried to pull out of my grip but was also looking at the approaching vehicles. She must have decided going with me was the safer of the two options because she stopped trying to pull away from me and started to move in the direction I was pulling.

"Run," I said, getting her to pick up the pace.

We moved quickly back to the side street I had come down, went halfway down the street, and crossed over to an alleyway. I wanted us off the street. Those SUVs were moving fast, and by us staying on the street, there was no way we could get lost before they found us.

We ran several hundred feet into the alley where there was a large dumpster. I pulled her behind the dumpster and peeked around the corner. We hadn't been in cover more than ten seconds when one of the black SUVs tore past.

I had two options. Hang around until the cops showed up and make it back to them, or take the girl somewhere and have the guy on the phone send the cops there. I still believed these guys had no problem getting into a shootout with the locals, so that wasn't really an option. The best choice was still getting off the street. Their SUV passed us quickly enough that they hadn't stopped at the scene of the shootout. That meant they saw us take off, and knew we were on foot. They would be circling a few blocks and I had to assume they would start checking alleyways after that.

I pulled her along and we kept running. At the next street we looked both ways and, seeing the coast was clear, crossed the street and headed into the adjacent alleyway. At the end of that we ran into an issue, there wasn't another alley and we were forced to take to the street. I decided to go left and head past the street where the shootout was and kept going in that direction, hoping they would only be looking on one side of the shootout.

Thankfully, when we got to that street, there wasn't any sign of them. We crossed without incident. We kept running for six blocks but she was starting to get tired. I saw a fleabag motel and headed for it. She wasn't going to be able to keep running, and we needed to get off the street.

I clicked the gun on safety, put it into my waistband, and pulled my shirt down so it covered it. I had picked the shirt specifically because it would cover my back holster, which meant it would also cover this weapon.

"How many hours," the guy behind the counter asked me while he leered at the girl.

"Just give us a room for the night," I said, having no idea how long we would need to wait.

He gave a sleazy grin at that, and took my money. I wanted to punch him in the mouth, but starting a big scene probably wasn't my best choice at the moment, so I just grabbed the key and took the stairs up to a room on the third floor. The hotel was in an older building, and all the rooms had doors facing an internal hallway, as opposed to rooms that faced the outside as they did in a motel.

The girl was following me, but seemed skittish. She seemed ready to bolt, but was sticking with me for the moment. I opened the door and ushered her in. Once in the room I pointed at a chair and had her sit, while I pulled out the cell phone I had taken with me and hit redial.

"Hello," the guy said when he picked up, sounding anxious.

"We managed to lose them," I said without preamble. I assumed he would figure out who was calling. "We aren't far from where the initial shootout was, and we are holed up in a pay by the hour hotel. There are two SUVs that I saw driving around trying to find us, so I wanted to get us off the street. There are a lot of motels and hotels in the area, so even if they start searching buildings for us, we have some time."

"Good thinking. Tell me the name of the hotel and I will get some of our people en route."

"The Guardian Arms, which is a fancy name for a shithole hotel. I'm concerned with how easily those guys found your Marshal. Their backup zeroed in on us pretty fast, too."