The Cardinal Bird - Book 1: Reverse Harem Series (The Cardinal Series) Page 15

  It was possible that if there were snipers they were luring us into a false sense of security. It would make sense for them not to show their hand before they had eyes on the target. It could cause us to change our plans and maybe even escape another way.

  The back and forth wasn't helping me at all, and now I felt about a million times worse.

  And...no amount of mental computing with long-division was helping distract me.

  "Good one," Karl said scathingly to Jace. His tone had some bite to it as he gave Jace a disapproving look. "No. Wait," Karl said, seeming to be deep in thought. I wondered if he had drawn the same conclusions as I had.

  Were there any snipers, and were they waiting on me to show my face before they opened fire on us?

  "Jace," Karl said. "You next."

  Jace looked confused. "What? Why?"

  The thumping from above us was growing quieter. I hadn't heard any shouts, so I wondered if there was anyone even on that floor. Had Karl gone ahead and rented the entire hostel out like he'd wanted to?

  What were Nikolai's men doing now? Where were they? Was the quiet a good thing or a bad thing?

  "Don't argue," Karl said, taking his place watching the door. "When Karl says jump, you jump. Now, jump."

  He must have come to the same conclusions as I had. Karl was running on the assumption that if there were any snipers, they were probably waiting for me--especially if they could see Aleks keeping an eye out for them. It wouldn't do for them to be picked off by giving away their location too soon to an enemy sniper. I got the distinct feeling that Aleks could really put a wrench in their plans or, at the very least, give them a good run for their money.

  Jace vaulted out the window without an incident. Karl waited, listening through his earpiece for confirmation that Jace made it safely to the vans.

  I had a horrible thought as the hallway emptied out. Would these guys leave me to my fate? I was the last one in line walking through a haunted attraction. I was vulnerable. They maybe hadn't known how powerful and corrupt Nikolai was before, but now? When they had irrefutable proof lying in the form of a teenage boy that hadn't been involved whatsoever? If they hadn't gotten the picture from the bloodbath at the warehouse, they would have no choice but to get it now.

  I wanted to be reassured—to know for sure that they wouldn't abandon me just because the going got deadly, but it wasn't the time. Nikolai's men would be ready to check this floor soon. We couldn't waste even a second. Time was of the essence.

  Despite my worries and growing nausea over the whole situation, it was somewhat comforting to think that they were all on their way to safety now. At least, I hoped they were and not lingering around in the line of fire.

  I thought about that a moment more and came to a conclusion. I was glad that Karl had made them all go first, but I knew better than to ask whether or not Karl or Aleks was up next. If they weren't abandoning me, which to be fair, they had not given me any reason to think that they would, then even I might be next to go. Aleks was busy watching through his scope with deadly calm, and Karl was keeping the stairwell door guarded.

  I walked forward on rubbery legs. I felt cold, so I noticed the heat as I got closer. Aleks's body was warming the air around it, and I wanted to just cuddle into it to try and stop the shaking that had taken over me. My emotions were all over the place, a mass of contradictions: I wanted them to get to safety first. I didn't want to be abandoned. I didn't want them to die because of me. I didn't want to be alone.

  My throat was tight, and I had no spit to swallow. That was okay though because it felt like I could throw up if I swallowed anything right now, even if it was just saliva.

  I looked at Aleks.

  He glanced back at me a moment, his jaw tightening and bulging his face muscles under his long beard so that he looked even more fierce. He turned right back to the scope, his body melting in the shadows.

  "Don't look at me like that, malyshka," he said gruffly.

  I wanted to ask how I was looking at him, but Karl was speaking up from behind. "Don't worry. Aleks' got you covered, but we have to hurry. Just remember to bend your knees when you land. It'll help."

  I took a deep breath and peeked out the window. It was dark and calm outside, but it felt like I was under a spotlight. The scene was much different from last night. The lights were off, the streets were still, and the air only smelled of wet stone and grass rather than food and comfort.

  Brock was crouched down below next to a shrub. He must’ve sent Jace to the vans with CJ instead. There was a slight frown on his face. He motioned me forward with his hands to join him. He stuck his arms out and widened his stance as if he planned to catch me.

  I went to climb up onto the ledge, but Aleks stuck a trunk-like arm out, forcing me back against the wall with a thud that stole my breath.

  "Wait," he said, still steadily looking through his gun. "I see movement. Two buildings down. Third floor. Middle window."

  "Fuck," Karl swore. He relayed the information to CJ to pass along. "CJ's got nothing. It could be residential. Aleks, can you confirm that it's a sniper."

  We held our breath as Aleks stayed zeroed in on one spot, studying. After a moment, he spoke, his tone even quieter than before, but he might as well have been shouting with how hard we were listening for his answer. "I cannot confirm or deny."

  Karl swore again. He jammed something over the door handle and joined us peering out the window. He put his hand up to his earpiece and spoke. "Okay. New plan. You're going to give me the gun and jump down. Hopefully, he will think I'm the sniper still up here. If it's a sniper, he's either waiting on Callie or for you—if he's spotted you—to jump. I'll toss the gun down to you so that you can cover us from the ground. Callie and I will jump at the same time. Hopefully, we're being paranoid, but that will give us all the best chance to get away. We just have to make it to the vans."

  Aleks nodded, holding the deadly rifle in place until Karl took his spot. Aleks took a running start and dove headfirst out the window and down to the ground.

  I had only enough time to feel the dichotomous and conflicting emotions of extreme terror at the situation and relief that they definitely weren't leaving me behind.

  Karl spoke into his earpiece. “Brock, I want you in the vans. You drive one. Jace can drive the other. Have CJ on his computer getting us eyes on the streets.”

  “Wouldn’t it be better to just take one van?” I asked.

  “No,” Karl said, holding the rifle in his hands like a pro as he stared at the buildings where there was a potential sniper waiting for us to make our move. “You never know if we need two vehicles to help box people in if they’re chasing us or to throw them off our trail. Also, if one van gets taken out, we have a spare. We can’t afford to miss our flight, and we don’t have enough time to hotwire a car if one goes out of commission. Better to have it.”

  What seemed like only a fraction of a second passed as time started to distort on me, speeding up faster than I was ready for.

  "Are you ready, Callie?" Karl asked, looking out and through the scope at the exact same spot that Aleks had been. He must've seen something that worried him as well because there was a frown on his face as he squinted. He looked as comfortable with the deadly rifle in his hands as Aleks had when it was in his.

  "Yes," I whispered, barely intelligible.

  "Okay then." Karl put the safety on and quickly dropped the rifle out the window and joined me against the wall. He stilled a moment before turning to me. He gave me a quick grin that didn't reach his eyes. "CJ's confirmed that Aleks's in position. Jace and Brock have the vans running and are ready to go. We just have to get out this window and make it to the vans. Can you do that, Callie?"

  I nodded.

  The stairwell door rattled behind us, jammed. They'd made it to our floor. My heart sped up, and I felt like I couldn't breathe.

  "That's our cue," he said pulling me behind him and up to the side of the window.

  "You locked the door?" I asked, looking back at the handle jiggling futilely. "Why didn't you use that earlier?"

  "Jammed it, and... didn’t want to give away our position before we were ready. You ask a lot of questions when you’re scared," Karl said. He took a quick glance down at the ground just to make sure Aleks was ready and that we were clear. I wanted to look and see the jump for myself, but Karl's forearm was pressed tight to my chest, keeping me in the shadows. "Okay, this is it. Jump with me. I'll try to block you."

  Pffzzzzt. Pffzzzzt.

  There was the sharp ping of metal and shouting at the door behind us.

  Were they shooting through the door?

  Karl didn't give me any time to think about what we were doing. He pulled me with him, wrapping me in his arms.

  And then, we were airborne.

  Chapter 13

  Just like when I had been free-falling into the tank, time slowed and sped up all at the same time.

  Over the rushing of the wind through my hair, I was able to hear what sounded like gravel popping on the building behind us followed by two deafening cracks from below.

  Something hot had brushed my cheek because it left behind a burning trail, but I ignored it to get ready to land.

  I broke from Karl's hold at the last moment. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I tucked and rolled, springing up at the end. I didn't get a moment to adjust or even breathe before I was taken right back down in a running tackle that felt like being bowled over by a cement truck.

  My back connected with the soft ground, expelling the air rapidly out of my lungs. I blinked a bit, trying to focus and breathe.

  Spice and men’s cologne.

  I looked up into arctic-blue eyes that were so light they were nearly white in the dim lighting. It was Aleks.

  His eyes--darkening to a sky blue--traced my cheek. He met my gaze. "Are you hit?" His accent was so thick that it took me a second to respond because I wasn't sure if he was speaking Russian or English.

  About all that I could do was shake my head. Aleks took my response at face value. He used his thick arms to push himself up in a low crouch next to me, keeping ducked down behind a car we had somehow ended up next to.

  "Aleks," Karl whisper shouted.

  I glanced around.

  In the land, Karl and I had separated from each other. He was down, crouched behind a steel mailbox of all things. He was looking back up at the window we had just left, a handgun aimed and steady in a two-handed grip with his elbows locked. He was boxed in. He was hidden from the potential sniper across the street, barely, but if Ivanov’s men broke through on the floor we just jumped from, he would be a stuck duck.

  "Are we clear?" he asked.

  Aleks grunted. "No. There is one more that moved while I was taking out the other two. He could be setting up another nest right now. He probably won't show back up at the same window."

  There had been snipers? How had I not noticed? And how had Aleks managed to take out two of them without getting shot himself? And tackled me to safety at the same time? He was a beast.

  "What about up there?" Aleks asked, his voice somewhat muffled by the barrel of his rifle. He kept scanning a blue-grey building directly in front of us. "I heard shots before you guys jumped."

  "They figured out we were there. If the snipers have comms with the guys inside, it won't be long before they all storm outside. They have to know she's out here by now."

  I turned my head on the grass, looking under the car. The smell of gas was strong, trickling out of a tank that had been pierced in the gunfire. Beyond that, it didn't look like there was anything nearby in the street. "Where are the vans?"

  Karl answered me. "They're on their way. 10 seconds."

  Now that he said that, I could hear the shrill and desperate whine of the motors as they were pushed to their limits and beyond. Tires squealed.

  "Get ready to run," Karl said, shifting his stance but keeping his aim steady. No one had shown up at the window yet. "Park in front of the grey-blue building. The last sniper is there. He'll be shooting blind."

  I was confused until I realized that he was probably talking to the others in his earpiece again.

  Aleks put down his rifle temporarily. He looked down at me. "Sorry for the man-handsing," he gripped the front of my borrowed shirt in one fist and pulled me up from the ground so that I was crouching instead of laying down.

  Right. Running probably worked better from a position like this. Why hadn't I thought of that?

  "You sure you weren't hit anywhere else?" he asked, sounding doubtful.

  Anywhere else? Did he mean my old gunshot wounds?

  "No, why?"

  Aleks went back to looking out his scope. "They took quite a few shots before I could take them out. It surprised me there was three."

  I looked around taking in random details and yet not remembering one bit of it.

  A loud roaring sound screeched to a hot stop in front of us. Burnt rubber suffused the air. A van door popped open.

  "Sniper's blocked," Aleks said shortly.

  Sparks flashed on the car door in front of me. The shooters from in the building!

  Instinctively, I jerked back, forgetting the last sniper and falling from out behind the cover of the car in my scramble to hide from the men shooting at us from the second-story window.

  Aleks gripped the front of my shirt once more to pull me back in as I simultaneously felt rock and pavement spatter and fly up, pelting me in the back. It reminded me of the popping gravel sounds I had heard when we were falling. Had those been bullets burrowing into the side of the building as the snipers narrowly missed us, close enough to pelt us with the cracked rocks from their trajectory?

  "That was close, malyshka," Aleks said, maneuvering me between him and the car, effectively blocking me on all sides.

  I could hear Karl opening fire at the window. More shots sounded from behind us...possibly from our guys in the vans. Shots were echoing everywhere, and I was just glad that it was early in the morning. No one was out right now, though I thought I could hear the whine of police sirens just barely over the volley of shooting.

  Dirt and pavement were bursting into the air. Metal sparked and pinged.

  I looked at the two holes punctured through the car door. They were about level with my face. That had to have been what'd startled me before.

  They had nearly got me. Several times over if Aleks was right.

  Aleks slung the rifle across his shoulders to free up his hands. He pulled a gun from his waistband.

  "We're moving, malyshka. I'm going to manhands you again," was all Aleks said before he manhandled--not manhandsed--me to my feet. Bullets were still puncturing the cityscape all around us, but we weren't stopping. He pulled me along with him.

  My instincts kicked in, and I started running. Standing up, I could see our destination. It was like a curtain was pulled back, and I could understand what I had only been guessing at before. The two vans were in the street. With the sniper blocked, Jace was standing next to the open front door, firing at the window like Karl. In the second van, Brock was doing the same.

  Jace moved aside as we got ready to dive into the van.

  I focused on my plan to get in and get out of their way, but Aleks just picked me up, carrying me while still maintaining his sprint. He tossed me in the van and shoved Jace in right behind me.