A Silent Reckoning: Sinner's Empire Nikita Slater (smart books to read .txt) 📖

and Dasha had screamed enough to bring the restaurant down, but apparently the washroom was sound-proofed. Weird, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it.

“You’re bleeding,” Karl said, reaching for Shaun’s arm.

She winced as he touched the cut.

She shook her head and pulled from his grip. “We have to go.”

Shaun swung around, not waiting for Karl, and hurtled toward the front exit uncaring of the gasps from patrons as a bleeding woman ran past them.

Karl was on her heels and then he was in front of her, pushing people out of the way. Before they left the restaurant, Shaun shouted at the maître d’, “Call an ambulance, there’s an injured woman in the washroom!”

She didn’t bother to wait for his reaction. She had to assume that Dasha had bodyguards inside the restaurant who would manage to organize themselves sooner rather than later. She didn’t want to be on the premises when that happened. She had no idea what would come next, if Dasha would try to attack her again.

The driver was waiting outside the car. When he saw Shaun, his face reflected alarm and he reached for the door handle, intending to open the car door for her.

“Never mind,” Shaun yelled. “Just get in and drive.”

Karl covered her while she jerked the car door open and flung herself inside. She landed on her side and curled her legs in so Karl could slam the door shut. Karl leapt into the front seat and growled at the driver, “Go!”

Shaun felt silly laying down on the seat when there was nothing happening outside the restaurant. She pushed herself up and reached for the seatbelt while the driver accelerated into traffic. He made it into the lane before the rear window shattered.

Shaun screamed as bullets impacted the vehicle. She swung around to look and saw several men running toward the car with their weapons drawn. She hadn’t expected Dasha to bring their fight to the street. When the other woman had asked Shaun to tell Jozef she loved him, Shaun thought she’d given up.

Maybe Dasha’s men were coming after them for revenge, attempting to take out the person who stabbed their employer. Shaun didn’t know and she didn’t care.

“Let’s go!” she yelled.

Just as the driver tried to accelerate again another spray of bullets came through the back window. Shaun ducked down in time, but the driver didn’t. A bullet hit him in the back of the head, and he slumped over the wheel, turning it sharply to the left.

They were flung into oncoming traffic and hit head on almost immediately. Shaun was thrown back, her neck jerking painfully as she impacted the seat behind her.

Her head was ringing, and she had to blink several times to clear her vision. As she was about to lift her head, strong hands gripped her. She looked up and saw Karl who was climbing into the back seat with her, his hands running down her body. He tried to open the door next to Shaun, but it was jammed shut from the impact.

He looked up. “They’re coming. Curl up and try to make yourself as small as possible.”

Shaun let out a whimper as Karl crawled over top of her, using his body to cover hers and then twisting around to swing his gun toward the shattered window.

As he fired his gun, bullets whizzed inside and around the car. The acrid smell of gunfire burned her nostrils and the pain in Shaun’s wrist chose that moment to amplify.

Karl jerked on top of her, his body twisting. He grunted in pain but continued to shoot.

“More bullets on my belt.”

His words were laboured but Shaun understood. She did her best to turn over onto her back with Karl’s heavy body laying across her. She searched his waist until she found something that felt like a leather holster. She unsnapped it and reached her fingers inside, coming up with a small box of bullets. She maneuvered the box out and opened it, spilling several bullets into her hand.

“I have them,” she said.

“Good,” he snapped. “I’m out.”

With militaristic precision he snapped the gun open and put the bullets in one at a time, taking them from the palm of her hand. It couldn’t have taken longer than ten seconds for him to reload his gun, but it was long enough for their attackers to realize they were no longer being shot at.

Shaun saw a head pop up in the window, gun hand extended.

“Karl!” she screamed as bullets filled the inside of the car.

Most of them hit Karl in the chest and stomach. He returned fire, hitting the man in the head. As soon as he dropped, another replaced him. This time, Karl was struck in the head, but not before he was able to shoot the guy, sending him spiraling away from the window.

Karl grunted one last time, then his body went limp on top of Shaun.

“Karl!” she gasped, dragging herself out from underneath him. “Karl.”

She pushed him onto his back and let out a moan of despair.

He’d taken a shot to the forehead. His eyes were open, staring, glassy.

Shaun checked for a pulse but knew the truth before she touched him. Karl was dead.

Sobs spilled from her lips as she searched the seat for his gun. She found it still sitting in the palm of his right hand. She pulled it away from him and did her best to crouch down as small as possible, cramming herself between the front and back seats.

Two men converged on the car, guns raised. One was coming to the side window and one to the back of the car. Shaun couldn’t shoot them both. Actually, she probably couldn’t even shoot one. She’d never used a gun before.

She lifted it, preparing to shoot.

She hadn’t been ready to die a year ago when Jozef had put a gun to her head and she wasn’t ready to die now. She would go down fighting if that’s what it took.

She held the gun as steady as she could,