Gabe (In the Company of Snipers, #8)(80)

He caught sight of the tail in his rearview mirror when the black Escalade swerved out of its traffic lane and increased speed, but damn. They were on a bridge over the Potomac, headed northwest with heavy traffic and no way to contact The TEAM for an assist.

Gabe slowed until he was alongside Zack, motioning for him to watch his six.

Zack offered a thumbs-up and one quick nod, indicating he’d already seen the tail.

And the race was on.

Gabe ducked in behind Zack and Kelsey, running interference with whoever was in that Escalade. When the guy sped up and tried to refuse Gabe’s change of lanes, he twisted the wheel sharply to the right and cut him off. “Back off, jerk.”

“What’s going on?” Shelby asked, ducking to follow the action in that tiny sun visor mirror.

“Remember what I said earlier?” He tightened his grip on the steering wheel, his eyes glued to the rearview. “Now would be a good time to get down on the floor.”

She unfastened her seatbelt and slid to her knees without one word of argument. Nice.

“Keep your head down and stay out of sight. Hang on tight. Things might get bumpy.”

No sooner said than done. He slammed on his brakes, forcing the tail to do the same, but with no warning and less stopping distance. They locked bumpers. More like smashed bumpers, but the second they made contact, Gabe stomped the gas pedal and disengaged.

The Land Rover responded with a jolt of speed, while Zack’s vehicle was long gone, dodging traffic and changing lanes somewhere up ahead. The tail responded, but the collision had caused no major radiator damage as Gabe had hoped.

Once he recovered from the sudden stop, the guy in the Escalade punched it and jerked his ride two lanes to the right. Gabe countered with a similar maneuver that put him alongside a twenty-foot long UPS truck, blocking the tail directly behind him.

For some reason, the UPS truck driver swerved to the right, bringing Gabe’s focus forward. He hit the brakes, narrowly missing Zack, who’d slowed due to traffic. That mistake cost. Another Escalade came from out of nowhere and closed in behind him and Zack.

Damn. Two tails.

Gabe hit the brakes again. Jerking his wheel to the right, he cut off the rear Escalade and slid in directly behind Zack, close enough to kiss his rear bumper.

The time had come to change the game plan. He unholstered the pistol under his left arm. “Shelby. Get up. You see the guy in the UPS truck beside us? When I speed up alongside him, wave this weapon at him. Motion him to back off. Act like you mean it.”

She climbed onto the seat and took the pistol gingerly out of his hand and into hers. “Just wave it?” she asked breathlessly? “That’s all you want me to do?”

Gabe lowered her automatic window. “Yes, ma’am. That ought to work. Don’t aim it at him, though.”

She extended her arm out the open window and waved the weapon, but when the driver didn’t pay attention, she got creative. She knelt on her seat and leaned out the window, waving the gun wildly. “Hey! Would you please move over?”

Somehow please and gun waving didn’t quite go together, but it did the trick. As soon as the driver spotted her antics, he stepped on his brakes and created his own traffic jam in the slow lane.

Zack took advantage of the break in traffic and veered into the clear lane at the right. Before Escalade Two could follow suit and change lanes, Gabe unholstered his other pistols and fired into the tail’s left rear tire. Direct hit. The vehicle swerved into the lane Zack had just vacated, but because of tire damage, it swerved just as quickly out of control to the left.

One down.

“Go, Zack. Go,” Gabe prompted. “Get the hell out of there.”

Zack was no dummy. He and Kelsey were already car lengths ahead.

The end of the bridge loomed close, but traffic into D.C. was steady. And in the way.

Shelby leaned on her butt back onto her seat, the gun still in her hand. “What’s next?”


“Put the gun in the glove box. Get back on the floor and hang on.”

Escalade One came up fast behind them. The fool. As soon as Shelby hit the floor, Gage did what he’d done the first time. He slammed on his brakes, only this time there was no speed-up-and-follow-Zack routine. This was one of those now-or-never moments when hell had to be stopped in its tracks, and not the other way around.

He slammed the Land Rover into park and ordered Shelby to, “Stay put.”

Jerking his door open, he rolled one knee to the pavement and fired before the tail knew what had hit him. The round went into the radiator as planned, eliciting a healthy plume of steam. The second round went into the Escalade’s right front tire and Gabe was on his feet, ready to fire again. The quicker this went down, the better. Zack needed time to get Kelsey to safety and Gabe intended to give him plenty.

What he didn’t expect was Shelby at his left, the pistol he’d given her extended between two shaking hands.

“Get the hell back in the car,” he ground out, needing not one more damned distraction. Oncoming traffic was bad enough.

“I can help,” she replied, blowing her blond locks out of her face. The stiff Potomac breeze messed with her tough girl, gun-toting attitude. The one Gabe didn’t know she had.

He zeroed back on the guy behind the wheel of the Escalade. Whoever the bastard was, he hadn’t fired yet; he just sat there, waiting.