Chapter Seventy-Two

Chapter Seventy-Two
The road narrowed as it disappeared beneath towering pines.

Morning sunlight flickered through the branches, flashing across the windshield in rhythmic bursts.

Everything looked exactly as it always had.

Anika's hands rested lightly on the steering wheel while Lizzy reviewed notes on the tablet balanced in her lap.

Behind them, Nyx sat alert.
Ares stood.
He hadn't settled once since leaving the estate.

"Ares," Anika said calmly. "Down."
He didn't move.
Instead, a low rumble vibrated through the SUV.

Lizzy glanced into the rearview mirror.
"He's been doing that all morning."
"I know."

The radio crackled.
"Escort to Primary."

Anika reached for the handset.
"Primary."

Maksim's calm voice came through with only the faint hiss of static beneath it.
"Slight delay. Lost visual through the switchbacks. Maintain verbal."

Anika smiled faintly.
"Copy. We still have you on GPS."

"I'll regain visual in approximately thirty seconds."
"We'll try not to disappear."

A brief pause.
"I'd appreciate that."

Lizzy laughed quietly as the transmission ended.
"He's worried."

Anika smiled.
"He's always worried."

The road curved sharply to the right, disappearing beneath a dense canopy of pine and hardwood.

The SUV rounded the bend.
Anika's smile faded.

A county utility truck sat diagonally across one lane. Its hazard lights blinked lazily against the morning sun.

One man wearing a reflective safety vest knelt beside the front tire while another stood farther ahead, waving approaching traffic to slow.

Routine.
Ordinary.
Too ordinary.

Ares erupted into thunderous barking.
Not warning barks.
Protection barks.

Every instinct Anika possessed snapped to attention.

"Lock your door," she said quietly.
Lizzy looked up immediately.
"What?"
"Now."
Without question, Lizzy hit the lock.

The man in the safety vest started toward the driver's side.

Too fast.
Too deliberate.
He never looked at the damaged tire.
Never glanced toward the truck.
His eyes stayed locked on the SUV.

Anika keyed the radio.
"Escort?"

Nothing.
Only static.

She tried again.
"Maksim?"

Silence.
The hair on the back of her neck stood up.

The man reached inside his vest.
"Out!" Anika shouted.

The world detonated.
The driver's window shattered inward as something slammed against it.

Not a bullet.
A hardened impact round.

Anika threw the door open before the second strike landed.
"Protect!"

Both rear doors burst open.
Ares launched first.

Nearly one hundred and sixty pounds of muscle collided with the nearest attacker.

The man's scream echoed through the trees.

Nyx streaked past Anika like a missile, driving another attacker backward before clamping onto his forearm.

Gunfire erupted.
Not wild.
Controlled.
Professional.

Anika drew her pistol.
"Lizzy!"
"I'm good!"
She wasn't.

Glass covered her jacket, but she was already moving around the passenger side, weapon drawn exactly as Fenrir had trained her.

Another attacker emerged from behind the utility truck.

Then another.
Too many.
This wasn't two men.
It never had been.

Ares ripped one attacker to the ground.
The man screamed as the massive Cane Corso crushed his forearm between powerful jaws.

Another raised his weapon toward the dog.
Anika fired.
The first shot shattered his shoulder.
The second struck center mass.
He collapsed without another sound.

Silence seemed to hang for half a heartbeat.
Every remaining attacker stared at her.

One of them shouted,
"She's armed!"
Everything changed.
"No more playing!" another barked. "Take her down!"

Three more men emerged from the tree line.
Anika's heart sank.
Reinforcements.
They'd been waiting.

"Lizzy, fall back!"
Instead, Lizzy fired.
Her shot caught one attacker high in the thigh.
He stumbled, crashing into another man as Nyx redirected instantly, driving both to the ground.
"Good girl!" Lizzy yelled.

Smoke erupted from somewhere behind the truck.
Dense.
Gray.
Artificial.
Visibility vanished.

Ares' deep bark thundered somewhere to Anika's left.
Nyx snarled somewhere ahead.
Another impact round struck Anika's vest hard enough to steal her breath.
She staggered but stayed upright.
Move.
Breathe.
Fight.
She fired twice toward movement in the smoke before ducking behind the SUV.

"Status!"
"Lizzy?"
"I'm here!"
Good.

Ares suddenly barreled through the haze, blood covering one side of his face.
Not all of it his.
He planted himself directly in front of Anika, growling so violently his entire body shook.
Then he lunged again.
Another scream.
Another body hit the pavement.

Someone yelled,
"Kill the damn dog!"
"No!" another answered immediately. "Objective first!"
Good.
They still wanted them alive.
That mattered.

Anika risked a glance around the rear of the SUV.
At least eight.
Maybe nine.
Far more than intelligence would have predicted.
This wasn't an ambush.
It was an operation.
The radio hissed again.
Nothing.
Communications jammed.
Maksim.
Please.
She checked her watch instinctively.
He should have been here by now.

Unless...

The realization hit like another impact round.
Separate roadblock.
Separate trap.

"Damn it..."

An attacker rushed her position.
Anika stepped out from cover and met him head-on.

Her elbow shattered his nose before she drove her pistol into his jaw.
He dropped.

Another grabbed her from behind.
She threw him over her hip, landing hard enough to hear ribs crack.

Then pain exploded across her side.
A baton.
She stumbled.
Recovered.
Fired.
Missed.
Smoke swallowed everything again.

"Ani!"
Lizzy.
Too far away.
Anika turned.

Two attackers had Lizzy pinned against the passenger side of the SUV.
She fought like hell.
Kicked.
Elbowed.
Bit one across the hand when he reached for her weapon.
He screamed.
She drove her knee into another man's stomach.
For one glorious second she broke free.
Then someone struck her from behind.
She collapsed to one knee.

"Lizzy!"
Anika sprinted.
A man stepped directly into her path.
She fired.
Click.
Empty.

Before she could transition to another weapon, an impact round slammed into her shoulder.
A second struck her thigh.
Her leg buckled.

Ares hit the attacker before he could advance further, tearing him backward into the ditch.
Another gunshot.
A sharp yelp.
Nyx stumbled.
The world slowed.
"No!"

Nyx regained her footing almost immediately, favoring one front leg but refusing to retreat.
She charged again.
Stubborn.
Brilliant.
Fearless.
Exactly as she'd been trained.
Anika's chest swelled with fierce pride.
Then another smoke canister burst.
Visibility disappeared completely.

Hands grabbed her.
One.
Two.
Three.
She fought.
Elbows.
Headbutt.
Knees.
Someone cursed as her forehead split his lip.
Another cried out when she drove a knife into his shoulder.
Still they kept coming.
Weight.
Numbers.
Coordination.

They weren't beating her because they were better.

They were beating her because there were simply too many.

Her last clear glimpse through the smoke was of Ares.

Still fighting.
Still refusing to yield.
Still trying to reach her.

"Ares!"
His head snapped toward her voice.
Their eyes met.
“Get help!”

Then someone pulled a hood over her head.
Darkness swallowed everything.

The last sound Anika heard before the world disappeared was Ares' furious roar echoing through the trees.

And somewhere in the distance...
Too far away.
Much too far away...

An engine accelerating toward the fight.