Kinimaka pushed the throttle as hard as he dared. Something as powerful as a speedboat could quickly flip and crash in the hands of an inexperienced driver. The chopper soared high into the sky and then angled towards them, men dangling from its open doors with weapons aimed.
The chopper came alongside. Kinimaka turned sharply just as the bad guys opened fire. The boat swerved with a massive plume of water and spray, sending a wave across the helicopter’s bows. The machine jerked when the pilot became unsighted and one of the shooters lost his grip and fell screaming into the ocean.
“Hope Blackbeard’s waiting down there for you, you asshole,” Kinimaka breathed.
The helicopter was swinging around again. Head on, Hayden fired a few shots. Even this close her small revolver struggled to hit the target but she saw at least one of the bullets smash a spider-pattern into the windshield.
But without veering an iota off course the huge machine ploughed on.
This time Kinimaka swerved them underneath the chopper, but the pilot had guessed their strategy. He jerked on the collective, shot the chopper up and over the huge surge of water and dropped it down on the other side.
Good pilot, Hayden thought as she lined his forehead up between her sights and pulled the trigger.
Men’s bodies were dangling so far out of the chopper doors that the only way they could stay grounded was by other men hanging on to their ankles. A mighty strafe of machine-gun fire erupted. Hayden felt white heat tangle her hair and pass so close to her temple that it left heat residue on her skin.
She fell back, staring up at the bright sky. It had all almost ended right then. Little blisters of heat still festered on her temple.
But then the chopper dived and headed straight for the speedboat.
Drake kicked out the squawking sports car owner and jumped behind the wheel. Once the others were inside he set off at pace.
Checked the rear view. No bad guys were coming around that corner yet.
Alicia was grinning from ear to ear. “Fucksake Drake!” She shouted. “That sure made me horny. And keeping to the pirate vernacular — want me to walk your plank?”
Hudson laughed along with her, obviously accepting her for what she was. Maybe that was why she liked the bearded geek. And now Drake knew she did like the lad. He had seen her covering him with her body, protecting him, making sure he didn’t stray too far. He had never imagined Alicia Myles would fall for a man.
The old Alicia would have been positioning his chunky body in front of her at every turn. And on top of that, he wondered, why had she decided to change sides?
Did she know something about the Blood King?
Drake stepped on the accelerator, weaving in and out of traffic, enjoying the roar of the refined engine. They had outstripped their followers by miles. He found his mobile and tapped the speed dial.
Kennedy heard the phone ring and practically wet herself. Machine-guns had just opened fire. The boats deck had been hit badly, and was taking on water. All they needed at the next pass was for one of the bad guys to grow a brain and aim for the engine.
“What?”
“Alright, love? It’s Matt.”
“I know. Where are you?”
“Leaving Key West by car. You?”
How the hell could he sound so serene and matter-of-fact? “We’re in a goddamn firefight here!” In the background she could hear young Ben chatting to his dad and laughing. Their world seemed a more than a world away.
The chopper was coming in low. Kinimaka had steered the speedboat close to the embankment that led to Highway 1, the overseas highway that linked the Keys to Florida and Miami. They were so close they could see the people in their cars craning over to take a look.
“Are you on Highway 1 yet?”
“Just. Why?”
In the next moment the roar of the chopper drowned out everything except fear and adrenalin and personal well-being. The skids hovered inches from the racing speedboat. Men were now standing on the skids, taking better aim. Hayden picked off two and sent them somersaulting through the turbulence into the sea.
More men stepped out to the slaughter.
Was Boudreau in the chopper? Hayden wondered. Or on the other end of a phone, promising a harsh death to anyone who betrayed him.
Kinimaka threw his gun to Kennedy. He needed to concentrate on keeping them straight. Highway 1 loomed to their right. A bridge was coming up fast. If the speedboat flew under the bridge it might gain them a second or two.
“Three rounds left!” Kinimaka shouted. “Don’t waste ‘em!”
“Never do.” Kennedy took aim and sent another man hurtling to his death. Drake was shouting down the phone now, asking for their position. By the sound he couldn’t be that far behind.
Then she saw him to their right. A bright yellow drop-top Hummer with four people somehow crammed inside. She stared.
Jesus, Drake was stood in the passenger side taking aim with Alicia’s machine- gun.
Everything else was just a shrieking blur.
All three vehicles rocketed along at breakneck speed. The chopper beside the speedboat, the Hummer on the road beside them, keeping pace. Bullets flew from one to the other. Water and debris from the embankment slewed and sheeted over the bottom of the chopper and the sides of the boat. Kennedy slipped and started rolling around the boat. Hayden picked another bad guy off and then shook her weapon.
“Last one,” she flung it aside.
Then the skids of the chopper clipped the speed boat, making the watercraft swing up the embankment. Stones and moss and paper erupted from underneath. The boat hit the water again with a jarring thud but the manoeuvre had hurt them.
The chopper came in again.
In that moment Drake fired his machine-gun. A string of high-powered rounds clattered across the chopper’s windshield, stitching a desperate mouth shape into the glass. Blood sprayed around the cockpit and burst out through the bullet holes. The chopper veered up and then down. Men went free-falling from its wide-open doors, screaming all the way to their deaths.
The helicopter came crashing down onto the embankment as the speedboat flashed underneath it. The explosion shook the day apart. Metal and body parts and engine oil burst in every direction.
Kennedy stared at the wreckage they left in their wake. The sudden silence left by the departure of the chopper was almost deafening.
On the road above, Drake was waving at them to slide part-way up the embankment.
“Pull up there!” Hayden directed Kinimaka. “The car will be safer. They don’t know how Drake escaped.”
“Hopefully,” Kennedy mumbled as she began to crawl up the embankment.
In another moment Alicia Myles’ grinning face greeted them. “Not bad for a set of Yanks,” she shouted through the window. “Get the fuck in then. Let’s go!”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Headlights cut through the darkness, dead-straight, carving bright columns through the black night.
Key Largo was well behind them. They were approaching the city lights of Miami. Rows and rows of restaurants and gas stations and strip malls opened up on every side. They stopped briefly at a highly efficient Denny’s before heading further into the mix of dark and light that was the centre of Miami.
“Fountainbleu?” Ben asked from the back.
“Not this time,” Hayden said. “We should work on the assumption that everything is compromised just as our safe-house was. Remember Jonathan’s last words: Trust no one. Just me.”
“So let’s contact Gates first,” Drake said. “Tell him what we have. And then find a place to stay. Sound good?”