She felt momentarily disoriented as her head stopped spinning from the abrupt force. There was a moment Payton feared she was going to throw up. Doing a mental assessment of herself, she was unharmed and just a little bruised.
Her car was now facing north instead of west and in line with oncoming traffic. The vehicle that had hit her was facing her. Its front end still intact thanks to the grille guard. It was a giant SUV. She couldn’t make out the driver, but she could see there were two people in the vehicle. The silhouette of the passenger was huge while the driver was slimmer. It couldn’t be a coincidence. Smith and Jones.
The SUV came at her again, slamming into her front end. Payton gritted her teeth as she jerked forward from the impact. She hit the brakes hoping it would stop her from moving backwards. Smoke rose from her tires with the effort of trying to stay in one place.
The impatient car from behind her sat there watching her as she was pushed off the road like a piece of speck under a broom. Payton hit the gas, but the SUV weighed more and kept pushing her car backward with little effort.
A car horn blared as it narrowly avoided colliding with her as it went by. Payton switched to reverse and punched the gas as another car came barreling by, clipping the back end of the SUV. Payton whipped the car around and slid into drive as she navigated the narrow streets to avoid further collisions.
Glancing in her rearview mirror, she saw the SUV pushing through the car she’d almost collided with. It had bought her a moment’s reprieve. The SUV got out of the traffic jam and hurtled toward her. Payton let them.
Between her dad and the academy, she was a pro at evasive maneuvers. She didn’t want to lose these guys, but she didn’t want to risk pedestrians when she did get these guys to pull over.
The SUV stayed close on her tail. As she came around a sharp corner, the vehicle clipped her back end, causing it to slide out further than she was prepared for. So she didn’t fish trail, Payton quickly turned the wheel to correct the car. That had been too close.
What she wouldn’t give for a faster car. As much as she loved this car, it wasn’t at all equipped to handle car chases.
“Just a little longer,” she told her car as she led the SUV to a sparely populated area. Up ahead was a small, wooded area away from houses and traffic. The perfect place to confront these men. After getting a look at Colin and Alex, she knew these men would not go down easily. She was confident in her skills, but even she knew she couldn’t handle these two alone in hand to hand.
The smartest thing to do would have been to lead them to the police station where backup would have been available, but it was too late now. Her only thought had been to draw them away from the public.
Payton cringed and swerved as her driver window exploded. She raised her arm, shielding her face from the worst of the flying glass. The SUV was now coming up beside her, almost parallel. Smith had his own window down and his gun was aimed for her.
She slammed on the brakes, the car swerving from the sudden change of speed, and turned the vehicle sideways to use as a shield.
The SUV hit their brakes and ended up a few hundred feet in front of her. Payton drew her weapon and aimed at their car, her arms draped over the hood of her car as she waited. Her body was calm and relaxed. Her hands steady as her finger hovered over the trigger.
Time seemed to slow as she waited to see what the men would do next. No one opened a car door. No one spoke.
“Colorado Springs PD, come out of the vehicle with your hands up,” she announced loud and clear.
There was no response.
“This is your last warning.”
Several pops came from the SUV blowing out its back window. Payton ducked down as rounds pinged against her car, blowing out more of her windows. Her poor car. She waited until there was a pause before standing up and returning fire.
No one was standing outside of the SUV which meant they were either hiding inside or using their own vehicle as a shield. A bullet whizzed past her head coming from the left. Damn, they’d split up as they’d fired at her. They weren’t near the vehicle at all.
She looked around for a new hiding place, but her ingenious decision to find a sparse location to avoid casualties also didn’t supply much cover for her. Her car would only be able to hold on for so much longer. Payton debated calling for backup but knew they’d never get to her in time. She was a sitting duck.
“Come on out, Miss. Weber. All we want to do is talk,” Jones yelled out.
Talk, yeah right.
“If it’s for your surrender than I accept,” she yelled back while trying to look for where he was standing. Payton could hear him but not see him. He must be standing behind a tree.
“We just want the envelope, then you’re free to go.”
Highly doubtful. She knew who they were. There wasn’t a chance they’d let her walk away. The only way out of this now was to fight her way out. Good thing she always came prepared.
She opened the passenger door on the driver side and pulled down the release at the head rest to lower the seat down so she could reach in the back and pulled out her duffel bag. She dug through until she found her Colt M4.
She switched the safety off as she caught sight of Smith trying to sneak up on her. Payton fired off a few shots, watching him scramble back behind the tree he’d been hiding behind. She didn’t want to kill him; dead men didn’t talk, and they had a lot of explaining to do.
Not forgetting about Jones, she whirled around in time to catch him coming up the passenger side of her car. She fired a few shots at his feet, but he was braver than Smith and kept coming at her. He peeked through the window then tried opening her passenger door. Payton’s next shot clipped his arm.
He cursed out in pain and fired wildly at her as a car came peeling around the corner coming up behind her. Adjusting to the new threat, Payton ducked down to make herself a smaller target and spun around to face the new threat. For a moment she feared she was about to be ambushed, but then she recognized the car. The cavalry had shown up. One she didn’t want or need.