Brainrush 04 - Everlast 01: Everlast Read Online Free PDF Page A

slammed into the car, her eyes widening further with each
blow. She trembled but nodded rapidly and rose to a crouch. 
    “Attagirl,” Jake said, focusing his thoughts and wrapping
her in a mantle of determination.
    He pulled out the keys to his Jeep. “Stay low but move fast.
My car is three rows over.” He took off in a crouched run, zigzagging between the
first row of cars. Doc and Eloise were close behind. More shots sounded, but
the impacts were behind them. For the moment, they were hidden from their
pursuers.
    Then a man’s voice shouted from dead ahead, “Fan out!”
    Jake skidded to a stop.
    They’d never make it to his Jeep before this new group
reached that same row. “Where’s your car?” he asked Doc.
    “Two rows over. Follow me!” Doc hurried to their left,
moving quickly despite his age. Eloise was right behind him.
    Jake hesitated, holding his key fob just above the tops of
the cars as he pressed the lock button. His Jeep’s horn chirped.
    “There!” a voice shouted.
    The ruse would buy Jake and his friends a few seconds while
the assassins converged on the wrong car.
    He caught up to Doc and Eloise as Doc was cracking open the
door on his Ford Mustang GT rental car. “I’ll drive,” Jake whispered, taking
the keys. “You two get in the back. Heads down. Don’t slam your doors.”
    Once inside, he spotted four armed Asian men moving toward
his Jeep, one with a rifle, the others with pistols. They slowed, glancing
around, apparently unsure whether or not their prey was in the vehicle. Jake held
his Jeep key out the window and pushed the remote-start button. Even from two
rows away, he heard the deep-throated rumble of the Hemi V8 come to life. All
four men turned in unison toward the Jeep, moving quickly.
    “Hang on!” Jake cranked the engine on the Mustang, backed
out of the space, and floored it, thankful for the GT model’s extra horsepower.
The tires squealed, the car leaped forward, and Eloise whimpered from the rear
seat.
    He avoided the single paved exit of the large lot, veering
instead toward a short rise and stand of trees dead ahead. The car lurched hard
over the curb, fishtailing as it climbed the soft dirt. In the rearview mirror
he saw three of the men racing toward a black SUV. The fourth stood his ground
and raised the rifle to his shoulder. The muzzle flashed and two slugs hit the
trunk with heavy thunks. Jake jinked the Mustang from side to side, sliding
through a narrow gap in the trees, bounding down the opposite side of the embankment,
and bouncing onto the road that bisected the VA campus.
    As he sped toward the freeway, he dug his phone from his
pocket and handed it over the seat to Doc. “Take this,” he shouted. “I need you
to send a group text.”

Chapter 6
Redondo Beach, California
    F RANCESCA SAGGED INTO the stiff chair beside
the pharmacy window. She missed her father. It had been four months since she
and Jake and the children had last visited him in Venice. He’d been thrilled to
see them, his gondolier spirit hearty and strong as ever. It had been a tearful
good-bye when they’d left a week later.
    It was difficult for her and her father to be apart after thirty
years of living together. He’d raised her as a single parent for most of her
life; she’d been nine when her mother died. But her father never regretted his
daughter building a new life in California. To the contrary, he’d encouraged it,
insisting she followed her heart. It was her childhood dream come true—loving
someone with the same depth her mama had loved her papa. Francesca had found
her man in Jake, one like no other—in so many ways. 
    This morning’s news from the doctors had changed everything.
The moment she told her husband the truth, the dream would end.
    She choked back her sadness, recalling Jake’s guarded
behavior with Doc. Was trouble brewing on that front as well? The nagging
concern wormed its way around her belly and reminded her he’d left a voice
mail. As she