Robert unholsters his pistol and cocks the trigger. He unbuckled his seatbelt and looked back at Avery with grim determination.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Howel, I won't let anything happen to you," he says.

Avery bites her lip and looks at Gabrielle. Gabrielle's face is pale with fear, and she's shaking violently. Avery unbuckles Gabrielle's seatbelt and pushes her flat onto the backseat.

"Don't be afraid, Gabby," Avery says. "Just keep down and try not to move."

Gabrielle looks up at Avery with wide, fearful eyes and asks, "Avery, is that a gun?"

"Yes, it is," Avery says. "It may not look like much, but it's strong. Don't worry, and I'll protect us."

A loud blast of machine-gun fire shatters the tense silence. The car violently jerks as bullets spray the back and the sides. The glass in the windshield cracks and the metal sides of the car start to crumble. The town car is bulletproof, but it can't withstand an endless attack. The driver turns sharply down an empty road, and Gabrielle and Avery slam into the side of the car.

Avery rubs her aching side and pushes Gabrielle off of her. With one hand, she grabs a handlebar above the window, and she squints through the cracked glass at the back of the car. She raises her gun, but she knows better than to fire—the damaged window is their only protection.

"Where the hell is you," Robert shouts into his emergency walkie-talkie. "Outflank them!" He glances over his shoulder and shouts at Gabrielle and Avery, "Both of you get down!"

Robert climbs over the divider and joins Avery and Gabrielle in the backseat. He pushes Gabrielle down onto the floor of the car and reaches for Avery, but she slaps his arm away. Behind the town car, a second SUV has joined the first. Men with machine guns hang out the open windows and fire in the town car.

"Robert, don't worry about me," Avery says, "I can take care of myself."

She knows that her little pistol is no match against the men with machine guns. Evan taught her how to shoot with perfect accuracy, but that's little help in a firefight. She bites her lip and watches as Robert rolls down the right window. He sticks his hand out and squeezes off a round of shots. He aims for the SUV's tires, and the bullets spark orange and yellow where they hit the concrete road.

Robert pulls his arm back inside and rolls up the window as the attackers return fire. Suddenly, the town car tilts dangerously to the left—the attackers have shot one of the tires. Avery slams into Robert's side, and the man groans loudly. A loud, high-pitched sound comes from somewhere in the car—it takes Avery several moments to realize that Gabrielle is screaming.

"Gabby, hush," Avery says. "I need to think."

Robert fumbles in his pocket and pulls out another round of bullets. With quick, practiced movements, he reloads his gun and rolls down the window. He squeezes the trigger and aims at the nearest SUV. There's a loud popping sound as the car's front tire explodes. The SUV rolls onto its side and flips into a ditch on the side of the road. The other SUV speeds forward until it's just inches away from the back of the town car.

"Drive faster," Robert shouts.

The SUV bumps the back of the town car, and Avery falls backward, landing on top of Gabrielle. She climbs back onto the leather seat and watches in horror as the SUV swerves to the left and then the right. They're trying to run us off the road, she thinks.

Robert rolls down the window and aims for the SUV's windshield. The bullets crack the bulletproof glass, but they don't stop the SUV. There's a sudden flash of machine-gun fire from the SUV, and Robert screams. A bullet slices his arm, and he drops the gun. He pulls his arm back into the car and collapses against the backseat. His face is pale with pain, and dark blood stains the sleeve of his shirt.

"Robert!" Avery screams.

She rips the skirt of her dress, grateful that she's wearing thin cotton. She wraps the fabric around Robert's injured arm and ties it tightly to stop the bleeding. She looks out the back window and feels her heart skip a beat. The men are pointing a small rocket launcher out of the side of the SUV. She grits her teeth and cocks her little gun.

"Open the sunroof," she says.

"What are you going to do?" Robert asks.

"I'm going to shoot them," she says with grim determination.

"No, that's far too dangerous," Robert says. "Just get down. Reinforcements are on the way."

"We don't have time to wait for them," Avery says. "They've got a rocket launcher; if they fire, we're all dead."

"Avery, no!" Gabrielle screams from the floor.

Avery looks down at Gabrielle and sees her fumbling in her backpack. Gabrielle pulls out a cellphone and taps out a message. Her hands are shaking so badly she almost drops the phone. Who is she texting at a time like this? Avery wonders.

The sunroof slides open, and Avery slowly stands up. She sticks her head and chest out of the window and almost collapsed at once; the car is moving so fast that the wind feels like a solid wall. She gasps for breath, but it's almost impossible to breathe. She raises the gun and squints at the men holding the rocket launcher. She curls her finger around the trigger and braces herself against the recoil.

But before she can fire, the men with the rocket launcher disappear back into the SUV. They roll up the windows, and the SUV screeches to a quick stop. Avery ducks back into the town car and watches the SUV get smaller and smaller in the rear window.

"I don't understand," she says. "They went to all that trouble to track us down, and then they just gave up—what happened?"

"Maybe it was just a warning," Robert says. "Maybe Jackson just wants us to know that he's capable of killing you at any time."

"Jackson?" Avery asks. "I know he's angry at Evan, but do you really think he'd go this far?"

Gabrielle's phone beeps loudly, and she shakily pulls herself up from the backseat. She glances down at the screen, and her face goes even paler.

"What is it?" Avery asks.

"It's nothing," Gabrielle says quickly, stuffing her phone back into her backpack. "Just a wrong number."

"We need to get you both to safety," Robert says. "It looks like they've stopped the attack, but it could be some sort of trick. I'm guessing that you were the target, Mrs. Howel. Your sister will be safer back at her campus than with you. I'll send extra bodyguards just to be safe."

"Oh, um, that's really not necessary," Gabrielle says. "I'm sure I'll be fine without them."

"Nonsense," Avery says.

Gabrielle chews her lip nervously as the town car speeds toward her university. When it pulls up outside the main gates, a team of eight bodyguards is waiting. Avery gives her sister a quick hug and watches as she gets out and walks through the gates, followed by the men. Even from a distance, Avery can see that Gabrielle's head is bent over her phone, and she seems to be sending another text.

By the time they arrive at the Howel mansion, the grounds look like the camp of a small army. Armored cars and bodyguards wait for information, and men with machine guns stand next to the family helicopter. Evan stands at the front gate, and his face was twisted with horrible anger. Avery shudders and looks away, grateful that he can't see her through the tinted windows.

The town car slows, and Evan jerks the door open. He pulls Avery out, and half carried, half dragged her towards the house. Bodyguards form a circle around them and jog along with them. Another group of guards carries Robert on an emergency stretcher.

David Walter is waiting in the entryway with his medical kit. The bodyguards put the stretcher on top of a metal surgical table, and David turns on a powerful lamp. He unwraps the makeshift bandage Avery made and looks critically at Robert's wound.

"Um, shouldn't Robert go to the hospital?" Avery asks.

"No, I can do this here," David says. "I was trained as a field medic, too, you know." He looks down at Robert and asks the butler, "Do you want a sedative?"

Robert grits his teeth and shakes his head no. David balls up a clean piece of cloth and stuffs it into Robert's mouth. He grabs a scalpel and slices into Robert's skin. Avery winces and looks away.

Evan grabs her arm and asks, "Where are you hurt?"