An action snippet from The Templar Reprisals

I asked a friend if he had read The Templar Reprisals.  He explained that he preferred my Steve Dancy Tales. On further discussion, I discovered he had read none of The Best Thrillers. He insisted he only read shoot-em-ups. Well, this snippet from The Templar Reprisals is for him

“Trish, are you okay?”

“Yes, but I heard shots. Where are you?”

“Two cars ambushed me at our gate. Only one has given chase. The others may try to get through our security. Code Union. Understand?”

“Yes.”

Trish became quiet, but he could hear heavy breathing. Good. That meant she was racing to their saferoom. He and Trish had set up Code Union to mean race for their saferoom which was hidden in the master suite.

Early in his police career he had advised the wealthy on home security. Now, he was among the rich, so he had a state-of-the-art system. They lived on an outcropping in the San Ynez Mountains, and the only access was a serpentine road that twisted away from Santa Barbara. After a couple squealing turns, Evarts heard Trish say she was in. He ended the call. She was safe.

Now, how to deal with these assholes behind him?

He suddenly tapped the brakes and then accelerated, repeating the process several times. As he slowed, he hoped it looked like he had run out of gas. The chase car came barreling on. When it was fifty feet away, Evarts slammed on the brakes, coming to a complete stop, then put it in reverse and punched it. He aimed right at the chase car. To avoid a crash, the car swerved to the center of the road. Evarts swung the back of his pickup to meet the pursuit car’s right front bumper. The sedan was no match for the heavy truck. The off-center hit spun the sedan and sent it flying into the low brush off the road. Evarts broke hard, unsnapped his seatbelt, and as he threw open his truck door, pulled his Glock .40 handgun. Before the pursuing car came to a rest, Evarts was racing toward the car.

Not fast enough.

Two men flew out of the car. Both with guns. Evarts shot the driver before he could raise his weapon. The assailant on the passenger side rested his gun on the roof of the sedan and fired three shots. Evarts had already dived to the ground. He rolled twice and got to his knees opposite the driver’s wide-open door. Firing through the car, Evarts shot the second assailant twice in the stomach, then snapped to his full height to shoot over the roof. He put a single shot into the head of the assailant.