She hit the brakes. The camera showed two figures already out of the van, rushing toward her. How the hell had they managed to track her? She’d been so careful. There was no time to think about that right now. Helen calmly put the car in park, released her seat belt, and removed a compact Sig Sauer pistol from the purse lying flat on the passenger seat. She pushed her door open and leaned out of the car, snapping off four center-mass shots at the closest ski-masked attacker.

The man dropped to his knees and pitched forward, his head catching the corner of the rear bumper. He immediately crumpled to the pavement, lying motionless in the red glow of the car’s taillights as she slipped out of the car and searched for the second attacker. She found the assailant retreating fast, her bullets shattering glass and puncturing metal until he disappeared behind the van’s hood.

A door slammed shut behind her, prompting Helen to spin and reflex fire at a masked figure illuminated by her car’s headlights. The man grabbed his neck and screamed an obscenity before scrambling out of her line of fire. She emptied the pistol’s few remaining rounds into the pickup’s tinted windows, hoping for the best, before digging a spare pistol magazine out of her coat pocket. Everything went still after she slammed the magazine home and released the pistol slide. Too still. Nothing but humming engines and a faint ringing in her ears.

Were they holding their fire to avoid accidentally hitting Wilson? Doubtful. A moderately skilled shooter from either vehicle could hit her without endangering him. With that thought in mind, she slid back into the car and shut the door, making sure to stay low enough in the seat to see forward while presenting the smallest possible target.

To keep an eye on both threat directions at once, she engaged the parking brake and shifted into reverse, activating the backup camera and alert system while keeping the car in place. If they moved on her from the direction of the van, she’d receive an audible warning. Next, Helen locked all the doors. She spent the next several moments listening and observing. Still nothing. Even Wilson had gone silent.

“Now what?” she muttered.

They had her boxed in, and she didn’t see much hope in trying to ram her way past either vehicle. Her sedan didn’t stand much of a chance of sufficiently budging either the oversize pickup truck or van out of the way without inflicting catastrophic damage to her own car. A thorough scan of her surroundings suggested that they’d put some thought into the location of this roadblock.