John Wick - Chapter 88: Ambush. Danger Strikes! (Patreon)

Nate sat in the passenger seat while Elena and John occupied the back, still talking about something between themselves.

The driver was an older white man with a kindly face, somewhere around fifty. Robert had worked for the New York Continental for years and was considered completely trustworthy.

He was a good driver, too. Even at high speed, he kept the ride smooth and steady.

Still, Nate couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

“I’ve got a really bad feeling about this,” he muttered.

The unease had been there ever since he got into the car.

“Don’t jinx us!” Elena immediately shot back. “Robert, don’t listen to him.”

As usual, she never missed a chance to bicker with Nate.

Robert chuckled from behind the wheel. “It’s fine, Elena. I’ll pick up the pace and get you to the airport as quickly as possible.”

Nate nodded, then turned serious.

“What do you think, John?”

“Something does feel off,” John said.

Bzz. Bzz.

All of their phones vibrated at the same time.

Nate quickly pulled his out and checked the message.

“It’s Winston. John, someone put another contract on you.” Nate laughed. “Four million this time. Your price went up again.”

He did the math and whistled.

“Between the two of us, we’re worth almost six million now. Damn.”

Elena raised a hand.

“There’s still about four hundred thousand on my head.”

Nate gave an exasperated laugh.

“Perfect. We’ve got the whole set.”

“Can Winston find out who posted it?” Elena asked, sounding worried.

“It was anonymous, but Winston checked through his own access. Santino’s mother posted the contract. He also managed to delay it from going active for an hour.”

“Mr. Wick, what do we do now?” Elena asked. “Are we still going to the airport?”

“Robert, take us to the D’Antonio family first. Nate, have Winston move our flight to tomorrow.”

“Uh...”

Nate paused.

“Do we really need to make this so complicated? Why don’t you just call Gianna?”

John went quiet for a moment.

“Good point.”

He took out his phone.

“Who’s Gianna?” Elena asked, looking confused.

“You’ll find out when we get to Rome,” Nate said with a grin.

Just imagining that meeting was entertaining enough.

After John spoke with Gianna, another message from Winston arrived a short while later.

The public contract had been canceled.

“Must be nice having connections,” Nate teased.

But the moment he finished speaking, his expression changed.

The contract was gone, yet the sense of dread hadn’t faded.

If anything, it was getting worse.

“What the hell...”

Nate looked down at his hands.

He had never felt anything like this before.

He turned toward John and Elena in the back seat, his expression completely serious.

“John, something’s still wrong.”

The fear in his chest suddenly intensified.

His nerves tightened.

And then he felt it.

The threat was the car.

“Robert, pull over,” Nate said sharply.

Robert didn’t slow down.

Instead, he slammed his foot on the accelerator.

The car surged forward.

Wrong.

John’s expression immediately changed.

So did Elena’s.

Nate hooked the ring with the middle finger of his left hand, and a throwing knife dropped into his palm.

Without hesitation, he drove it straight into Robert’s accelerator leg like a spike.

The blade punched through hard enough to break bone.

Robert’s leg went limp.

His foot slipped from the gas, and the car finally began to lose speed.

Nate ripped the knife free and slashed across both of Robert’s wrists in two rapid movements, severing the tendons.

Blood sprayed across the front of the car.

Robert didn’t even have time to scream before Nate drove a fist into his temple and knocked him unconscious against the seat.

Nate tossed the knife aside, grabbed Robert’s other leg with both hands, and forced it down onto the brake.

The tires screamed against the asphalt, leaving a long black trail across the road.

Nate yanked the handbrake.

“Out! Everybody out! Move!”

They threw open the doors and sprinted toward the roadside.

They hadn’t even made it twenty meters when a deafening blast erupted behind them.

The car exploded.

It wasn’t a small explosion either.

Whoever had rigged the vehicle had used powerful explosives. Even from that distance, the blast stunned Nate for a split second.

But he didn’t have time to freeze.

The shockwave came rushing toward them, carrying chunks of the car with it.

With his enhanced vision, Nate spotted a large piece of wreckage flying straight toward Elena’s head.

He instantly threw a knife.

The blade struck the debris and knocked it off course.

Nate dropped flat.

John threw himself across the ground and dragged Elena down before she could react.

A second explosion erupted from the car.

Another shockwave rolled over them, pelting Nate with gravel and smaller fragments.

After a moment, Nate lifted his head and checked the wreckage.

With an explosion like that, there was no way Robert had survived.

Once he was sure nothing else was about to detonate, Nate shouted, “Everyone okay?”

John and Nate were fine apart from some dirt on their clothes.

Elena had several scrapes along her exposed forearm from hitting the ground, but nothing serious.

John could take care of himself.

Elena was the one Nate was worried about.

He quickly checked her over.

No major injuries.

“Good. If anything happened to you, I’d have no idea how to explain it.”

“Nate... thanks.”

Elena still looked shaken.

She had sensed the danger too, but she hadn’t been fast enough to react. Without Nate’s throwing knife, that piece of wreckage would have either killed her or left her horribly injured.

“Don’t mention it.”

Nate waved it off, then thought for a moment.

“John, call Gianna. Elena, call Winston. Have them both start digging. I want to know exactly what the hell is going on.”

Elena took out her phone, her expression falling.

“Robert watched me grow up... How could he betray us?”

“We’ll deal with Robert later.”

Nate patted her shoulder.

“First we figure this out and deal with whoever’s behind it. Then we can keep moving.”

He looked at both of them.

“Don’t forget. We still have a mission.”

While John and Elena made their calls, Nate sat by the side of the road with his pistol drawn, keeping himself in combat mode.

The [Baba Yaga] Trait allowed him to sense threats regardless of distance while he was in combat.

That ability had just saved his life.

Right now, he needed to make full use of it.

This incident had been a serious wake-up call.

Nate had thought he was already strong enough to handle almost anything.

Yet the three of them had nearly died because of something none of them had seen coming.

He never imagined that even a private car arranged by the Continental could be compromised.

John finished his call and walked over.

“Gianna found a large amount of money missing from her mother’s account. Separate from the four million used for the public contract.”

John slipped his phone into his pocket, his face grim.

“That money never went through the Continental’s contract system.”

“She hired other assassins directly. The deposits have already been paid and were split into three transfers sent to separate anonymous accounts.”

“Gianna still needs time to identify exactly who was hired.”

Elena ended her call as well.

She walked over and bowed toward them.

“Nate, Mr. Wick, Winston asked me to apologize to both of you on behalf of the New York Continental.”

Nate waved a hand.

“Skip the formalities. I need information.”

Beside him, John nodded without expression.

“As far as the other two assassins are concerned, Winston found the same thing John did. He’ll need more time to identify them.”

Elena hesitated.

“But he did find out what happened with Robert. Do you want to hear it?”

Nate was about to say no, but John spoke first.

“Tell us.”

Elena lowered her gaze.

“Robert’s son is seriously ill. The treatment requires a huge amount of money.”

“He planned to die with us. The deposit had already been paid. If he succeeded, the rest of the money would be transferred to his wife’s account.”

“Fuck!” Nate snapped. “Winston didn’t know about this? Robert couldn’t borrow the money?”

“Three and a half million dollars isn’t exactly easy to borrow,” Elena said quietly, grief heavy in her voice.

“What kind of treatment costs three and a half million dollars?”

Nate’s anger flared.

John placed a hand on his shoulder.

“Here? A lot of illnesses.”

His voice was low.

“And even three and a half million might not be enough to save someone.”

“Fuck...”

Nate lowered his head.

For a while, he said nothing.

Then he quietly murmured, “He’s dead now. Let Robert go.”

When Nate looked up again, his eyes were burning with anger.

“John, tell Gianna this.”

“For your sake, I’m giving her two hours.”

“If she can’t clean this up by then, she’ll never see her mother again.”