Abby’s hands were still bound at the wrists. She could run but not fight. They wouldn’t pursue her. Dax wouldn’t, at least, and the woman he’d called Lisa Boone was of his breed. They’d calculate risk and reward, and they’d run.
But they wouldn’t leave Shannon Beckley behind. The witness who couldn’t run or hide was the witness who would be eliminated.
Abby started downhill again, moving quietly, chasing the shadows. The bridge was bathed in blackness, but as she watched, a figure leaped from the upper bridge, beneath the railroad tracks, and landed on the footbridge, catching the rail with his left hand. In that moment when he flickered through the night, Abby knew who’d come out victorious in the showdown between assassins.
Dax hadn’t wasted his advantage. Those early minutes in the darkness, all-seeing and all-knowing as he waited for an unprepared adversary, had been put to good use.
His attention was diverted from the car now, though. The bridge crowned above the river, and the shooting had taken place near the opposite shore, which meant his view of the parking lot would be minimal. Abby stayed as low as she could, approaching the Jeep, and just before she reached for the door handle, she felt the overwhelming certainty that it would be locked and she would have come down here for no reason but to guarantee her death.
Right then, there was another clap on the bridge. A second shot.
She knelt and turned her hands palms up, like a beggar, and got her fingertips under the door handle. She pulled, bracing for the interior lights that would come on like a prison guard’s searchlight, pinning her escape attempt.
The door opened, and darkness remained.
She’s just like him, Abby realized. The woman named Boone had shut off the automatic lights. She was just like him, favoring control at all times.
And she was dead now.
Abby leaned into the car. Shannon Beckley was in the backseat, a strip of duct tape over her mouth. Her hands rested in her lap, bound with zip-ties, similar to Abby.
“We need to run,” Abby whispered. “Can you—”
She didn’t need to finish the question; Shannon was already shaking her head. She moved her foot and Abby heard a metallic jingle, looked down, and saw that Shannon was cuffed to something beneath the seat. Maybe to the seat itself.
Shit, shit, shit.
Shannon made a jutting motion with her chin, a series of upward nudges, like a cat seeking attention, and Abby understood what she meant. Shannon was telling her to run. To save herself. Just as Hank once had, and back then Abby had listened and lived.
Abby shook her head. She stayed in place, heart skittering, trying to keep her breathing as silent as possible while she looked around the car for any help, any weapon. There was nothing — except for a phone in the cup holder.
She reached for it excitedly, fumbling with her bound hands, and only when she’d secured it in her grasp did she recognize that it wasn’t a source of help at all. It wasn’t even a phone. It was Oltamu’s fake.
She dropped the phone with disgust, then jerked with surprise when Shannon Beckley kicked the back of the passenger seat, hard. Abby looked up into her fierce eyes and watched Shannon look pointedly at the center console.
Abby found the latch, lifted the console cover, and saw Shannon’s cell phone resting there.
Beside the phone was a set of car keys with a Hertz keychain.
Abby grabbed them and swung into the driver’s seat. She reached for the door handle with her bound hands and eased it shut, not quite latching it for fear of making noise. Just before she put her foot on the brake pedal, which would flash the telltale lights illuminating her escape attempt, she checked the mirror.
Dax was at the top of the bridge and walking their way.
Better hurry, she told herself, but she didn’t move. Instead she watched him walking confidently down the center of the bridge, a gun in each hand, and she saw that he was indifferent to the Jeep, indifferent to the darkness, indifferent to everything. In his mind, the threat had been eliminated, and the rest would be easy. Abby could start the Jeep now, well within pistol range, and hope he wouldn’t hit the tires. If he did, though...
She looked up the long, steep hill ahead and saw how it would end — the Jeep grinding to a pained halt on shredded rubber. He’d close on them easily enough then. This wasn’t like Hank’s house, where Abby had been able to get into the pines and be protected from the gunfire. She would be driving down the length of target range for him and counting on him to miss.
He wasn’t going to miss.
“Get down below the windows,” Abby whispered to Shannon Beckley. “Fast.”
Shannon’s eyes were wide above the strip of duct tape, but she didn’t hesitate in following the instructions. She slid off the seat and into an awkward ball on the floor of the car. She was tall, and the space wasn’t large, but she was bound to the car only by one foot, and she was flexible enough to burrow down tightly.
“Good,” Abby whispered. “Stay down. No matter what. I’m going to kill him now.”
Abby checked the mirror once more, then slid down in the driver’s seat, low enough to bring the back of her head almost level with the steering wheel. She lost sight of Dax in the rearview mirror but found him in the side-view.
He was almost off the bridge. From there it was twenty or twenty-five paces to the Jeep. Unprotected ground. For her, and for him.
If she got him, it would be over. If she missed...
The ignition lag will be the moment you lose advantage, she thought. That half-second hitch between engine cranking and engine catching. He’s very fast.
He’d shoot before he moved. She was almost certain of that. He’d shoot before he moved, and he would expect whoever was driving the Jeep to be in flight mode, not fight mode. He counted on fear.
He wouldn’t be getting any more of that from Abby.
He walked on with a fast but controlled stride. Refusing, as always, to be rushed. Abby bit her lip until blood filled her mouth. Her hands trembled just below the push-button ignition; her foot hovered above the brake pedal, calf muscles bunched, threatening to cramp.
Down he came. Stepping off the bridge without pause. He didn’t so much as glance up the road at the car from which she’d escaped. His eyes were locked dead ahead, and she was sure that he was looking right into the side-view mirror and seeing her eyes. The guns dangled in his hands, and the second of them was proof of Boone’s death, as sure a trophy as if he’d carried her scalp back.
Thirty feet away now. Abby almost pressed on the brake but managed to hold off.
Twenty feet. Close enough? No. He would have to be almost to the vehicle. Then, she just had three simple steps — press the brake and the ignition, shift from park to reverse, and hit the gas.
Oh, and duck. That was key.
Fifteen feet, ten...
Abby slammed her foot onto the brake pedal and punched the ignition simultaneously. The dash lights came on, and then, with what felt like excruciating slowness, the engine growled.
She ripped the shifter from park to reverse as the back window imploded, and then she hit the gas. Three shots were fired, maybe more. The Jeep ripped backward, and then there was an impact on the left side, glancing, almost imperceptible, but she knew what it was because there’d been only one thing between her and the bridge.
Got him. Got the bastard!
The gunfire was done, and the bridge and the river beyond had to be avoided, so she switched from gas pedal to brake and jerked the Jeep to a stop.