When I hung up, she was looking at me like something was churning away inside her.
“What?” I asked.
“Are you with someone?”
“Yes.”
She winced, then said, “I’m sorry. To have dragged you out here.”
I gave her a little bob of my head to acknowledge her concern. “Don’t worry about it.”
We gathered by the door of the room, with Michelle holding onto Alex’s hand. He was still keeping well away from me and eyeing me nervously.
“All set?” I asked, reaching under my jacket and clicking the safety off my handgun.
Michelle nodded. “We’re good.”
I dropped my gaze to Alex. The four-year-old edged farther back behind his mother, and my heart cracked a bit. I looked at Michelle. She gave me an It’ll be fine nod. I acknowledged her with a slight nod back and opened the door.
I glanced up and down the hall. There was nothing to cause me alarm. The corridor was empty.
I led them to the elevators and hit the Down button. Moments later, a telltale whir and a high-pitched ping announced the car’s arrival. I glanced at Michelle and turned to face the doors as they slid open.
There were people in there.
Men, specifically—three of them, three tough guys in Windbreakers and dark caps who were pulling up their face masks just as the doors opened, three pairs of bad-ass, cold stares that suddenly flared with surprise.
I understood instantly—I didn’t need to see Michelle’s jaw drop or hear her blurt out “It’s them.” I was already moving, lunging left to push her and Alex out of harm’s way, my right hand diving for my gun, my eyes locked on the three thugs as they reached under their jackets, their handguns’ grips coming into view—
—then the bullets started flying.
7
“Take Alex, I’ll cover you,” I yelled as I bolted away from the elevator doors.
Michelle was already doing it, scooping the four-year-old off his feet and holding him tight against her as she sprinted down the corridor.
I was right behind her, moving sideways, my gun arm extended and aimed down the hall, covering the elevator, eyes at DEFCON one, ready to lock onto any movement. I saw one of the men stick his head out from the cabin’s opening, the silenced muzzle of a handgun appearing at the same time, and we both fired at the same time, me blasting away with several rounds, the goon recoiling back just as he squeezed off a few shots of his own that zinged around me and crunched violently into the walls of the corridor.
“Keep going,” I shouted to Michelle over my shoulder while flicking a lightning-quick glance behind me to get my bearings. I saw that the corridor doglegged to the left, and Michelle was already disappearing into it. I cursed inwardly, angry at the fact that I hadn’t had a choice other than to push her out of the way and not pull her toward me, thereby committing us to head down that side of the corridor and away from the room, which was now out of our reach, on the other side of the elevator. I wasn’t sure what lay beyond the dogleg, but it wasn’t like we had much of a choice.
I reached the bend in the corridor just as the shooter’s head popped out again, this time down at carpet level, his gun out front and center, spitting out more rounds. Bullets blew past me as I fired back, my aim wild as I made the turn. I sucked in a quick breath, then poked an urgent eye around the edge of the corner. I only managed to get a jarred glimpse of another shooter diving out of the elevator and taking up a kneeling position alongside the corridor wall before a riot of gunfire erupted around me, one of the rounds splintering the wall inches from my face in a burst of wood and plaster. I felt something nick me in the cheek as I pulled back into cover, felt its heat and its sting but ignored it and spun my gaze behind me to see where Michelle was.
She was around fifty feet away, standing by an open doorway at the end of the corridor, waving me over frantically and hissing, “This way.”
I took another deep breath with my back against the wall, then swung my gun out and unleashed a few blind rounds toward the elevator without risking a look before charging after Michelle.
We burst through the doorway and hustled down the stairs, Michelle leading, Alex still in her arms and tight against her, me staying several steps behind, trying to minimize the risk of either of them getting hit by a stray that was meant for me, flicking quick glances behind me to make sure I didn’t miss a step while keeping the stairwell above us covered.
It didn’t take long before I heard the shooters burst into it and stampede down the stairs after us. I glimpsed flickers of their movement higher up and traced it with my gunsight, resisting the urge to fire, not wanting to waste any bullets unless I had a clear shot. The bastards didn’t give me much of one as they hugged the walls and kept out of sight, only peering over the balustrade once for a split second that goaded a couple of rounds out of me. We were all hurtling down six flights of stairs as fast as was humanly possible. Then Michelle, Alex, and I hit the ground floor and burst out of the stairwell and into the hotel’s lobby.
I waived my gun in the air and shouted “Everybody down!” as we sprinted across the large open space and beelined for the exit. The lobby wasn’t crowded, but the few people who were in there turned in startled confusion, some of them screaming out in panic and scurrying for cover while others simply froze. We were flying past the elevator just as its doors slid open and a lone shooter burst out of it, straight into our path. Michelle sidestepped him like a quarterback on a rush out of hell and kept going, leaving him for me. I rammed him, hard, my raised forearm connecting with the goon’s jaw and channeling the full momentum of my run into it and sending him crashing down to the floor. I saw the man’s gun clatter across the floor by my feet and managed to kick it out of the way without breaking step while staying on Michelle’s tail.
We flew out of the lobby and skittered to a stop in the hotel’s forecourt. It gave onto a medium-size lot where guests parked their own cars, as the hotel didn’t offer a valet service. I knew we couldn’t afford to stop for longer than a heartbeat. I swung my gaze across the lot, breathing hard, my heart kicking and screaming furiously against my rib cage, and to our left, I spotted what I’d expected—a white van, parked facing the hotel’s entrance, one silhouette inside it, that of another shooter who flung its door open and climbed out the instant he saw us.
“That way,” I blurted as I herded Michelle away from the van—then I saw a car drive into the lot and head for an empty parking spot.
“Over there,” I told Michelle, pointing at the blue sedan. “That car. Go.”
We raced toward it with me keeping our rear covered, and we were flying past a row of parked cars when a new volley of bullets erupted, crunching into body panels around us and taking out a windshield we’d just streaked past.
“Don’t stop,” I yelled to Michelle as I spun around and fired back at the two shooters rushing toward us.
We reached the Ford just as its driver, a paunchy, bald man in a suit, had pulled in and was getting out of his car.
“Give me your keys,” I barked, shoving my gun in his face and leaving him no room for indecision. The poor guy held them out with two fingers. I snatched them from him and pulled him out of the car and pushed him away, ordering him, “Stay down.”
The man hit the ground. I yelled out to Michelle, “Get in,” flinging the rear door open for her before loosing a few more rounds at the shooters.
Michelle hustled Alex into the car and was flying in behind me when I saw one of the crew raise his head and put a bead on us. I lined him up, but just as I pulled the trigger, I saw the man fire and heard a sharp unnnh coming from my right.