He turned around just as she noticed him, and for a split second they locked eyes, both of them knowing instantly that each had made the other. Which meant he’d probably guess that Tess and Alex weren’t where his compadres thought they were.
She had no way of calling Tess to warn her because her phone was by now halfway to the zoo.
Jules didn’t have time to think about it any further. All she knew was that she couldn’t let the bastard warn the others, and that if she drew her weapon, the situation would immediately spin out of control. So she did the only thing she could think of.
She threw her whole body forward and charged.
She saw his eyes narrow and his head pull back with a look that was somewhere between amusement and disbelief a split second before she slammed into him with her right arm bent tight against the front of her body, crushing him against the side of the Tahoe, forcing the air from his chest and breaking three ribs before using the tail end of her momentum to shove him to the ground.
She fell on top of him and scrambled to get her cuffs out while trying to keep him pinned down, but he was too strong for her. He spun her arm back and caught her across the shoulder, then twisted on himself and shoved her back viciously against the car, her head thudding heavily against its door and jarring her vision. Her eyes recovered just in time to catch an unmistakable flash of steel as the enforcer pulled a vicious-looking stiletto from his left boot.
She dove at him again, clamping her left hand around the hostile’s wrist while she jerked the heel of her right hand full force into his nose. He grunted with pain and momentarily lowered the blade before flicking it right back at her stomach. He was stronger than she anticipated, and Jules knew she wouldn’t get much more of a chance to survive the fight.
She kicked the knife arm away and threw herself at it with both hands, smashing it against the tarmac, but the enforcer refused to relinquish his grip on the knife. He lashed out with his right knee, catching Jules in the kidney full force. She allowed the momentum to topple her from him, but held onto his right wrist with both hands as she rolled off him and onto the ground. He went with her, trying to maneuver his weight on top of her, but with a final surge of adrenaline she twisted his arm around and used all her body weight to spin the blade around and drive it into his midsection.
His eyes shot open and he gasped heavily as Jules rolled him right over her and flat onto his back. Not wanting to take any chances, she pulled out her Glock and slammed it into the side of his head, knocking him out cold. She patted him down, pocketed his phone and his stainless steel handgun before throwing a pair of cuffs on him as an added safety. She pushed back to her feet and noticed several tourists staring at her with expressions ranging from terror to You go, girl.
“FBI,” she shouted as she flashed her badge to them. “Stay back. This man is dangerous.” She quickly pulled out her phone and called it in, asking the dispatcher to radio local PD and get them to send as many uniforms as they can to the lot.
Her entire body was sizzling with trepidation. Tess and Alex were in serious danger. She couldn’t be sure how much the guy she took out had told his compadres, but she had to assume they now suspected they’d been duped, and that Tess and Alex could be closer to where Jules was. She charged off to meet them and was heading toward the lot when she glimpsed the two hostiles entering the parking lot at the north end. They hadn’t seen her, but they knew where their buddy was and they’d soon find him. She turned and sprinted down the service road toward the parking lot and saw her gray SUV immediately, sitting across the lot, by the exit.
Jules was moving as fast as she could, weaving through people, trying to make it to the car before they saw her. She skirted around the lot’s south side, throwing looks over her shoulder every couple of seconds—then saw one of the enforcers spot her and alert his buddy.
The two men were moving now, coming fast, drawing their guns as they cut across the lot to intercept her.
She pulled out her weapon as several rounds sliced through the air and whistled past her. A couple of kids who were climbing back into their family car started screaming as a nearby windshield shattered, and the lot turned to mayhem with people yelling and taking cover. Jules was leveling her gun at the lead killer, looking for a clear shot, when, to the right, a black-and-white drove into the lot. The hostiles saw it, too, and as one of them slowed to fire at it, Jules stopped, crouched and let off five shots in quick succession, missing him but forcing him to take cover behind the corner of the building on the west side of the service road.
The other kept going, staying low, ducking for cover behind successive cars, heading straight for the lot’s exit—and the Ford Explorer.
Jules’s body ignited with alarm.
She bolted forward again as the black-and-white screeched to a halt. Two SDPD cops jumped out and went to take up positions behind their car, but the driver was hit and dropped to the ground before he could make it. Without coming to full halt, Jules took aim at the hostile who had taken down the cop, but there were civilians all around the lot and she couldn’t fire. She had to keep going. The hostile heading for Tess was still rushing down the side of the lot, closing fast on the parked SUV.
Jules looked right and left. There was no way she was going to get to Tess first. Not without running straight into to the hostile’s path.
The hostile was now beelining for the car—he seemed to know Tess and Alex were in it, possibly because Tess wasn’t in a parking spot but waiting by the exit. As their trajectories converged on the Explorer, Jules saw him train his gun on it—but she couldn’t shoot at him, not with all the people and parked cars between them.
Instead, she veered right and leapt up onto the hood of a parked car, climbing quickly onto its roof, where she could get a clearer shot at the man. She lined him up, gripping her gun with both hands, about to pull the trigger when shots cut the air past her from the right, from the shooter farther back. A round grazed her shoulder, throwing her off balance, and she fell off the roof and hit the asphalt hard, her gun skittering out of her fingers.
The shooter she’d tried to take out was now barely twenty yards away from her and charging in for the kill.
Jules was on her hands and knees, looking for her gun, eyes darting from under the cars and back to catch glimpses of the killer closing in, seeing a wicked grin creep over his face as he anticipated the kill—then she heard a wild screech from behind her and turned to see the Explorer lurching backward, wheels spinning, coming right at her.
She rolled out of its way as it drew level with her, its tires squealing as it slewed to a stop.
She didn’t need an embossed invitation.
She pulled the back door open and leapt inside.
“Go!” she yelled.
Tess threw the car into gear and floored the gas, and as they blew out of the exit, Jules caught a glimpse of the receding gunman who was already pulling back and disappearing into the crowd.
As Tess swung onto Park Boulevard and pulled away from the park, Jules knew the area would soon be crawling with cops. They’d deal with the shooters. Still, she wasn’t sure she’d made the right call. She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself as she wondered about it.
Either way, Alex and Tess were safe.
That had to count for something.
45
I could breathe again.
Tess and Alex were now out of harm’s way, tucked away in a bureau safe house that Jules had driven them to, straight from Balboa Park and bypassing the hotel. Villaverde had sent a couple of agents to the hotel to pack up their stuff and take it over; one of them would stay with them to beef up security. I promised Tess I’d be there as soon as I could. Until then, I was in Villaverde’s office with him and Munro, chewing over what Pennebaker’s little news flash meant.