Drew called Melissa.
She answered on the third ring. He tried to speak two different times, but she cut him off with incessant rants.
I rolled my eyes. Damn, she was annoying.
“No, Ash didn’t kidnap me. In fact… well, yes, but… honey, no… yes, he shot that officer, but we didn’t…”
Nami made a mock pistol with her hand and mimed shooting herself in the temple.
Drew flipped her off.
“Melissa, shut the hell up.”
She fell into a stunned silence. It wasn’t often that Drew stood up to her never-ending barrage.
“Where are you right now?” he asked. “Leave. No, don’t pack a bag, just leave. Get some cash from the envelope and go to Shari’s house.”
Melissa went ballistic into the phone. Drew held it away from his ear as she ranted.
“I’ll call you when things calm down. Don’t tell anyone where you’re going, all right? OK, I love you too. I’ll call soon.” He hung up and looked over at me. “Shut up.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“The smug look on your face says it all.”
Nami said, “Dude, you’re seriously pussy whipped.”
“Told you. Even Naomi can see it.”
“It’s Nami, you ass.”
“Both of you need to pipe down. I don’t need relationship advice from a guy who lives like a crackhead and a foul-mouthed, sawed-off computer dork.” Drew swung the car onto a shale road and slowed down, stopping on the shoulder.
He put the car in park.
“What are you doing?” I asked. “We need to get to Sammy’s place.”
“In a minute.” Drew looked back at Nami. “How did you know we were at the hotel?”
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot.” She pointed at me. “You have a microchip in your shoulder.”
I spun around and immediately regretted it. My body was basically one giant bruise. “What?”
“Did I stutter?”
My fingers massaged the spot on my shoulder where the Man in Black gave me the shot. The small bump there had a new meaning all of a sudden. I’d thought it was just a little swelling from the needle and the drug.
The bump was a little smaller than a grain of rice.
I lifted the sleeve up and showed Drew the small lump.
“Christ, they’re probably tracking us right now,” he said.
Nami opened her laptop. Her fingers blurred across the keyboard. “I don’t know how many other people they have tracking you, but I can see our car right now.”
Drew yanked the transmission back into gear. The smell of burnt rubber wafted in through the cracked windows. “We need to keep moving so they don’t catch us.”
“Do you have a knife?” I asked Drew.
“What? Please tell me you aren’t going to cut it out yourself?” Nami’s upper lip curled in disgust.
“Nah, I figured we would wait until Smith showed up, and then I would ask him to remove it.”
“Girls, you need to let me focus on driving,” Drew said. “And no, I don’t have a knife.”
“Shit.” I kept rubbing my shoulder. Bastards. “Give me your cell. I’m going to call Sammy and tell her to get out of there.”
Drew handed it over. “Her number is in the witness folder.”
I half-expected it to be under ‘Large Breasts’. “You saved her number in your phone? What would Melissa think?”
“Hey now. Sammy is a witness to a bank robbery. Nothing more.”
“Oh please. When she was outside my building, you puffed your chest out like some kind of mating display on Animal Planet.”
“Shut up.”
“You shut up.” I called her.
She answered before I even heard it ring. “Detective Lloyd? Did you find him?”
“It’s me, Sammy, Ash.”
“Ash? Are you all right? What happened? Who were those men? I was so scared when they took you. I thought—”
“Are you at home, Sammy?”
“What?”
Drew merged back onto the highway and floored it. The bulky engine of his car roared. We were heading back to the city. I wasn’t sure how well I could handle being around that many people, but we needed to check on Samantha.
And to cut the bug out of my shoulder.
“Are you home?”
“Yes, why?”
“Leave. Right now. Don’t ask any questions, just leave.”
She paused. I could hear her breathing. “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“The men who kidnapped me this morning are coming for you right now. You need to get out of there before they arrive.”
More silence on her end. I could practically feel any chance I ever had with her slipping away. Not that I could have handled a serious relationship anyway, but just going on a single date would have been nice.
“Why would they come for me? How would they even know who I am or where I live?”
“It’s complicated.”
“You’re scaring me, Ash.”
I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry about that, I really am, but you need to get out of your apartment.”
“They’re saying that you shot a police officer, Ash. Is that—?”
The connection went dead.
“Ah, crap.”
“What?” Drew asked.
“I lost the signal.” The screen read one bar, but it kept fluctuating up and down. “Actually, we should probably throw your phone out, right? I mean, if they’re looking for us, can’t they track it?”
“They can.”
“And your car too.”
“Yeah.”
“And they’re tracking my shoulder.”
Nami leaned forward. “Just keep repeating the obvious, guys—that’ll make it all better.”
I slowly turned around, giving her my best, hardened Arnold Schwarzenegger look. “Considering you followed the signal in my arm and led a murderer to my doorstep, you might want to keep quiet back there. Besides, we’re keeping you alive right now.”
“The hell you are. If you let me out right now, I’ll be just fine.”
“Oh really? I must have imagined your name was on that list then, right? How are you going to blend in, by the way? You’re a four-foot tall, black, thirty-year-old with the mouth of a sailor. You aren’t exactly suited for espionage.”
“Wait a second… I’m black?” Nami inspected her hands. “Whoa! Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I feel so much safer having you around now that I know about your powers of observation.” She leaned back and crossed her arms again.
Dipshit.
“I heard that.”
“Good.”
“As I was saying before we picked up Half Pint back there, I had someone look into the address you gave me,” Drew said.
Nami growled, “Half Pint? You son of a—”
“And?” I asked.
“It was just renovated. Some new tech company is scheduled to move in there in a few weeks. It should be empty right now.”
“Could that just be a front for Smith’s agency?”
Drew lifted his hands in a ‘maybe’ gesture. He turned the radio on. “We’re about ten minutes away from Samantha’s block. We’ll leave the car by her building after we grab her. Maybe she has a ride we can use.”
“You’re going to kidnap someone else now?” Nami laughed. “You guys can’t help but dig your own graves, can you?”
“We’re going to save someone else.” I dismissed her with a wave. “If you’d encountered Murdock and Smith’s goons in the ways we have, you’d be kissing my feet.”
The radio bleated about the missing detective and the traumatized soldier. The DJ gave the location of the hotel we’d just left. Helicopters were taking to the skies to find us. They were calling me a cop killer.
I knew that wasn’t right. I’d only wounded the man I’d shot, but that didn’t stop fear from settling in the pit of my stomach. Police officers didn’t have the best of reputations when it came to cop killers.
And with good reason.
When someone killed your brother, you wanted retaliation. Few could understand that better than I could. If it hadn’t been for my scrambled brain, I would have spent the rest of my deployment looking for the piece of filth who shot Barker.
I still fantasized about getting my hands on him.
Having Sammy think I was walking around and shooting cops made me want to chug the bottle of Jack at my feet. She thought I was a homeless, alcoholic murderer.
Fuck my life.
The DJ talked about the deceased police officers for a little while longer before switching stories. He reported on the rash of suicides that had started earlier that morning with a prominent senator.
“We’re in a world of hurt, Ashley.” Drew switched the radio off.
“Did he just call you Ashley?” Nami hopped in her seat and clapped. It made her look all of eight years old. “That makes me so happy.”
“Stay quiet back there, Nicaragua.” I watched out the window as we passed back into Baltimore. The pressure had resumed building inside my head. It was more manageable than it had been at the hotel. Thank God for alcohol.
“Now you’re calling me the names of countries? You’re so lame.”
Horns blared from our right as we sped through a red light. A Civic almost T-boned us.
Drew kept glancing into the rearview mirror.
“What is it?” I asked.
“We have company.”
“Who?”
“Black SUV with tinted windows. Half a dozen cars back.”
I found it in my mirror a second later. They were attempting to keep enough distance between us to remain unseen. Drew had an eye for odd behavior, so it didn’t surprise me that he’d spotted them.
“Can you tell how many men are in it?” Drew asked.
“No way. There are too many people around here, and my head is still scrambled.”
Nami looked through the back window. “Great. What were you saying about keeping me safe? They’re tracking you numbskulls, and now they’ve found me.”
I grabbed the back of her shirt and pulled her down into the seat. “Keep your head down. These guys will take a shot at you if they have it.”
“Don’t wrinkle the shirt, Ashley.”
“Samantha’s building is the next block up.” Drew pointed through the windshield. “Get ready to hop out.”
“And do what?” Nami asked.
“We’re going to run inside, grab Sammy, and then escape out the back,” I said. “We’ll have to steal a car or something.”
“That’s your master plan?”
Drew nodded. “Sounds good to me. We’re on the run from the police, the federal government, and a mind-controlling psychopath. Our options are a little limited here.”
“Oh my gods. We’re going to die.”
I reached under the seat and pulled out the pistol I’d taken from the cop during our escape. I’d stashed it there when we got to the hotel.
Checked the mag.
Almost full.
“Drew,” I said. “Sorry for dragging you into this.”
“Enough of that crap. I knew this was a possibility from the moment I learned what you could do. Honestly, I’m shocked it took this long.”
“Are you guys going to kiss now?” Nami asked.
Everybody was a goddamn comedian all of a sudden.
I grabbed the bottom of my shirt and tore a swath of fabric away.
Nami leaned forward, peering over the seat. “Do I even want to know what you’re doing? You’re going to be naked by the time the day is over. Gross.”
After another quick pull from the bottle of Jack, I stuffed the fabric into the neck until the end soaked into the dark booze. The other end stuck from the opening, hanging against the label.
“You’re making a Molotov?”
“No fooling you.”
“Ready?” Drew asked. “I’m going to stop in the middle of the road to clog traffic. Hopefully that’ll give us a few seconds head start.”
Nami pulled her SpongeBob backpack on. She held the Desert Eagle in both hands. “Ready. I guess.”
I pointed at the hand cannon. “Maybe we should switch guns. If you actually shoot that thing, it’ll knock you on your ass.”
“Maybe you should kiss—”
“Let’s do this.” Drew threw the car into park and jumped out.
My knee threatened to buckle when I put weight on it, but it held and I was limping across the sidewalk as the first horns blared behind us. Drew took point, charging two-dozen yards up the block before stopping in front of a door.
Sammy’s building was a well-maintained, brick complex. It stood several stories and consumed nearly half the block. Shadows bathed the front of it as the sun eased toward the horizon.
As I shambled after Drew, I realized how long the day had actually been for me. Evening was finally approaching, and I’d already gone through a lifetime’s worth of trauma.
“Slow down! I can’t keep up with you giants.” Nami’s breathing had already grown heavy behind me. Her small legs had to work twice as hard as mine did.
“Hurry up, Short Round.” I stopped at the door beside Drew and held the Molotov out. “Have a lighter?”
“Do I smoke? Why the hell would I have a lighter?”
People shouted at us from the street as their cars idled behind Drew’s. Traffic was already backing up through the intersection down the block. The streets were filling as people left work.
Three men climbed out of the black SUV. They wore sunglasses and pissed-off expressions.
I caught a whiff of cigarette smoke and looked around for the source. A couple stood by a fire hydrant, puffing away and watching us with curiosity. They wore skinny jeans, despite the heat, and looked like a couple of hipsters to me.
The guy took a half step away as I approached them.
“Can I use your lighter for a second?”
Great abs, the girl thought.
I winked at her.
Eww.
The man adjusted the cigarette between his fingers and looked down at the Molotov in my hand. His eyes settled on the pistol I’d stuck in the front of my pants.
What’s going on here? Why’s this dude packing?
I held my open hand out, palm up. “Don’t make me go into your pocket for the lighter.”
“Give it to him, Robby.” The girl nudged him in the ribs. Her brown hair was pulled into a ponytail. She would have been pretty cute if she wasn’t holding a cigarette and dressed like a hipster douche.
Then again, I looked like a coked-up stripper in the middle of a bender. We all had our issues.
He fished a small, purple tube from his pocket and handed it over. “Everything cool?”
“No. I suggest you head on down the road here. Things are about to heat up.”
I attempted to light the fabric hanging from the bottle as I walked back to Drew. The synthetic fibers didn’t want to burn, so I had to hold the flame to it for several seconds.
Nami stood inside the door, waiting in front of an elevator. The Desert Eagle was comically huge in her hands. She shook her head at me as I finally got the Molotov lit. “You’re about to do the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“You realize that throwing that in the middle of a city will have them labeling you as a terrorist, on top of the kidnapper and cop-killer monikers you’ve already accumulated?” Drew asked.
“My mom always said that anything worth doing is worth doing right.”
Smith’s men stood by the SUV. One of them held a cell phone to his ear. They stared at us.
I figured they were calling Smith to let him know that they had all four of us in one spot.
“Elevator is here,” Nami said. She stuck her hand into the door, keeping it open.
I heaved the bottle at the agents.
It was heavy and strained my shoulder, but I managed to get sufficient strength behind it.
The Molotov arced through the air, seeming to hang there as we watched it.
It smashed on the hood.
Flames swam across the car in an audible whoomp.
Liquid fire splashed onto the gray suit of one of the agents. He cried out and ran from the car, stripping his jacket off as he ran.
“Stop, drop, and roll, asshole.” I followed Drew inside as the screams of bystanders filled the street.
I’d just committed an act of terrorism against agents of the United States government. To say I was fucked would have been to state the obvious. Fort Leavenworth, here I come.
Stabs of pain came with each step as I shuffled into the elevator with Drew and Nami. My teeth were grinding as I leaned against the railing. My last trip in an elevator had consisted of my face getting kicked in.
“You going to make it?” Drew asked. “Your knee is the size of a grapefruit.”
The joint had swelled inside my pants even more. The fabric pulled tight the entire way around it.
“I can cope.”
I’m so going to jail.
“Getting locked up is probably a best-case scenario for us right now, Nadia.”
“Stop raping my brain, Ashley.”
“I can’t help it.”
Ass face.
We went to the fifth floor. Drew took the lead and brought us to Sammy’s door a moment later.
I knocked in a rhythm.
A shadow appeared under the door. The peephole darkened.
“Ash?”
I waved. “Sup.”