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“I’ve always had your number,” Sylvi said and waved goodbye.
Out on the sidewalk, Val drew a deep breath. “That was easier than I expected.” Easier than I had a right to expect.
Kaj took her face in his hands and kissed her. “I’m proud of you. First with Sandra, then with Sylvi. You’ve had a busy day.”
She smiled at him. “At least we know how Aaron and Dewey met. And that Corey was aware of Aaron’s drug business from the beginning.”
“We’ll need to meet with the others and share what we’ve learned.”
“Right away.” She glanced over when a gray sedan pulled into the lot, but instead of parking, it continued driving. Slowly. Too slowly, with an open driver-side window was all she had time to register before she saw the barrel of a gun pointing straight at them.
The car stopped twenty feet away but directly in front of them, giving the shooter a straight line of fire.
They had no cover. No trees. Not even a potted plant. The parking lot had cleared while they’d been inside and only Kaj’s car remained, but it was too far away to hide behind. The alleys between Sylvi’s shop and the two businesses on either side of her were too far away to crawl to.
So she shoved Kaj to the sidewalk, pulling her own gun from its holster as she covered his body with hers.
“Val, what the—”
He was interrupted by a single gunshot that shattered the air around them—and Sylvi’s display window behind them as well.
Val blocked out the scream from inside the shop and focused on the sedan. It stopped, a man with a ski mask emerging from the passenger side, a rifle positioned at his shoulder.
Val aimed at the man’s chest and pulled the trigger, knowing that she had to hit him first. Her Glock was no match for his rifle and if the man got a second shot, Kaj would be hurt.
The man reared back with a roar of pain, but he didn’t go down.
Too late she saw his body armor. She fired again but she missed the shooter. Dammit.
“When I say go, you crawl to your car,” she hissed to Kaj, cursing the fact that she’d left them so vulnerable to attack. His car was only ten feet behind them, but it might as well have been ten miles. “I’ll cover you.”
“Not without—”
The man repositioned his rifle and Val fired again and again. The man staggered back, but the driver took over, aiming his handgun her way. Still lying on the sidewalk covering Kaj, Val fired, getting off one more shot before a large body landed on her back, forcing the breath from her lungs.
Trapped. I’m trapped. Size and weight were that of a man. A big man.
No. No, no, no. Battling against panic, she started to fight, but the masked rifleman let out a barrage of shots. The body above her jerked with each shot, moaning in pain.
“It’s me,” the man above her breathed. “Phin. Don’t fight me.”
Phin. Oh my God. He’d been hit. He lay motionless atop her now and she fought off a different panic. Please, don’t be dead.
Val pushed Phin’s arm out of the way and unloaded her magazine into the sedan. Doors, windows, the driver and the passenger—anything she could hit, until she heard the clicking of an empty chamber.
There was silence then, broken only by her own unsteady breaths and the labored ones of Kaj beneath her. Was Phin still breathing? Goddammit.
The sedan’s driver-side door opened, one foot landing on the asphalt of the parking lot. The passenger crept around the side of the car, rifle still at the ready.
Fuck. This was it. She’d failed Kaj. She’d failed Phin.
And then the loud wail of a police siren broke the silence. The cops were close.
The driver and his passenger hesitated for a moment, then cursed and got back into their car. A second later, the sedan was gone in a squeal of tires.
Val shuddered out a breath and eased out from in between Kaj and Phin before gently rolling Phin to his back. Kaj lay on the sidewalk, staring up at the sky.
“Kaj?” She cupped his face. “Kaj?”
