Kelley Armstrong - Exit Strategy

I glanced at Jack.

“He didn’t tell me anything,” she said. “Just came over to where I was supposed to meet you two, threw me the keys, told me where your gear was and stalked off.”

“I met Wilkes.”

She blinked, then glared at Jack. “Well, that’s not worth telling me about.” She looked at me. “So what happened…and start at the beginning.”

I told her.

“So now he’s missed two scheduled hits,” she said. “Plus he has an eyewitness…a victim who fought back. Probably saw you and decided to skip the demographics and take the easy mark.” She chortled. “Oh, he’ll be mad now. Spitting mad.”

“And off-balance. We need to keep him there. If we act now, we can use it to our advantage and end this.”

Jack’s hands clenched around the steering wheel. “We’ll end it. The old-fashioned way. Legwork. Stop this shit and-”

“That’s not fast, Jack.”

Our eyes met in the rearview mirror. His were ice cold. “And this is? Running after him? Facing him down in alleys? Almost getting killed?

“I had him. If you saw it go down, you know I had him.”

“Where I stood? Looked fifty-fifty.”

“Seventy-five/twenty-five. At least.”

“So that’s okay? Twenty-five percent chance of getting killed? Fuck, yeah. Why not? Goes bad? Who gives a shit? You don’t.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Jack went silent, his gaze turning back to the road.

“Oh, don’t you dare,” I said, taking off my seat belt and moving to the edge of the seat. “If you have something to say, have the guts to say it.”

He said nothing. I clenched the edge of the seat. Goddamn him. Challenge most guys with that, and they’d rise to the bait. Not Jack. Never Jack.

“Pull over,” Evelyn said. “You and Dee need to have a chat.”

He kept driving.

“Jack…”

When he didn’t answer, Evelyn thumped back against the headrest.

“Okay, fine, do it your way. Dee? The next time you get a chance like that, you go ahead and take it. You want this guy taken down more than we do, so any risk you take is your decision, and we support that-”

Jack turned the wheel so sharply I smacked into the door panel. The car slowed at the side of the road. Without a word, Jack got out and headed for a dirt track leading into a cornfield.

Evelyn looked over the seat at me.

“Go on. You won’t get another chance.”

Brown cornstalks whispered in the breeze, empty and dying, waiting to be mowed down for next year’s crop. Through them I could see the back of Jack’s jacket.

“I’m here,” I said.

He didn’t move. I walked through the rows to come out in front of him.

“I’m here,” I said. “So talk.”

He only stared at the setting sun.

“Okay, you don’t want to talk. You just want Evelyn to shut up, and you know what, Jack? That’s fine with me. We can stand here and pretend we’re having it out, then go back and tell Evelyn everything’s fine. But the next time you decide to take some cryptic jab at me? Think about whether or not you plan to follow through. And if the answer’s no?” I met his gaze. “Then shut the fuck up.”

He didn’t so much as blink. Just held my gaze for a moment, then looked away. So I guess that meant we were waiting it out, and that was fine with me. Anything to avoid a fight.

I gave it five minutes, then said, “Good enough. Let’s go back to the car.”

I made it two steps.

“Back there,” he said. “In that alley. When things went bad. What’d you do?”

“Do?”

“When it went off course. Could have run. Didn’t.”

I turned to look at him. “Run? And let him shoot me in the back?”

“Gun wasn’t out. You’d know that. Too risky. Cops everywhere. Even if it was? Could have made it.”

“Made it where? I was in the middle of an empty alley.”

He stepped closer. “Second alley. Ten feet away. You saw it.”

“It looked a lot farther than ten feet from where I was standing and maybe that’s my fault, but I sure as hell didn’t see an escape route and just ignore it, if that’s what you meant.”

“Yeah. That’s what I meant.”

He met my gaze and, in his look, I knew he’d seen through my lie-knew I’d seen a chance to escape and rejected it.

I broke away, and continued, “As for getting caught, I misjudged-and yes, I admit that I screwed up. I thought I could turn and get the jump on him, but he was right there.”

Jack nodded, gaze down, as if studying a mole hole at the bottom of a cornstalk. Without looking up, he spoke again, his voice quiet. “Let’s say…sake of argument. You saw the alley. Knew you’d make it. Would you?”

I considered lying, but from that look in his eyes, he already knew the answer.

I squared my shoulders. “Not while I saw a reasonable chance to catch him.”

“What’s reasonable? Greater than zero?”

I opened my mouth, then snapped it shut, and forced out a calm tone. “Reasonable is whatever I decide it is because, as Evelyn said, it’s my risk to take. Maybe you don’t like that, but I’d never endanger you or anyone else, so I don’t see the point of arguing about it.”

His eyes darkened. “No, you don’t, do you? You die? Who gives a shit? No one to care.”

“No one-?” Don’t let him bait you. Just ease back . “I guess that’s right. It’s not like I have a husband and kids at home to worry about.”

“Got no one. Few friends. Everyone else pissed off after Franco. Never came back.”

My nails dug into my palms. “Thank you so much for reminding me of that, Jack.”

“Didn’t mean it like that. Was just-”

“Pointing out that no one would notice I’d died today?”

“No. Just meant-What happened to you. Lost every-thing. Family. Friends. Career. Future. Whatever you thought your life was going to be? Gone. Won’t come back.”

“Well, when you put it that way, maybe I shouldn’t have stopped Wilkes. Just let him put me out of-”

“You want this bad. Knew that. But I fucked up. Didn’t realize how bad. How far you’ll go.”

“How far-?” I could barely get the words out, my heart hammering. “I want what so bad? To kill myself? I am not-”

“Suicidal? Nah. But it happens? It’s a risk? You’ll take it. Won’t let it get in the way.”

“Get in the way of-?” I swallowed the rest, swept aside the cornstalks and headed for the car.

“ Dee…”

I didn’t answer. “Nadia…”

I picked up my pace.

I climbed into the backseat. Evelyn turned to look at me, then sighed.

“He wouldn’t talk, would he?”

“Oh, he talked.”

Another keen-eyed study. Another sigh. “And it was one of those times when he does, and you’re left wishing he’d kept his mouth shut.” She shifted to face me. “Jack isn’t very good at expressing himself.”

“I think he expressed himself very well.”

I looked out the windshield. There was no sign of Jack. I glanced at my watch.

“He’s just walking it off,” she said. “He hates confrontations. I remember this time, years ago, a middleman was bad-mouthing Jack behind his back and…” She noticed my wandering gaze. “And you’re really not in the mood for ‘insight into Jack’ stories, are you? In that case, I’d suggest we discuss something that it takes very little insight to know he’s not going to want to discuss. Our next move.”

“It’ll need to involve me. Up close and personal with Wilkes again. I’m the eyewitness who got away.”

She nodded. “And this whole thing started because he wanted to shut up his last-and only-witness. Meaning if he can get a shot at you, preferably before you go to the Feds, there will be no luring involved-he’ll jump hurdles to get to you.”