“I want her recipe,” I said. “Think we should go? I don’t advise we stay here for very long. The enemy might soon be upon us.”
“After losing that bozo last night, they’ll know not to look for me at my place. They’ve probably checked yours, too.”
I stood, reaching for my coat to put it on. “Which means, they’ll go to your associates. Will they attack your father?”
“Now ask me something important.”
I chuckled, watching as Jade added a few things to her backpack, including the miracle jar. “Okay, I guess we’ll hoof it to a bus stop. I hope I have exact change.”
“Me, too. I have nada.”
We left Alix’s apartment, locking it behind us, then headed down the stairs to the parking lot. The sharp, biting wind cut through me despite my jacket, and Jade lowered her head to avoid it striking her full in the face. The packed snow on the pavement told of cars coming and going, many others still buried from last night’s storm.
“I hate leaving my truck,” I muttered as we strode toward the busy street ahead.
“This’s a decent neighborhood,” Jade replied. “I doubt anyone will bother it.”
“It’s a pride thingy.”
“Cry me a river.”
I hunched my shoulders against the cold, my hands in my coat’s pockets, thinking of Jade’s idea to leave it all and flysomeplace where it doesn’t snow. Despite living here my whole life, I still disliked the cold.
A big, black Chevy SUV turned from the street and into the parking lot.
I knew that vehicle.
Spinning, I grabbed Jade’s hand, and pulled her with me. “Run!”
Without questioning me, she ran at my side, her hair flying, keeping pace with no trouble. Bullets pinged off parked cars at the same moment automatic rifle fire sounded from the now speeding Chevy.
“My car’s closer,” Jade yelled, yanking me with her.
We’re too late. We’ll be shot long before we get to either one.
Chapter Eleven
Jade
I shook loose from Magnus’s grip to fumble in my pocket for my spare key. The black SUV charged across the parking lot behind us, a goon still firing at us from the passenger window. My car was still far away – too far to escape the bullets, the speeding vehicle.
I shoved Magnus hard, catching him off balance, making him stumble into the shelter between parked cars. Bullets bounced off the vehicles, but now the gunman sat on the wrong side to shoot me. Like a matador fighting a charging black bull, I danced out of the SUV’s path, whipped out my baton, snapping it to its full length.
I didn’t crack it across the driver’s windshield.
Instead, I used it as I might a fencing sword, and jammed it hard through the driver’s open window. Had the window been rolled up, my move would have gotten us both killed. As I’d seen it rolled down when they drove into the lot, my idea worked beautifully.
The baton’s tip sank deep into the driver’s eye.
He screamed.
His foot struck the accelerator as I’d hoped it would. The SUV lunged forward, its engine roaring, skidding across the snow-packed asphalt. The window’s edge knocked the baton from the driver’s eye, and my hand, to fall to the snow.
The big vehicle skidded, out of control, and slammed into a parked car on the passenger side, trapping the gunman inside.
“Shit,” I muttered, awed, and picked up my baton. “That couldn’t have worked out better had I planned it. GQ?”
Silence met my inquiry. We had only moments before one of the two goons would be out of the SUV and shooting at us again. I doubted the driver could, as he still screamed about his missing eye and how much he bled.
