Will turned around in the passenger seat. “Shit, they’re still close.”
“No kidding.” Cole accelerated. “They’re cops. And they know these roads.”
“How do we lose them?”
Cole didn’t answer. He just drove faster.
The ideal solution would be to stop, ditch the car, and run like hell in opposite directions. Especially in a place like Central Park where the terrain provided natural cover.
But if they tried that, Cole would make it all of two steps before he dropped to the ground and waited to be arrested. There was no running on this bullshit knee. Not tonight.
He gripped the wheel tighter. Up ahead, a sign indicated he could get on the Grand Central Parkway. It would be easier to drive faster, but it would also be easier for the cops to catch up with them. Still, better than getting stuck on a dead-end back road or boxed into an alley.
“You sure about this?” Will asked as Cole took the on-ramp with the cop car right up their ass.
“You have any better ideas?”
No answer came. No better ideas.
Cole punched the gas and whipped around a slow-moving vehicle. At least there wasn’t a ton of traffic, all things considered. It was very, very early on a Saturday morning, so there wouldn’t be the usual commuter gridlock kicking up in the next hour. But this was New York—there would be traffic. And that could cause them problems. All it would take was one bottleneck or even a slow driver, and they’d be sitting ducks.
Up ahead, a sign announced the first exit for La Guardia International Airport.
Bottlenecks and slowdowns were all but guaranteed down those ramps.
Cole glanced in the rearview at the cop who was very uncomfortably up his ass. The officer hadn’t tried to knock him off the road or anything, which made Cole think he was just keeping pace with him until they ran into reinforcements.Reinforcements, which could be anywhere. A roadblock didn’t take long to set up.
They needed to do something unpredictable.
“Here’s the plan.” He sped up a little more, nosing toward the upcoming ramp. “I’m going to pull up to Departures.”
Will fidgeted but didn’t speak.
Cole went on, “It’s always chaos down there. Even this time of day. We’ll lose him in the crowd, ditch the car, and go inside on foot.”
“Uh. What about your knee?”
“Will you help me run?”
“Of course. But we won’t be fast. You know we won’t.”
“We don’t need to be.” Cole glanced at Will. “Put your seat belt on.”
Muttering a curse, Will did exactly that.
As soon as Cole heard the click, he slammed on the brakes.Hard.
Tires squealed. Will grunted as his seat belt caught him.
The cop jerked to the left to avoid colliding with Cole. By the time he’d recovered, he was past Cole… and the off ramp.
Cole, on the other hand, had stopped with just enough room to continue down the ramp, which he did. Fast.
“Holy shit!” Will gripped the handle above the door and braced against the seat. Then he looked back. “He’s coming after us!”
“Figured he would,” Cole gritted out. The maneuver hadn’t put a ton of space between them and the cop, and that space would close quickly, but it was enough.
Ahead of them, traffic quickly clogged up as people slogged toward the departure lanes. Cole went onto the shoulder and squeezed past them until he couldn’t anymore, then bullied his way between a couple of cars. That earned him a middle fingerand an angry honk, but the cop was stuck several cars back. Perfect.
