“First I need to know if you brought the real drive. Hand it over.”
A chill swept through her. They had talked about this last night, the possibility Susan might want to actually see what was on the drive before they made the exchange. Mindy needed to keep her talking.
“Fine, but first I want to be sure you brought the money.”
Susan sat down on the granite bench, picked up the satchel and set it down on the bench beside her. She opened the case and tipped it so that Mindy could see stacks of bills held together with rubber bands.
She also saw the laptop.
“The money’s all there,” Susan said. “Now give me the drive. As soon as I verify the contents, the money is yours.”
Her heart was beating, hammering away in her chest. She couldn’t hold Susan off much longer. Mindy walked up beside her and held out a hand. The little silver Kingston flash drive glittered in her palm.
“You can look at it,” she said. “But I don’t see the point. How do you know I haven’t made half a dozen more copies?”
Susan’s features darkened with fury. She rose from the bench, her blue eyes cold as ice. “Because if you have, you’re dead.”
Mindy didn’t look away. “Just like Ryan Shipman?”
“That’s right.” Susan grabbed the drive and stuck it in her pocket. Mindy gasped as a tiny revolver appeared in Susan’s hand.
“I don’t like the way this is going,” Susan said. “We’ll finish it somewhere else. Now start walking back the way you came.”
Mindy’s heart was pounding so hard she could feel it throbbing in her temples. She hadn’t taken two steps when a man strode out from behind one of the granite walls, black-haired, dark and handsome, holding a big semiautomatic pistol pointed at Mindy’s chest.
“Elliot,” Susan said with a smile that actually looked sincere. “You always appear at exactly the right time.”
“I’m glad you finally noticed.” A look passed between them. Susan tucked the little revolver into the satchel and closed it up. Elliot’s big black pistol didn’t waver.
“The car’s waiting at the end of the path,” he said. He signaled toward Mindy. “Get moving.”
“I didn’t have a chance to look at the flash drive,” Susan told him as they walked along.
“In a very short time, it won’t matter,” Elliot said.Because Mindy will be dead, were the unspoken words.
She glanced around, searching for Jax, but didn’t see him. Her pulse hiked up even more, and her stomach quivered with nerves. Still no sign of Jax, not until they reached the dark green Jaguar idling in a handicapped spot at the near edge of the parking lot.
She stifled a cry as Jax rose up beside the car like a big dark shadow, shoving Susan out of the way hard enough to send her sprawling across the asphalt, disarming Elliot so fast Mindy almost missed it. One moment the man was aiming a gun at her, the next he was lying on the ground moaning and clutching his arm, which appeared to be broken.
Police swarmed out of nowhere, shouting orders, pistols drawn, pointing at Elliot and Susan. Maddox strode toward them across the grass. Mindy looked at Jax, saw blood running down his arm. One of his pant legs was soaked crimson.
“Jax!” She closed the distance between them, fear for him making her tremble. “Jax!”
He caught her against him. “It’s all right. I’m okay, baby. It’s not as bad as it looks.”
“Oh God, Jax.” Worry and all the blood made her light-headed.
Gunderson hurried up just then, took one look at Jax and started shouting. “Get a bus here, now!”
Maddox helped Jax strip off his tactical vest, guided him over to the edge of the parking lot and eased him down on the grass. He pulled his knife and sliced open Jax’s bloody pant leg.
“Missed the femoral,” Maddox said, some of his worry easing. “You’re going to need a shit-ton of stitches, but you’ll be okay.”
“You took care of Whiteman?”
“Left him tied to a tree. Cops already picked him up.” Maddox sliced off a piece of Jax’s cotton T-shirt and ripped it into a strip, which he tied around the injured leg. He folded another strip into a rectangle and handed it to Mindy. Her hand trembled as she pressed it against the slice in Jax’s arm.
A police officer ran up with a first-aid kit, and Maddox went to work taping up Jax’s leg, repairing the damage enough to get him to the hospital, while Mindy bandaged Jax’s arm.
