Contract to Kill (19 page)

“Harv?”

“I’m in the store. I have eyes on you.”

“Holly, are you copying all of this?”

“My God, it sounds like a war zone down there
.
”

“Stand by. Harv, on my mark . . . Now.”

Harv fired four rounds through the front door.

Nathan had to wait. “I’ll be crossing right in front of you; hold your fire.”

“Nathan, I didn’t copy.”

“Hold. Fire.”

“Copy, holding fire.”

Nathan made an all-out sprint for the landscaping strip next to the street. It wasn’t much cover, but it did rise a few feet above the sidewalk and driveway. If he stayed near the curb, Mason’s bullets wouldn’t be able to find him.

What happened next reminded him of the Robert De Niro movie
Heat
. Two machine guns opened fire. As if sliding headfirst into home plate, Nathan dived into the landscaping and ended up face-to-face with a trio of sago palms. Just in front of him, the ground erupted. Mud, splintered vegetation, and bark trashed him from head to toe. He rolled to his left off the curb, which gave him another six inches of protection.

He heard it then, the roar of an engine. Would Holly come back in the middle of a firefight? She definitely would.

Harv yelled, “Behind you!”

He turned.

And found himself face-to-face with the headlights of a Lexus sedan.

If he didn’t move, he’d be run over.

Nathan made a split-second decision to stay there for an instant longer. He didn’t think Mason or Hahn would fire at his location once the Lexus arrived.

This is going to be close
, he thought. He jumped up and slid over the hood of the Lexus as it turned into the parking lot’s driveway. In that moment, he was inches from Darla Lyons’s face. They looked at each other, and Nathan saw icy calmness in her eyes. It pissed him off. He’d wanted to smack the glass with his Sig, but there wasn’t time.

Nathan landed hard, scraping his left elbow and banging a knee. He rolled back to the safety of the curb as the Lexus angled across the parking lot toward Mason’s position.

Darla came to an abrupt halt in front of the SUV, shielding it from further gunfire.
Gutsy move
.

At least Mason and Hahn wouldn’t let loose with those damned cannons again; the Lexus was in their way, but it didn’t block Harv’s line of sight.

Harv popped four more rounds.

Nathan watched the windshields of both vehicles take impacts.
Way to go, Harv. Good shooting.

With a screeching crunch, the SUV tore free from the parked car. Clearly, Nathan’s bullets into the engine block hadn’t shut the vehicle down. He should’ve shot its tires. In reverse gear, Darla mirrored the SUV’s movements, maintaining a protective position.

Nathan came up from his crouch, painted the laser on the Lexus’s rear window, and sent three bullets through the glass. With a little luck, he’d score a hit, but Darla’s sedan continued to speed away.

Boot World’s security alarm continued to wail. As if answering a mating call, half a dozen car alarms added to the chaos of the scene.

Harv hustled over to his position. “I thought she was gonna run you over. Please don’t ever do that again.”

“I’ll keep that in mind the next time I’m facing the same situation.”

“They could still make a move against the ambulance.”

“Holly, you copy?”

“I’m here.”

“We’re in the street. We need to reacquire the ambulance.”

“I’ll be there in twenty seconds.”

“I’ll drive. Slide over when you stop.”

They saw headlights appear from an intersection.

“Is that you? Did you just turn onto the street?”

“Affirm.”

“If the police get descriptions from anyone who just witnessed any of this, those two vehicles will be hard to miss.”

Nathan nodded tightly. “We don’t have time to pick up our brass.”

“Good thing we have plenty of barrels and firing pins.”

To gain a few seconds, they sprinted toward the approaching Mercedes.

Holly cut it pretty close slowing down, but she maintained control. The right front fender was bashed in, but not bad enough to wreck the tire. He watched her scramble over the center console into the passenger seat.

“That was some great driving,” Nathan said.

“I second that,” Harv added.

“Karen, you okay back there?” he asked.

She didn’t respond.

“Harv?”

“She’s okay.”

“Holly, I need you to reload my Sig. It’s in my right thigh pocket; the mags are in my left pocket. I’m going to push things to the limit, so everyone hang on. Call the intersections for me.”

At each traffic light—red or green—Harv and Holly cleared him through.

“The proverbial cat’s out of the bag,” Harv said. “They know Toby’s alive and we’re protecting him.”

“The question is, do they know it’s
us
?”

“There’s no way to know that without talking to Toby. Put yourself in Mason’s shoes,” Harv said. “What’s his next move?”

“He’s definitely worried he’s lost containment. Now that he knows Toby’s alive, he might flee the area, or go into hiding, or leave the country altogether. Conversely, he might conduct an all-out offensive and try to end the threat tonight, which means he could make a move against Toby while he’s in the hospital.”

“Based on Mason’s actions tonight, we can safely assume he’s desperate. We chased him away from Toby’s apartment, hid Karen, and just stopped his attempt to kill Toby. We’ve become wild cards in his little war of cover-up.”

“We may not be wild cards if Toby or Mara gave us up.”

“Right,” Harv agreed. “A lot of maybes, I know.”

“Our primary goal is to save Toby’s life, and Karen’s. We’ll worry about his testimony in court later. For now, we do our best to keep Mason away from him.”

“We need to think about something. If Toby or Mara gave us up, Mason’s next move might be to break into our corporate office to try to get our personal information. We should also post a few guards outside First Security. If nothing happens there tonight, we might be okay.”

“For a while,” Nathan said. “If Mason has our names and the name of our security company, he’ll eventually be able to track us down.”

“Not a nice thought. Hang on, I need to call Gavin and get things rolling.”

Harv made the call. Security guards would be at the hospital and their headquarters within fifteen minutes or so.

Holly hadn’t said much, and it worried him.

“Are you okay?”

“You know where I stand on things. As a federal agent, I’m sworn to uphold the law. I’ve now participated in a hit-and-run coupled with a firefight in the middle of a mini-mall. And you guys may have just killed one or more of BSI’s personnel.”

Nathan didn’t say anything, ran another red light, and accelerated to seventy miles an hour. He hoped they’d reach Sharp Hospital’s ER before Mason.

“Nate, Holly’s right. Things have escalated. I’m not sure we should keep this under wraps any longer.”

“I’m open to suggestions.”

“For one,” Holly said, “I should come clean with my boss. The longer I wait, the harder it will be to explain why I waited. Right now, I can claim things have been going at a hundred miles an hour and we’re only now getting a break in the action. It’s not entirely true, but I can live with it. It should be his decision how to proceed from here.”

As much as Nathan wanted to disagree, he couldn’t. She was right. Mason was out of control. It was evident he had no compunction about injuring or killing innocent people to keep his crimes secret.

Holly continued. “I also think you should call your father.”

“I’m not sure about that,” Nathan said.

“Why on earth not? Stone almost surely knows Tanner Mason’s boss. He and Beaumont
need
to know what’s going on. Furthermore, what Mason’s done tonight easily rises to the level of ‘domestic terrorism,’ don’t you think? It’s within your father’s domain.” She paused for a breath. “Did I miss anything?”

“No, that sums it up nicely.”

“Look, I’m not trying to beat you up. I know you’d prefer to deal with Mason privately, and that may still happen, but at this point I’m obligated to report what I know. It’s the right thing to do. And so is calling your father.”

“You’re playing Harv’s role.”

She gave him a puzzled look.

“It’s a compliment. Harv has always been the voice of reason and sanity in my world. He’s saved my life more times than I can count. We should give you executive override privileges.”

“Executive override?”

“Veto power over each other. I’ll tell you about it later. We’re here.”

There was no sign of Mason’s SUV or the Lexus; all was quiet. If any of Mason’s stray bullets had found anyone, though, this tranquility would soon change. Nathan followed the signs to the ER and saw the ambulance parked under the sheltered entrance, its rear doors open.

“It looks like they made it,” Harv said.

“Let’s find a place to park where we can keep an eye on the entrance.”

“How about I find a place to watch from the inside?” Holly said. “All ERs have waiting rooms. What’s the range of your radios?”

“With an open line of sight, about three miles, but they won’t work well inside a big structure.”

“Our phones will work.”

“It’s not ideal, but it’s better than nothing. Harv?”

“I think Holly’s right. We need someone on the inside, and Holly’s a good choice. I doubt Mason got a good look at us during the ambulance shoot-out, but he got an even worse look at Holly back at Toby’s apartment.”

“What about your report?” Nathan asked. He didn’t want to use Director Lansing’s name in front of Karen. She’d kept quiet during their discussions, no longer crying but clearly withdrawn.

“Am I okay delaying it a little longer? Yes, but time is running out. We’re talking less than thirty minutes. Deal?”

“Deal. Toby will probably be in surgery within the hour, so let’s make sure Mason doesn’t get to him before that. I seriously doubt he’s fanatical enough to burst into a surgical suite and execute Toby on the operating table, but with his cowboy tactics tonight, who knows.”

“At this point, I wouldn’t put anything past him,” Holly said.

“We’ll maintain radio contact for as long as possible. Check in with us as you move deeper into the hospital. If the radios stop working, we’ll switch to our cells.” Nathan turned onto Frost Street and pulled over to the curb next to the main entrance. “Hop out right here. The main entrance is behind us. We’ll let you know where we park. Reconnoiter all the ways into the ER, and pick a good spot to keep an eye on things. If anyone questions you, flash that FBI badge of yours.”

“Yeah right.”

“Stay safe, Special Agent Simpson.” An idea came to him, but he shelved it for now. Maybe they’d try it later. He glanced in the rearview mirror as Holly slid out. Karen’s expression hadn’t changed. Nathan pivoted to face her. “You okay for a few more minutes?”

She nodded.

“Once we’re certain Toby’s okay, we’ll set you up with one of our company cars and directions to our cabin. Call Cindy back and make arrangements to meet her somewhere later this morning. Make it a random place you both know, and whatever you do, don’t go back to your house. Even with our security guard stationed there, Mason or his people might make a move.”

“She won’t have any clothes,” Karen said. “Only what she’s wearing.”

Nathan pulled out his wallet and handed Karen a wad of large bills, mostly hundreds. “This isn’t a loan; it’s a gift.” He usually kept two grand in his wallet for emergencies, and Karen’s situation qualified.

“This is way too much money.”

“That should tide you and Cindy over. There’s plenty of food up at the cabin. The property’s ownership is masked by a shell company on the East Coast. There’s no way Mason can connect us to it. You’ll be safe there. Just lie low and keep your cell phone charged.” He read her expression. “You can pick up a charger at Walmart or Best Buy.”

“I can’t believe she’s dead.”

Nathan didn’t say anything. He felt badly for her, but there were times—like now—when silence was best. Karen needed to mourn her friend’s death in her own way.

In the passenger-side mirror, he watched Holly disappear into the hospital.

A few seconds later, her voice sounded off in his ear speaker.
“Radio check.”

“Copy.” He turned into the parking structure and pushed the button for a ticket. He noticed the security camera, but believed it wouldn’t be a live feed.

“Holly’s your girlfriend?” Karen asked.

“Yes.”

“Does she know about us, I mean, you know . . . what we used to do?”

He turned into the driveway leading to the ER and the parking garage. “No.”

“Are you going to tell her?”

“That wouldn’t be my first choice. Look, Karen, I don’t regret anything. You’re my friend and you always will be, but Holly’s helped me in ways I can’t even begin to describe.”

“Have you ever told her that?” Karen asked.

“Sort of, I mean not in those exact words, but yes.”

“You never saw Mara again after you met Holly,” said Harv, “so you haven’t betrayed her. I’m sure she hasn’t told you about every man she’s ever been involved with.”

“No, she hasn’t, and I haven’t asked. Hang on . . . ” He answered Holly’s latest radio check-in.

Harv said, “Your relationship with Holly has been tested on every level imaginable. A couple of years ago, you guys fought side by side in a gunfight. She’s proven herself.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about.”

“You don’t want her sticking her neck out for us again.”

Nathan didn’t respond.

“Look, she can handle herself.”

“You’re right on both counts, but that’s still not it.”

“You’re worried she’ll reject you because of me and Mara,” Karen said.

“I’m not worried about getting hurt; I’m worried about hurting her. I should’ve told Holly about you guys a long time ago. If I had, I wouldn’t be feeling this way.”

“Nate, that’s not fair,” Harv said. “I haven’t told Candace everything from my past before I met her. Especially our . . . questionable evening in Singapore.”