Night Watch (Kendra Michaels #4)(59)

“I really didn’t know that—”

“Relax. Just kidding. There’s a helmet strapped to the back. Take it and hop on. Hurry!”

Kendra put on the helmet and threw her leg over the seat of Jessie’s motorcycle.

“Ready?” Jessie asked.

Before Kendra could reply, Jessie squeezed back the throttle and rocketed down the street.

Kendra leaned around Jessie to see that Lynch’s and Powers’s cars were still within sight.

Jessie shouted over her engine. “Are we chasing one of the guys I put down the other night?”

Kendra shouted back. “Yes, the one who dragged me into the office.”

“He pissed his pants, right?”

“Yes.”

“Good! I’d love another crack at him.” Jessie put on another burst of speed.

Up ahead, Powers turned right, almost taking out a streetlight pole as he went wide on the busy cross street. They were heading deep into a congested retail district, with four lanes of traffic and traffic lights stretching to infinity.

“Hang on!” Jessie shouted.

She took a hard right turn into the intersection. Lynch was now only a few yards ahead. Powers was half a block beyond him, weaving in and out of traffic.

“Wave to your friend,” Jessie shouted.

While Kendra was still trying to figure out what she meant, Jessie passed Lynch on the left. Kendra smiled. She didn’t have to be a skilled lip-reader to pick up the curses tumbling out of Lynch’s mouth.

With another burst of speed, Lynch was behind them. Kendra looked forward. They were now nimbly weaving between the few cars that separated them from Powers.

Almost there …

Dozens of taillights flashed, and Kendra realized they were approaching a stoplight. Powers turned left into the lanes of oncoming traffic, where he narrowly missed a pickup truck and a Lexus convertible.

To Kendra’s horror, Jessie stayed on his tail, dodging the same vehicles. Kendra wanted to look away, but she felt compelled to watch as if that would somehow stave off a deadly collision.

Powers turned left at the next intersection, where Jessie hurtled through and shortened the gap.

“What’s your plan?” Kendra gasped.

“Keep the pressure on until he crashes,” she said calmly.

“Or until we do.”

“I’m way better than he is.”

“Modest. I like it … I think.”

“Hang tight. I’m going to try something.”

Jessie gunned the engine and drew alongside Powers’s car.

Powers glared at them. His knuckles were white on the steering wheel and sweat poured from his face. Jessie was right, Kendra realized. The man wasn’t comfortable in a high-speed pursuit. He abruptly pulled the wheel, in an attempt to hit them, but Jessie sped past and cut in front of the SUV.

He bore down on them. Kendra could hear his engine roaring in her ears.

“Uh, Jessie…”

“I see him. I need you to reach into my right jacket pocket.”

“What?”

“I have some ball bearings in there. Reach in and grab a few.”

Kendra reached into the pocket of Jessie’s leather jacket and pulled out a handful of shiny little orbs. “Who rides around town with ball bearings in their pockets?”

“I do. Now throw them at his windshield as hard as you can. Aim for the driver’s side. Do it!”

Kendra hurled the metal balls with all the force she could muster.

Contact!

Kendra glanced back to see that three of the ball bearings had made contact with the windshield, creating webs of cracked glass in Powers’s field of vision.

The car swerved erratically.

Jessie fell back alongside the SUV long enough to grab another ball bearing from her pocket and hurl it into the driver’s side window, shattering it completely. Again the SUV swerved crazily.

They dropped farther back until they were once again following the SUV. Kendra looked behind her to see that Lynch had caught up. He was talking, she realized, communicating their location to the police.

Jessie beeped her high-pitched horn several times. Powers glanced back, and Kendra could see that he had a fine mist of blood on the side of his face. Likely a casualty of the shattered driver’s side window.

Jessie beeped again.

Kendra thought she was doing it to rattle Powers, but she quickly saw that it was a warning for a supermarket delivery truck slowly pulling out of the alleyway ahead.

Powers saw it an instant later. He swerved to avoid the truck, but overcompensated and jumped onto the sidewalk. He tried to correct his course, but it was too late. He plowed into the brick wall of a diaper factory.

Jessie winced. “That’s gotta hurt.”

They circled the smoldering wreck as Lynch stopped and climbed out of his car.

He looked at the wreck. “How is he?”

“Still breathing,” Jessie said. She and Kendra dismounted the cycle. Powers was slumped in his smashed car, partially covered by an airbag. He moaned in pain.

Jessie reached in and pulled the airbag forward, revealing Powers’s swollen and bloody face. “He’s not going to be winning any beauty contests anytime soon, but he’ll survive.”

Police sirens wailed in the distance.

“I called them in,” Lynch said. “They’ll be here in under a minute.”