Blindside (Michael Bennett #12)(62)

“If I surrender, will you let the girl go free?” I didn’t like the smile that crept over the tall Dutchman’s face.

He raised his right arm and aimed the pistol. There was nowhere to hide on the bridge. If we started running, he’d have a clear shot at our backs.

I looked over the railing into the water. This part of the lake was more of a canal with a slight current. It was a longer drop than I’d prefer. But I would’ve preferred no one was shooting at us.

A bullet struck the giant support beam a few feet from us. I felt the shot through the handrail. I heard Natalie gasp.

I turned her to face me and said, “Can you swim?”

“What?”

I raised my voice like it was going to help. “Can you swim?”

“Yes. I mean—”

I didn’t have time to hear any explanations. I took Natalie by the arms and said quickly, “Don’t look back this way, no matter what happens.”

Then I threw her off the side of the bridge.





CHAPTER 86





ON THE BRIDGE, I had my doubts. If we got out of this, I knew I’d have a lot of explaining to do to Natalie. I hadn’t had time to go into the fact that I was afraid we were too isolated for anyone to hear the shots. Christoph had lost all reason and was just intent on killing us. And I hadn’t had any other choice but to throw her into the lake.

I looked over the side of the bridge and felt a little twinge of vertigo. But I had to focus. I had to think. That might be the only advantage I had over Christoph. His brains had to be scrambled.

The problem was that the only thing I could think about was my family. Maybe it was because I was reconciling the fact that I was about to be confronted by an angry man with both a gun and a knife. And I was absolutely defenseless. That gave me an instant flash of all of my children’s faces. I could see Mary Catherine. Maeve. And even my crusty old grandfather.

I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I needed to buy time for Natalie to get away. I heard her shout something from the water, but I didn’t look over the railing again. Now I was focused solely on Christoph. And he appeared to be concentrating completely on me.

Not only did I want to stall, I also needed to get nearer to Christoph. My only chance was to engage him up close. Preferably after he ran out of bullets and somehow lost the knife. Sometimes you don’t get to choose the exact time and place of a fight.

I held up my hands and started to walk toward him very slowly. I called out, “Okay, I’ll come with you.”

I kept walking, desperately praying that Christoph wouldn’t just raise his right arm and shoot me.

As I got closer, I could tell he was confused.

Natalie screamed something from the water.

Christoph casually looked over the railing, raised the pistol, and fired three times into the dark water.

There was no way he could clearly see where she was. But I was scared by the fact that she’d stopped screaming.

I picked up my pace with my arms still in the air. The thought of that girl being shot by this jerk infuriated me. I’d like to say that I had been counting his shots. The best I could think was he had fired six times. But I couldn’t be sure exactly how many rounds his pistol held. If it was a single-stack 9mm he’d be down to at best two shots now, at worst five.

When I was within twenty steps of Christoph, I made up my mind. This was going to be a fight. I didn’t care if I ended up with five bullets in me. I was going to stop this asshole.

Ollie shouted from a field near the approach to the bridge.

Christoph answered him in Dutch. I didn’t follow it exactly. Then I saw Ollie sprint toward the banks of the lake. Christoph had told him to get Natalie.

Ollie’s gait was off. It almost looked like he was skipping the way he moved, favoring his left side. He’d been injured somehow. Probably the car crash. That was information I might be able to use later.

I continued to march slowly toward Christoph. I wanted his attention on me and not Natalie. I came to a stop with my hands still raised.

We were only five feet apart.





CHAPTER 87





CHRISTOPH WAS STILL trying to understand the anger he was feeling. He didn’t just want these two dead. He wanted to do it himself, up close. Everything was boiling over now. And instead of fighting it, Christoph embraced it. Maybe this was what he should have been doing all along, going wild instead of trying to suppress his instincts.

His thoughts of rage beat through his brain like a drum. If Henry complained about anything they did tonight, he might have to go, too. Henry wasn’t so dangerous on his own. He had to hire muscle. Christoph and Ollie were muscle. Without them, he was defenseless. Sure, Henry was trending toward being a psycho. He liked to think of himself as a crime lord. Some kind of drug kingpin. But the fault in his reasoning had to do with surrounding himself with nerds. A true kingpin has to be tough on his own. You never know when someone will try to rise up through the ranks and snatch the throne.

In Henry’s case, there was no one to threaten his power. The computer people he hired wanted nothing to do with violence. Most of them wanted very little to do with other people. That gave Henry a false sense of superiority and security.

But Henry could wait until later. Now Christoph had to deal with Natalie and this infuriating cop. Bennett had tossed the girl from the bridge into the lake. Christoph admired that kind of thinking. Doing the unexpected. Taking risks. That’s what Christoph and Ollie needed to do more.