Killer Instinct (Instinct #2)(76)

Everything was upside down. I was climbing on my knees along the ceiling of the van when I found her lying against the far side, one leg clearly broken. The other was bleeding from a huge gash above the thigh. She could barely move, her hands still tied behind her back.

I pulled the gag off her mouth. They’d used a ripped bedsheet. She was about to say something, only there was no time for conversation. I cut her off. “We’ve got to get you out of here,” I said.

There was no going back the way I came. The front of the van was now completely engulfed in flames. The blaze was coming right for us.

I turned to the back door. The same door I couldn’t open. It was the only escape.

Reaching for my Glock, the dos and don’ts of point-blank firing echoed in my head. Aim completely straight to avoid ricochets. That’s what you do.

But don’t shoot what can’t be shot.

That meant the hinges. Too much metal. Too thick. No, the best chance was targeting the latch where the door locked. If I could knock that out, my feet could do the rest.

Shielding Sadira, I emptied my clip in a half circle on the edge of the door. All I could do now was kick as hard as I could.

The fire was scorching my back as I angled myself as if doing the leg press at the gym. The way the door had buckled, I needed to aim low.

C’mon, feet, don’t fail me now …





CHAPTER 108


I WAS just about to kick when I heard the sound. Even before I saw what it was, I knew who it was.

Foxx was back. With a crowbar. He’d jammed it in below one of the hinges, prying open the door with one massive pull. There was a reason he was a gym rat, and it wasn’t so he could look good in front of a mirror.

“What took you so long?” I said.

“Maybe because you almost shot me?”

So much for the buddy-movie banter. The flames had overtaken the back of the van. Foxx made a beeline for Sadira, helping me lift her into my arms. She was in so much pain, and my running with her was only going to make it worse. But there was no choice. There was no time.

In that same buddy movie, the van would’ve exploded at the very moment we were out of harm’s way. Only this wasn’t the movies.

No, the moment I reached the ambulance came and went without any explosion. I gently placed Sadira on a waiting gurney, two EMTs immediately taking over.

I turned to Foxx, with a nod back at the van about a hundred feet away. I even cracked a smile. “Whatta ya know, the gas tank was full.”

BOOM!

The van exploded into a fireball, the sky above it filling with a massive cloud of thick black smoke and flames. Score one for the movies.

I watched for a moment, briefly entertaining the thought of Foxx arriving with that crowbar a little later than he had. When I turned back to the ambulance, the EMTs were lifting the gurney to load Sadira. I figured I’d ride with her to the hospital. She was in bad shape, but she’d live to tell about it—something I was banking on. Who were those two guys who had taken her? And why?

Foxx had already returned to the one he’d pulled from the van. The guy’s body language said it all. Dressed in jeans and a black sweatshirt, he wasn’t planning on saying anything. Another EMT was tending to him as the two cops from our car chase stood guard. Not that the guy was going anywhere. Forget making a run for it. He couldn’t even walk.

“Dylan.”

Sadira’s voice was so weak, but even with all the commotion around us I could somehow hear her. The way she said my name, it was as if she were whispering in my ear.

I climbed into the back of the ambulance. Neither EMT asked me who I was or gave me a hard time about my wanting to tag along. They’d seen me run out of the van with Sadira. If that didn’t buy me some slack, nothing would.

“What is it?” I asked her.

I suddenly remembered she’d tried to tell me something in the van.

“I was … about …” She paused, swallowed. She was already out of breath. “I was about to … call you.”

I could see how much it hurt for her to talk. The least I could do was fill in the gaps as best I could.

“You mean, before those guys broke into your apartment,” I said. “You heard from the Mudir?”

She nodded. “Rent a car … meet the Mudir near the train …”

“Yes, the train station.” The fact that he wanted her to rent a car most likely meant one thing. “He wants you to be a driver,” I said. But when? “Before or after the attack?”

“After,” she said.

This was good. Knowing where the Mudir wanted to rendezvous with her would be crucial if we stopped the attack without catching him.

“So what street around Penn Station?” I asked. “He must have told you an address, right?”

I waited for her to nod. Instead, she shook her head. “No,” she said. It was the whole point of what she wanted to tell me. “It’s not Penn Station.”





CHAPTER 109


I JUMPED out of the ambulance and sprinted over to Foxx while yelling his name.

“What the hell is it?” he asked.

“It’s Grand Central.”

“What is?”

“The attack,” I said. “The target is Grand Central Station.”