Blindside(62)

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.

He’d sent Ollie down to the bank to grab the girl. That meant he could keep his attention trained on Bennett.

Bennett had his hands raised and was walking toward him slowly. Christoph didn’t trust him. But this was falling in line with his own plan. He wanted to see the cop up close. Preferably, he’d use his knife. Instead of one jab to the throat, he’d take a few practice slashes, then take an ear or cut off his nose. Maybe make it last a little while. Then move on to cutting off something more delicate.

He knew Ollie would argue against that. He just wanted to take both of them to the area in Kopli Liinid with all the new houses. A lot of concrete was poured every day; there was always someplace convenient to leave a body or evidence they never wanted found. Having two people walk to the site would be much easier than carrying their bodies, and it would leave less blood everywhere they went. Christoph hated cleaning blood out of the car. And he’d done it more than most people.

All that ran through his brain as Bennett kept walking toward him slowly, his hands clearly empty and up over his head. He didn’t blame the cop for surrendering. The guy had been through a lot. Maybe he’d realized there was nowhere else to run. At least not in Estonia.

Christoph was about to warn him to freeze in place when the cop came to a stop on his own.

Now they were only about a meter and a half apart.





CHAPTER 88


AS WE FACED each other on the bridge, Christoph stared me down, then gave me a little grin. I’d seen it before. He was showing me he was in charge. He had won. I have no idea why these idiots think something is over before it’s even started.

I glanced over the side of the bridge into the lake. I heard or thought I could still hear Natalie, but I really couldn’t see anything in the darkness of the lake. I tried to gauge where the slovenly hit man, Ollie, was on the bank, but I had to deal with a younger, fit, armed killer right in front of me.

The first thing out of Christoph’s mouth surprised me.

He said, “Why did you throw the girl off the bridge?”

“She’s so light I thought she could fly.” Right now I was willing to say anything to buy a few more seconds for Natalie to escape. The problem was I had no idea where she or the other killer were. It had been quiet for too long.

I needed to do something. Fast. I also wanted to make Christoph scream. I was hoping that might bring his partner away from the lake and back to the bridge. It was a lot of speculation on my part.

I kept watching the Dutchman. He seemed pretty confident. Natalie’s blow across his face and my full-body block hadn’t seemed to slow him down too much. Sure, his nose still leaked a little blood. It was clearly broken and almost flat against his face, but that wasn’t affecting his reflexes. At least not that I could see.

Then I realized he was waiting just like me. He was waiting to hear Ollie call up and say he had caught the girl. That wasn’t going to fly with me. I’d taken all the abuse I wanted to take.

Christoph finally turned his head and looked toward the bank, hoping to see his partner. His gun was still in front of him, pointed right at my stomach, and the knife was gripped at the ready by his hip. It wasn’t a long look, but it was enough.

I made my move.

The situation was almost identical to what they put us in during training with the NYPD. It’s tough: a gun is extended toward you, the shooter’s reaction is slower than the captive’s action, and you have no other choice. Though there was the added complication of that knife.

My hands and feet moved at almost the same time. My hands came down, one arm swinging to knock the knife out of his left hand almost too easily, just as I stepped forward and closed the distance. My other arm swung toward Christoph’s gun hand a fraction of a second later.