Killer Instinct (Instinct #2)(81)

It was a safe bet I would’ve gone my entire life without asking this question, let alone to a bunch of strangers. “Does anyone have a tampon?” I yelled.

I kept yelling it until finally a young woman in a jean jacket stopped. I could see her eyes dart back and forth between Eli and me before landing on the blood seeping between my fingers as I continued applying pressure against the wound.

With a quick nod, she dug into her purse and handed me a sealed tampon.

“What else can I do?” she asked.

“An ambulance,” I said. “First one you see.”

She took off as I tore open the wrapper and lodged the tampon into the bullet hole as tightly as I could. Eli winced from the pain but still managed a slight smile. “Smart,” he said. “Now go help the girl.”

“Not yet,” I said.

Elizabeth was being so stubborn, so reckless. If the Mudir didn’t kill her, I was going to.

“There!” I heard across the street. “They’re over there!”

The young woman in the jean jacket was screaming and pointing with a couple of EMTs in tow. As soon as they saw Eli, they began to sprint.

I wanted to get the woman’s name, get her number, and get the mayor to give her a key to the city and a ticker-tape parade. But all I had time for as the EMTs swooped in to treat Eli was a quick hug and a thanks. Superheroes don’t always wear capes. Sometimes they wear a jean jacket.

I took off down the sidewalk, running as fast as I could to find Elizabeth. The closer I got, the more I could feel it. Not my legs aching. Not my lungs burning. It was the sense of dread, that something terrible had already happened.

I would’ve given anything to be wrong. Anything.

But I wasn’t.





CHAPTER 116


I SAW the car first. Up ahead, glimpses of white in between an endless stream of bodies passing in front of it. People running. Scrambling. Then, a few people not moving at all.

A cop had his gun drawn by the driver’s side door. He was young. Even from a distance he looked nervous. He kept shifting his feet.

I followed his aim, my eyes darting to the back of the car. Suddenly, I had a clear view.

The Mudir. He had her. One arm wrapped around Elizabeth’s neck in a choke hold. The other arm raised up to her head, the barrel jammed against her temple.

“Let her go!” I yelled.

The Mudir yanked Elizabeth like a rag doll as he turned to see me walking toward him with my Glock leveled right between his eyes.

He smiled. He’d known I was coming. “What took you so long?” he asked.

“You don’t want her,” I said. “You want me.”

I glanced over to see the cop’s head on a swivel, back and forth from the Mudir to me. His forehead was scrunched. He couldn’t stop blinking. It was bad enough he was nervous. Now throw in heavily confused. “Who the hell are you?” he asked me.

“Yes,” said the Mudir. “Tell him who you really are, Professor.”

Only I didn’t have to. The cop heard Professor, and it suddenly clicked for him. “You’re that guy with the book,” he said. “The one the serial killer used.”

“Yeah, that’s me,” I said. “Now I need you to lower your gun.”

“Why?”

“Because we don’t want any accidents,” I said.

The cop shook his head. “I hear you, but I can’t do that.”

“Sure you can,” said the Mudir. “Tell him, Agent Needham. We don’t want any accidents.”

Elizabeth winced in pain as the Mudir pressed his gun even harder against her head. “Please,” she told the cop. “Just do it.”

I kept watching the cop from the corner of my eye, his feet continuing to shift back and forth. It was a dance of indecision. Finally he lowered his gun, moving to the front of the car for cover. Perfect.

The Mudir and I now had each other’s undivided attention.

“What’s your plan, Professor?” he asked.

“That depends,” I said. “What’s yours?”

“I’m getting in that car with Agent Needham, and no one’s going to follow us,” he said.

I shook him off like a pitcher on the mound. “Not quite. You’re getting in the car with me, not her.”

Elizabeth wasn’t buying either plan. She was scared. But she was also angry. “Take the shot, Dylan,” she said. “Take it!”

She was serious. The Mudir knew it, too. He altered his stance a bit, tucking his head a little more behind hers.

But I wasn’t taking the shot. I was doing the opposite. I was laying down my weapon.

“I told you,” I said, kneeling. “You don’t want her, you want me.”

Slowly, I placed my gun on the pavement. Elizabeth screamed. “No! Don’t do it!”

“It’s okay,” I said. Trust me.

Hatred is a human flaw unlike any other. It will make you do the unthinkable. Even worse, it will make you not think at all. My plan had been to outsmart the Mudir. But sometimes the only way to outsmart someone is to convince him that you’re a fool.

I stood up and spread my arms wide. There was no way I could hurt him. “Now let her go and take me instead,” I said.

The Mudir smiled again. I’d just committed suicide. He was sure of it.