Shaw pushed Katie to the floorboard and gunned the engine. He shifted gears and wound the engine way past the manufacturer’s maximum RPM range. And it still might not be enough.
Machine-gun fire came at their rear like a swarm of bees with fifty-caliber stingers. He pushed Katie down to the floor again as she tried to sit up. “Keep down!”
Shaw checked the mirror. He thought about veering off the road and taking his chances racing through the green fields. The only problem was the shoulders of the road were simply deep ruts the Cooper would never make it over. And even if it did, the land was so rough here that only a four-wheel drive could manage it.
The Cooper was far more agile than the truck, but on straightaways Shaw couldn’t get out of the range of another RPG strike. Any second now he expected one right up his ass. He thought he could see the big teeth of the little Tajik as he smiled, no doubt thinking he was in the driver’s seat. And he was, actually, but that was about to change.
“Hold on!” Shaw yelled to Katie. He whipped the wheel around, did another one-eighty, and mashed the gas to the floor. Now they were rocketing right at the truck.
Katie sat up in time to see this. “What the hell are you doing?” she screamed.
The game of chicken was five seconds from its conclusion as the big truck and little car bore down on each other. Katie closed her eyes and gripped the dash.
As the headlights drew closer, the Tajiks glanced at each other, apparently unable to believe what was happening. If they collided with the car it might disable the truck. And with the men in the woods coming for them they needed their wheels.
And that was exactly why Shaw had pointed his ride at them.
The big Tajik cut the wheel to the left. It would be his last evasive driving maneuver.
Shaw’s pistol fired and three bullet holes appeared in the windshield on the driver’s side of the truck. The little man’s smile disappeared along with his wheelman’s life. Shaw cut the car hard to the right and whipped around the truck, the Cooper’s wheels digging an inch-wide gouge in the top layer of the dirt shoulder before regaining firm traction and racing on.
The driverless truck kept going for another five hundred feet, slipped off the road, hit the rough shoulder, kicked up a wedge of dirt and grass, and slid over on its side.
Only then did Katie James open her eyes.
CHAPTER 24
WHEN THEY WERE TEN MILES AWAY from where their deaths should have occurred, Shaw slowed the Mini, rolled his window down, and took a long breath. Even for him that had been close.
For the first time Katie noticed the red patch near his shoulder. “You’ve been shot!”
He glanced at the wound with little interest, his mind racing through what had just happened. “Just a nick, bullet didn’t go in.”
“Look if you let me go I promise I won’t say anything.”
“You watch too many movies.”
“You mean you’re really just going to let me go?”
“Well, I sure as hell don’t want to hang around with you.”
“Who were the men all dressed in black doing the shooting?”
“I gave you a lift, I’m not delivering testimony.”
She looked at him curiously. “You’re not a drug dealer, are you?”
?
??Met many, have you?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I have.”
“What were you doing back there anyway?” His features turned grim as he suddenly recognized her. “I bumped into you at the Balmoral. And you were at the yacht. You’ve been following me!” He grabbed her by the shoulder. “Why? Who put you up to it?”
She gripped his hand. “You’re hurting me. Please.”
With one final squeeze he finally let go. “What were you doing back there?”