Devil s Bargin Page 0,93

one foot to kick the sliding door on her right. It slid open easily, rattling like a tin can full of marbles; if he hadn't heard that, he had to be deaf or dead. She waited for any gunfire, heard nothing, and ducked low and around the corner, darted immediately into shadow.

The inside of the place was dark, cool and apparently deserted. No sign of Lucia, either. Jazz held her breath, listening, moving silently across the open concrete floor and constantly checking the shadows for anything that might give her a warning.

She was starting to think that they'd been wrong when she caught a glint of chrome in the far shadows, and heard the ticking of a cooling engine.

And then, very faintly, the muffled whisper of a child's sob.

She froze, listening, trying to locate the source, but the place was an echo chamber, a terrifying trap of a place, and she just knew that she was looking the wrong way, that he was behind her, creeping up...

She spun, unable to resist the feeling, and brought the gun up. Saw a shape move and nearly fired before she saw a gleam of highlights on long, dark hair and knew she'd nearly shot Lucia.

Lucia put a finger to her lips, half in shadow, and motioned Jazz to the right. She disappeared into the left-hand shadows.

Jazz had only gone three steps when she heard a man's curse, a child's full-throated scream and the patter of feet, all coming from off to the left on the other side of the parked car. Something lunged out of the dark, small and ferocious; Jazz reached out, got a handful of sweater and swung the kid around into her arms. She picked her up and backed up fast. She felt the girl's breath hot against her face, tears dripping onto her skin, got a mouthful of curly brown hair and jerked her head out of the way to try to see what was going on.

Just in time to see a muzzle flash. Not a shotgun, a handgun.

She heard a body hit the floor and metal clatter.

Lucia. Lucia was down.

Get the kid out. Get the kid out first.

Jazz ran backward, gasping for breath, keeping her gun trained on the spot where the muzzle flash had briefly lit up the shadows, nearly tripped over a pipe, and managed to somehow get her balance back without falling full-length. At the door, she set the girl down and crouched next to her.

"What's your name, honey?" she asked. She spared one second to glance into her face, into honey-colored eyes and a heart-shaped face, tanned golden by summer.

"Marla," the girl said. "He - he tried to hurt me."

"I know, Marla, but he's not going to do it again. Now, you see that big black truck at the end of the alley? My friend Manny's in it. When I let go, you run as fast as you can straight for Manny and get into the truck, all right? I'll be behind you in a minute."

Marla nodded, tears streaming down her cheeks. Jazz reached up and wiped some away, managed a fast smile, and pushed her gently out the door.

"Run," she said.

The kid pelted for the SUV.

Jazz was just turning back to the darkness when she heard a man's voice whisper, "You can't do this. Nobody can stop me. They told me, nobody can stop me."

And then her chest exploded in pain.

She fell back, unable to breathe, waves of red-hot agony sliding over her, trying to pull her down into the dark, and she couldn't breathe, couldn't speak, couldn't do anything.

He came out of the dark, a dull shadow, gray, colorless. Too small a man to be making so much of a difference in the world.

She couldn't breathe.

He raised the gun, sighted on her, then shook his head and whipped it up, taking aim at Marla, who was running down the alley.

I told her to run. I told her to do that. She remembered Simms saying, Everything you do matters.

She couldn't fucking breathe. Her whole body felt numbed, destroyed by the impact in her chest.

Kevlar. He shot you in the vest. You're fine, you're just fine.

Something was very wrong.

Her heart.

She couldn't feel her heartbeat.

Everything was going dark.

She saw a blinding flash of blue-white light, like a spotlight. An intense glare bright enough to make her want to close her eyes, but she had no control over that anymore, no control over anything, and there was so much silence inside of her.

Simms. Simms was staring