Killer Instinct - James Patterson Page 0,91
was the woman who’d betrayed him. How would he solve the problem of Sadira?
The Mudir knew exactly how.
Assuming he could find her. After her faking Reinhart’s death, would she still be waiting for him in the white rental car as he instructed? There was a chance. A good chance, even. It all depended on her end game. How long did she want him to think she could be trusted?
The Mudir hadn’t told her where she’d be taking him directly after the attack, his one errand before leaving the city to lie low, but he had to wonder if she’d somehow found out about his shipment from Viktor Alexandrov. It had finally arrived. Maybe her plan was to get her hands on the package before he did.
The Mudir could only hope.
It’s so much easier to kill someone in cold blood when they have the courtesy of being where you want them to be.
Up ahead, at the corner of 46th Street and Third Avenue, the Mudir spotted a white Ford Taurus. He stopped running, craning his neck to peer through the horde of people that had filled the street.
Finally a path cleared for a moment, long enough for him to see her waiting behind the wheel. No, arguing behind the wheel. There was a cop standing by her door, angrily gesturing for her to move the car. Pulling down hard on a baseball cap, she was shaking her head vehemently, telling him no.
It was perfect. She was distracted.
They usually are before they die.
CHAPTER 114
ELIZABETH COULDN’T figure out what to do with her left hand. She kept meticulously adjusting the sideview mirror with it, then the rearview mirror, followed by tugging on the brim of her baseball cap. Lather, rinse, repeat. Over and over she kept doing this, funneling her nervous energy into keeping her left hand busy.
All the while her right hand sat perfectly still in her lap, her fingers wrapped tightly on the grip of her G19.
She knew this was a good plan. Dylan didn’t have to sell her on it. She could play the role of Sadira Yavari. She could set the trap.
As her eyes darted between the mirrors in the white Ford Taurus, keeping a vigilant lookout for the Mudir amid all the pandemonium outside on the street, Elizabeth couldn’t help playing the scene in her head. What she would do when he got into the car. What she would even say.
He would climb into the back seat, so distracted by the foiled attack and his rushing to reach his getaway car that he wouldn’t even look at Sadira. Drive! he would bark at her.
That’s when Elizabeth would turn back to him with the G19 in her right hand leading the way. Think again, asshole!
If everything went according to plan, that’s how it would happen. She was sure of it. Right up until she heard her phone ring. Even before she looked to see that it was Dylan calling, she knew there was a problem.
“Get out of the car!” he said.
“Why?” she asked.
“Just do it,” he said. “He knows I’m alive.”
Dylan didn’t need to connect the dots for her. If the Mudir knew he was alive, he would also know that Sadira couldn’t be trusted.
The Mudir kills anyone he doesn’t trust.
“Is he alone?” asked Elizabeth.
The question threw Dylan. She could tell in his voice, there was no time for a debate. All he wanted to hear was the sound of her getting out of the damn car and away from the Mudir.
“Yes. He’s alone,” said Dylan. “But—”
“If I get out of the car, we lose him.”
“And if you don’t …” He paused, frustrated. “I don’t want to lose you, Lizzie.”
Dylan never called her that. Not ever. She’d even told him that she didn’t like Lizzie soon after they first met. But right then, in that moment, she really liked the sound of it.
But not enough to get out of the car.
“We can’t let this guy get away,” she said, before doing something she’d never done to Dylan. Not ever. She hung up on him.
Elizabeth checked the mirrors again. Now they really had to be perfect. There could be no blind spots. She needed to see everywhere around the car.
Oh, crap. You’ve got to be kidding me …
The cop was standing in front of the car, angrily waving at her to move it along. Yeah, he was just doing his job. Yeah, he needed to free up the street for ambulances and fellow law enforcement. But his timing couldn’t be