“After I’m gone. They don’t call me Razor but I’m pretty sharp too.”
“What you doing down here?” He looked around. “Like you say, lotta crews.”
“They’re too busy popping each other to worry about me. But thanks for the concern.”
“I don’t give a shit if you get your head blown off. Why should I?”
“Not a reason in the world. Go get your crappy guns, Razor, and enjoy what little time you’ve got left.” She hit the gas and the Ducati roared off.
CHAPTER 43
MACE HEARD the car long before she saw it.
She checked her side mirror. Black sedan, tinted glass, big motor, and the rear passenger-side window easing down. Never a good scenario, especially in this part of D.C.
She hit the throttle and the Ducati leapt forward, but the sedan still muscled up closer. She saw the gun muzzle with a suppressor can through the slit of the open window. The shooter took aim through the scope on his sniper rifle while his partner handled the wheel with an expert touch. The crosshairs settled on Mace’s helmet and the man’s finger closed on the trigger. Sensing that the shooter had drawn his bead, Mace was about to jump the curb when there was a squeal of rubber. Another car flew between the sedan and Mace, and banged against the big car.
The man fired right at the instant the collision occurred and his shot got screwed. Instead of the round drilling a black hole in Mace’s head, the driver’s-side window of the car between Mace and the shooter exploded, with glass fragments propelled outward like tiny meteors.
Mace recognized the car that had saved her. “Roy!” she screamed.
The shooter cursed and fired again while his partner slammed the sedan into the smaller Audi. Roy ducked down as the second round zipped over his head and shattered the passenger window. He cut the wheel hard to the left and the Audi punched the sedan’s front fender at just the right angle to send the bigger car into a counterclockwise spin. The shooter pulled his rifle back and closed the window while the driver tried to steer the car out of the spin.
Roy hit the gas and the Audi pulled next to Mace. Roy looked at her through the open window.
“I’ve got your back,” he said gamely, glassy debris in his hair, his eyes wide with adrenaline and fear.
Mace lifted her visor and yelled, “Are you nuts!”
“Apparently, yeah,” he said a little breathlessly.
“What the hell are you doing here?”
“Like I just said, watching your back.”
“They could’ve killed you.”
“But they didn’t. Right?”
Mace checked their six.
The sedan had pulled out of the spin and was bearing down on both of them, its eight cylinders popping.
“Well, here they come again.”
Roy looked behind him. “Oh, shit. Now what?”
Mace shouted, “Follow me, Roy.”
CHAPTER 44
THE DUCATI hit ninety on a straight strip of road and then Mace decelerated and leaned into the turn at sixty. The battered Audi barely made the cut, its left rear taking out a line of trash cans on the curb, catapulting days-old garbage in all directions as Roy fought the wheel and finally righted the slide and fell in behind her ride.
Mace flicked her gaze in the mirror and saw the sedan take the turn while barely slowing. Her mind galloped as her observations roared into deductions. Pro driver. So probably pro shooter in the rear seat. She didn’t want to find out how good he was. The third shot would not be all that charming for her or Roy.
Mace’s knowledge of the area served her well. Whenever she saw the sedan edging up on Roy, she would rip down a side street, forcing the bigger car to fall back a bit. They did this dodge and dart for three more blocks while passing bandits doing business, but not a single blue working the streets that Mace could see.
Lazy asses!
She had no choice but to go for it. Up ahead was the church parking lot. She spied two cruisers still at the hoodle. She leaned into the turn, hit the lot, went fully airborne over a speed bump, and soared right at the twin rides of D.C.’s finest. She braked hard, almost laying the Ducati down, but the rear wheel tread fought the torque and held to the asphalt. The Audi torched the pavement with burned rubber as Roy smashed down on the brakes. Before Mace even got her