her. “Nina, move,” he growled.
She whirled. Stikes had just come from the dining room—and also had a gun raised. She was directly between the two men, blocking their lines of fire. A standoff.
“Yes, step aside,” said Stikes. “I should have known you’d turn up sooner or later, Chase. It’s a bad habit of yours.” A smile of cruel anticipation twisted his mouth. “One I look forward to breaking.”
“Move, Nina,” Eddie repeated. “I’ve been hunting this shitbag for three months. He’s not getting away this time.”
“Why don’t you just shoot, Chase?” taunted Stikes. “I gather you’ve been having marital problems—it would save you the cost of a divorce.”
Eddie clenched his jaw angrily, about to risk darting sideways for a clear shot in the hope of catching the other man by surprise … before a thought struck him. Why didn’t Stikes shoot?
Nina started to step aside. “Wait!” Eddie snapped. “Stay still.”
“Uh, Eddie,” she said with a nervous glance between the two guns, “what’re you doing?”
Eddie’s gaze remained fixed on Stikes, whose eyes began to betray his frustration. For whatever reason, he couldn’t risk killing Nina, even if that cost him the chance to eliminate one of his enemies.
Now it was Eddie’s turn to smile slightly, confusing Nina and infuriating Stikes. “Nina, come over here. Trust me,” he added, seeing her hesitancy.
“I dunno if you noticed, but the guy who hates us both is aiming a gun at me,” she pointed out.
“He won’t shoot. He can’t shoot. He needs you alive. Come on.”
“Alive isn’t the same as unharmed,” said Stikes as she started to move.
Nina cringed. “Oh, I was so hoping he wouldn’t say that.”
“He wounds you, you fall, I kill him,” Eddie told her. “He loses.”
“I don’t exactly come out a winner either!” She was now two-thirds of the way between the former SAS men.
A faint sound from the other end of the hall. The elevator was descending. “That’ll be more of Takashi’s security,” said Stikes, his arrogance returning. “You can’t get away. I’ll tell you what—just drop your gun and I’ll make it painless. One bullet, right in the forehead. For old times’ sake.”
“How about I give you one bullet right in the bollocks? For old times’ sake.” But Eddie knew Stikes was right—he was rapidly running out of time before reinforcements arrived. He needed to break the deadlock …
A bright light suddenly filled the hallway.
From outside.
Eddie looked around in alarm as an approaching helicopter’s spotlight swept over the penthouse. He whipped back to face Stikes, but the mercenary was just as surprised as he was—
The windows shattered as gunfire raked the building.
Nina shrieked and ran to Eddie, who dived on top of her to shield her from the flying glass and bullets. Stikes also threw himself to the floor. Wood panels splintered, the drywall behind erupting with great sprays of fragmented plaster as more shots carved through the hallway.
The firing stopped. Eddie raised his head, seeing the helicopter hovering about fifty yards from the skyscraper. The glare from its light meant that he couldn’t identify the type, only that it was painted black—and had a machine gun protruding from an open hatch in its side.
But the aircraft was now turning to face the building head-on. The gun wasn’t its only weapon …
Eddie flattened himself over Nina again as a flash of orange fire streaked out from the chopper. A rocket hit the building above the hallway and exploded, the remaining windows shattering. Debris cascaded from the ceiling between the couple and Stikes.
Nina screamed as a second missile struck overhead, the floor pounding like a drumskin. “Holy shit! Who the hell are they?”
“They’re shooting at us, so bad guys!” Eddie shouted back. He shook off lumps of fallen plaster and lifted his head. They were dangerously exposed here. If they ran toward the elevator, the building’s central core might provide some protection. But that would mean covering almost the entire length of the hallway, making them an easy target for the gunner—
The floor shook again. Not from an explosion, but a deep, ominous creak of metal and concrete. The helicopter hurriedly retreated. The sound grew louder, joined by the groans and cracks of failing structural supports …
Nina realized the cause with horror. “Oh, crap! Eddie, move, move!”
One of the wind turbines outside toppled like a felled redwood, scything down through the ceiling and tearing a great gash out of the skyscraper as the enormous steel tower ripped through story after story before finally being dragged to a halt by the sheer