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“This is so not right.”
Lucas ignored Banner, watching the taillights ahead of them. He had to admire Andrei’s competence in keeping up…and in keeping them from going over the drop off on their right.
“I shouldn’t be in the back. I’m the cop.”
“Shut up, Banner. You wanna stop and switch seats now so we’ll lose them?” They hit the next curve so hard, Lucas’s head would have slammed into the window if he hadn’t been belted in. Yellow light shimmered between the trees from Mirror Lake’s fountain to his right as another thump sounded from the backseat. It was followed by a muffled cry. If Lucas hadn’t been so pissed about being shot at, he would have relished the detective flying all over the back seat. “Whoever this is, took it to a new level fast. I can’t believe this! Did anyone get hit back there?”
“Yeah,” Hollis said. “The valet. Saw blood on his shoulder. He’ll live.”
“They’re getting braver. The attack at Gaile was to scare Lucas, I’m sure. But this—this was a hit.” Andrei swerved. “What the hell? How did they pass—” He broke off.
Lucas saw that another car was now between them and the bad guys. “They must have passed to the left.”
“Into the oncoming traffic?”
With the stream of lights they passed, Lucas couldn’t see how they’d accomplished it either. Tires squealed again as Andrei made a hard left, pulling onto the four-lane Eden Park Drive. The dense black trees of the park pulled back from the road, giving glimpses of the towering skyscrapers and office buildings of downtown. Back to the nerve-tingling edge of civilization. Traffic was relatively light for that time of night, but as they barreled down the first hill toward the intersection, Lucas’s entire body tensed as he prayed the light held green because Andrei was showing no signs of slowing up in his pursuit of the black Dodge Charger.
Banner’s hand grabbed the seat next to Lucas’s head. “Why were you two avoiding me back there? Or did you just go outside to make out?”
“You saw that?” Lucas frowned, wondering if he’d been the only one. Not that he really cared. The thought gave him pause. Surprised him. And maybe even delighted him.
“Shadows weren’t as dark as you probably thought. It was hot. Thought about sneaking around to get a more private viewing.”
“That’s just wrong.” Lucas turned to glare at him, caught the wicked grin and knew the cop was messing with him. “What were you doing there anyway? And dressed like that?” He raked his gaze down the wrinkled, white T-shirt and gray sweats. The cop had obviously thrown his leather jacket on after rolling out of bed. Even his hair stuck up all over his head and his jaw had a thicker layer of brown scruff.
“Black tie isn’t really my thing. Too confining.” He shuddered, turned away and covered his mouth as a stream of coughs erupted from his throat.
“Looks like you crawled out of bed to chase us down at the museum. Why?”
Hollis groaned. “I did. Crawl out of bed, that is. Where I was enjoying the last of that fantastic soup, by the way. I would give the world to be able to eat like that more often. Job keeps me existing on burgers and Chinese takeout most of the time. But your doctor friend called me and he was upset.”
“Snow?”
Hollis cleared his throat, the sound wet and rumbly. “Yeah. Another beating vic came in. High profile one. Patrick Laughlin. He didn’t make it.”
“Fuck,” Lucas cursed softly, his eyes drifting over to his window as the cityscape blurred past him. Patrick had been Thomas Lynton’s business partner for years. This was going to hit Thomas hard, pressuring him to act now to protect his family.
The detective leaned closer and ended up grasping the back of the seat when Andrei hit the brakes, then sped up again. “Your doctor friend was about to storm the museum and drag you home. He talked about protective custody and some other stuff about handcuffs or chains. I didn’t realize you two had that sort of relationship. He doesn’t mind you boinking the smoking bodyguard?”
“Hey, the smoking bodyguard is right here,” Andrei muttered. “And there isn’t any boinking going on.”
Banner snorted. “Not yet maybe,” he murmured, then cursed, his attention shifting back to their attackers. “They’re getting onto the highway. You gotta keep them in the left lanes if you can. If they cross the bridge, this could get tricky.” He started coughing again. “Don’t know what kind of hell bug crawled into my system but I’m pretty sure I caught it at the hospital. Should go into that place in a Hazmat suit.”
Andrei snarled curses under his breath as he whipped the car into another left against the light, dodging a silver SUV to grab the Interstate 71 south on-ramp. He gunned the car, deftly maneuvering through the traffic as if the other cars were standing still, positioning the larger Mercedes on the right side of their attackers. But they were quickly running out of room as they approached the tunnel that would pour them out onto Fort Washington Way.
