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In spite of the chilly March rain, I was already starting to sweat inside my tracksuit. I rolled back my hood and let the water roll down my neck. It felt good. For most of the way, I ran behind Meed, just far enough to avoid getting her shoe splatter in my face. I came up next to her while she marked time at a stoplight. My lungs hurt already.
“Where are we headed?” I asked.
“Wrong question,” said Meed. She wasn’t even breathing hard.
We turned south. After about forty-five minutes, the surroundings started to get sketchy. Most of the streetlights were out and there was a lot of chain-link fencing. I could tell from street signs that we were near Fuller Park. It was a neighborhood I wouldn’t even drive through during the day, let alone run through in the dark. On the plus side, the rain had let up. Now it was just a light mist.
Here and there along the street, a few beat-up cars sat at the curb, but this wasn’t a place you’d ever want to park overnight. Not if you planned to see your vehicle in the morning.
On the right, a low wooden fence blocked off a site with a half-demolished building. The store next door looked like it was next for the wrecking ball. Meed took a right and turned down the alley just past the store. It took me a few seconds to catch up. When I rounded the corner, I felt a prickle at the back of my neck. The alley was narrow and the far end disappeared into darkness. Meed was nowhere in sight.
I heard a rustle. I picked up my pace. Suddenly, somebody grabbed me hard from behind, lifting my feet off the ground and pinning my hands against my sides. I felt the bristle of stubble against my neck. A raspy voice mumbled into my ear.
“Slow down there, Usain Bolt.”
CHAPTER 25
I BENT FORWARD hard and twisted my shoulders, but it was no use. The guy was a brute. With one hand, he grabbed me by the chin and pulled my head back up again. That’s when the other guy stepped out of the shadows.
I could see his pale shaved dome glistening in the light of a streetlight near the alley entrance. He had a ripped T-shirt under a greasy denim vest. A cobra tattoo twisted up his neck. He had a jerky, dangerous energy, jacked up and ready for trouble. My heart was already thumping from the run, but now I could feel my pulse pound even harder in my head. I got a bitter taste in my mouth. I suddenly went cold and clammy all over.
I looked down the alley past the thug in front of me. Where the hell was Meed??
She would have missed me by now. Was she knocked out somewhere back in the dark—or dead? Was I next? I started to shake.
“Whaddaya got for me tonight?” said Cobra Neck. The guy behind me tightened his grip, his forearms locked around my rib cage.
“Weknowyou got somethin’,” he said, shaking me from side to side.
“I don’t!” I said. “I don’t have anything!” That was the truth. Meed had my wallet and phone locked up somewhere in the loft. I hadn’t touched cash in four months. Cobra Neck flicked the collar of my tracksuit.
“Definitely not bargain bin,” he said, leaning in. “C’mon. I know you got somethin’ for me.”
I felt an arm slide up to my throat. That was the trigger, the second when something kicked in. I rolled hard to the right and reached my leg back. I shoved the guy’s elbow up and slipped my head out of his grip. I got my first look at his face—pale, bristled, dead-eyed. I twisted his arm behind his back and kicked him hard behind his knees. He dropped to the wet pavement. I spun back around with my hands up—and froze. There was a gun two inches from my forehead. Cobra Neck waved the barrel. He was pissed off and out of patience. I could hear the guy behind me groaning and cursing under his breath.
“Let’s try again, asshole,” said Cobra Neck. “Empty your goddamn…”
The shock wand caught him right under the chin. The gun dropped and clattered on the pavement. I saw the flash of Meed’s hand as she chopped the guy hard across his carotid artery. He spasmed and crumpled, out cold. I heard feet scrambling behind me and turned around. The other guy was already rounding the corner onto the street. Gone. When I turned back, Meed was in my face, glaring at me.
“I thought I told you to keep up,” she said.
The adrenaline was flooding through me, making me dizzy. I’d never felt anything close to this in my life. I bent forward at the waist, trying to catch my breath. I replayed the last minute like a movie in my head. It didn’t seem real.
“I broke a choke hold,” I said. “I dropped that jerk.” I could hear myself trying to sound tough.
“I noticed,” said Meed. “Just before you almost got your head shot off. You were too slow on the second target.”
She noticed? “You werewatching??” I asked.
“I was,” she said. “Until I saw you failing.”
I thought I might get some compliments on my martial arts skills. Instead, I had to eat crow. Nothing new in this relationship. I felt my shoulders slump as I looked up at her. She was tucking the shock wand back into her sleeve.
“Sorry,” I said. I couldn’t explain it, but letting her down felt even worse than almost dying.
“I won’t always be there,” she said. “You have only yourself.”
CHAPTER 26
