Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 107096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 535(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Danny nodded, rubbing his cheek: there was a red welt where Tanya had hit him with the handcuffs.
“I need to use the bathroom before we go,” said Tanya.
“Hold it,” I growled.
“I don’t think I can. Please?” She looked around at us. “Or should I just pee myself in the car?”
“I wouldn’t have a problem with that,” Gabriel told her, glaring. He was holding a bandage to his injured ear.
Danny looked uncertain. “It’s ninety minutes to the airfield. And it’s a really nice SUV. Leather seats.”
Gabriel listened to the police radio. “Cops are coming. Five minutes out.”
JD sighed and nodded to me. “Take her, but be quick!”
I hauled her to the bathroom, cursing under my breath. I was sure this was another trick. Pushing her inside, I looked around and checked behind the toilet and in the cistern in case she’d stashed another weapon there. But there was nothing. The window didn’t open and it was four little panes of glass, all too small to climb through. Plus, we were four floors up. “You got ten seconds,” I told her, pushing her towards the toilet.
She jangled her cuffs. “Take these off for a minute.”
“You’ll manage.”
“You expect me to get my jeans off with handcuffs on?”
“You want me to do it for you?”
Her eyes widened in what looked like genuine shock. Then they narrowed in anger, but as she pouted and glared, it almost looked theatrical. Like she was trying to cover up some other emotion.
She put her thumbs in the waistband of her jeans, preparing to wriggle them down. Then stopped, blinking at me. “Go!”
I crossed my arms. “I don’t trust you alone.”
Her cheeks flushed and for once, it felt genuine. “At least turn around,” she choked.
I glanced around the bathroom. There was nowhere she could go. And despite all her tricks, I didn’t want to humiliate her. I turned my back to her, keeping my ears peeled. I listened for footsteps coming towards me, in case she was planning to strangle me with the shower hose. But there was nothing. Not even the sound of peeing. “Hurry it up,” I told her.
A few seconds later, I felt something on the back of my neck that made me frown. Was that...a draft?
I spun around just in time to see her feet disappearing through a hole.
What? I dived across the room but it was too late. I stared at the hole, aghast. The entire window, frame and all, was gone. I stuck my head through the hole. Shit! There was a fire escape outside and Tanya was sprinting along it. The window was lying out there and I could see now how the whole thing had been designed to pop silently out when pushed: her emergency escape route.
I tried to squeeze out after her, but my shoulders wouldn’t fit. Fuck! I ran into the hall, past JD and the others. “She’s gone!” I yelled.
“Gone?!”
I didn’t have time to answer. I ran to the window in the living room, which looked out onto the same fire escape, opened it and climbed out. Then I made the mistake of looking at the ground.
Shit. My eyes did that thing where they crawled all the way down the brickwork to the alley below. I could feel the drop, feel the wind whistling past as I went headfirst towards the concrete, and it made my stomach flip. Invisible hands wanted to push me over the rail. I gripped the fire escape with both hands, the soles of my feet prickling, my head going light.
I have a small problem with heights. Back in the army, I had no issues running headlong into enemy fire but I was always the last one roping out of a chopper. I don’t like high buildings, or rooftops, or especially fucking rope bridges, and this job has thrown all three at me. I’m not as bad as I was when we first started, but that’s not saying a whole hell of a lot.
Right now, though, Tanya was getting away. And she was my responsibility. I took a deep breath and ran for the stairs, the whole fire escape shaking as I pounded along the metal walkway. I raced down the first flight of stairs, ran to the next…
And that’s when it clicked that I couldn’t see her ahead of me, or even down in the alley below. Could she be that far ahead?
Then I thought about how tricksy she was. And looked up.
Silhouetted against the moon, a female silhouette was silently climbing up the stairs above her apartment, heading for the roof. Shit!
I reversed course and chased after her, but she had a good head start. By the time I reached the roof, she was a good way across it, heading for the next building. Shit! I sprinted after her, trying not to feel the drop all around me, or think about how there wasn’t even a parapet around the edge. If a stray gust of wind sent me staggering sideways, I’d go straight over and—stop it! Stop thinking about it!