Countdown Read Free Page A

I’ll see you back at your room, Paul.”
    “Right.” He turned on his heel and set off down the street.
    “Wonderful Jane . . .”
    “Be quiet. I’m not going to let you blame your lack of purpose on me. I’ll help you, but you’re responsible for your life, just as I am for mine.”
    “I know that.”
    “You don’t know zilch right now. Listen, Mike, we both grew up on the streets, but we were lucky. We’ve been given a chance to climb out.”
    “Not smart enough. Paul’s right. . . .”
    “You’re all muddled.” The alley was yawning just ahead. Her hand tightened on the key as she pressed the unlock button and pushed him toward his Saturn. “You can’t even remember what—”
    Shadow. Leaping forward. Arm raised.
    She instinctively pushed Mike aside and ducked.
    Pain!
    In her shoulder, not her head, where the blow was aimed.
    She whirled and kicked him in the belly.
    He grunted and bent double.
    She kicked him in the groin and listened with fierce satisfaction as he howled in agony. “Bastard.” She took a step toward him. “Can’t you—”
    A bullet whistled by her ear.
    Mike cried out.
    Dear God. She hadn’t seen any gun.
    No, her attacker was still doubled over, groaning in pain. Someone else was in the alley.
    And Mike was falling to his knees.
    Get him out of here.
    She opened the door of the Saturn and pushed him onto the passenger seat.
    Another shadow running toward her from the end of the alley as she ran around to the driver’s seat.
    Another shot.
    “Don’t kill her, you fool. She’s no good to us dead.”
    “The kid may already be dead. I’m not leaving a witness.”
    The voice came from right in front of her.
    Blind him.
    She turned the lights on high as she started the car.
    And ducked as a bullet shattered the windshield.
    The tires screeched as she stomped on the accelerator and backed out of the alley.
    “Jane . . .”
    She looked down at Mike and her heart sank. His chest . . . Blood. So much blood.
    “It’s okay, Mike. You’re going to be fine.”
    “I . . . don’t want to die.”
    “I’m taking you to the emergency room right now. You’re not going to die.”
    “Scared.”
    “I’m not.” Christ, she was lying. She was terrified, but she couldn’t let him see it. “Because there’s no reason to be. You’re going to get through this.”
    “Why?” he whispered. “Why did they— Money? You should have given it to them. I don’t want to die.”
    “They didn’t ask me for money.” She swallowed. Don’t cry now. Pull over and try to stop that bleeding and then get him to the emergency room. “Just hold on, Mike. Trust me. You’re going to be all right.”
    “Promise . . . me.” He was slumping forward in the seat. “Don’t want to . . .”
             
    M s. MacGuire?”
    A doctor?
    Jane looked up quickly at the tall, fortyish man standing in the doorway of the waiting room. “How is he?”
    “Sorry. I’m not a doctor. I’m Detective Lee Manning. I need to ask you a few questions.”
    “Later,” she said curtly. She wished she could stop shaking. Dear God, she was scared. “I’m waiting for—”
    “The doctors are working on your friend. It’s a difficult operation. They won’t be out to talk to you for a while.”
    “That’s what they told me, but it’s been over four hours, dammit. No one’s said a word to me since they took him away.”
    “Operating rooms are busy places.” He came toward her. “And I’m afraid we have to get a statement from you. You showed up here with a victim suffering a gunshot wound and we have to find out what happened. The longer we wait, the greater chance we have of losing the perpetrator.”
    “I told them what happened when I checked Mike in to the hospital.”
    “Tell me again. You say robbery didn’t appear to be the motive?”
    “They didn’t ask for money. They wanted—I don’t know what they wanted. They said something about the girl not being any good to them dead. That’s