Blindside (Michael Bennett 12)

I spun and checked Christoph. He was starting to move. I patted him down roughly. His pistol wasn’t on him. Damn.

I turned and gently took the Gerber from Natalie’s trembling hands. Not my weapon of choice. I tossed it to the floor before I was tempted to take it with us. Then I said to Natalie, “Where’s his partner?”

/>

“He went to get their car. He’s probably already outside this door, waiting.” She tilted her head toward the loading dock’s roll-up door. She had regained some of her composure.

I said, “Now you have to come with me.”

She nodded. “I know. Once I realized they really were going to kill you, I couldn’t just sit back.”

“Me and my whole family are glad you came to your senses. Now we gotta get out of here.”

“But where? Henry knows people all over the city. And I’m not sure if he owns any police. I don’t know who we can trust.”

I said, “I do.”

CHAPTER 79

CHRISTOPH PANICKED FOR a moment when he snapped out of the pain-induced blackout. His eyes wouldn’t focus. He wasn’t even certain where he was or what had happened. Then it came back to him in a rush. He didn’t think he’d been unconscious for long, but it was still going to take some time to get going. Then the lightbulb in the middle of the ceiling above the loading dock came into focus.

He blinked a couple of times as he lay on his back, assessing his injuries. His head throbbed like the bass from “Smoke on the Water.” Then he moved his leg and it hurt so badly he forgot about his head.

He rose onto his hands and knees, and thought he might be sick. The splash of blood on the floor made him lift his fingers to his face. Blood was still trickling out of his nose. His beautiful, straight nose. Which was now broken. Badly. It was so flat, it felt like he just had two holes in the middle of his face.

He was startled when a new sound ripped through his brain. He was worried he might be having a seizure. Then he realized it was Ollie knocking on the steel loading dock door.

Slowly, he managed to make it to his feet. He felt his face again and thought, That son of a bitch really clobbered me. And Natalie had been part of it. The pounding resumed in his head.

Christoph stumbled over to the wall where the control for the door was at chest level. He had to lean against the wall and focus just to hit the right button. Then he heard the slow pulse of the motor pulling up the door. The rattle of the steel felt like someone running their fingernails over a chalkboard.

As the door rose at its glacial pace, Christoph tried to wipe the blood from his face. Now he noticed his eye was tender. His nose, his eye, his leg. That cop was going to suffer. So was Natalie. He needed his knife. He spotted it on the floor.

The door was finally up and the gray Volkswagen Passat sat puttering beside the loading bay.

Ollie shook his head and said, “What happened to you, brother?” He tried to hide his shock at the sight of his partner.

“It was a combination of Natalie and that cop. She ambushed me and he caught me while I was distracted.” Christoph limped over to the knife and scooped it up with no small amount of dizziness.

Ollie thought for a moment, then said, “If you want to do something to Natalie, it’s probably best we leave without talking to Henry. He still pays the bills.”

Christoph clutched the handle of the Gerber tightly. “I’m going to use my knife on both of them. Slowly.”

“Another reason we should wait to talk to Henry. I say we jump in the car and start looking for them. We’ll call Henry and tell him to do some of his computer magic and see if he can find anything. But we don’t call him until we’re already out of here. Just in case he has one of his fits and tells one of the locals to shoot us.”

Ollie ran up the short flight of steps next to the loading dock and found a rag on a workbench inside, then used it to clean up Christoph. He wiped his partner’s face like a mother cleaning up a three-year-old. Blood sloughed off the rag onto the floor.

Ollie said, “Hopefully people will think the blood on your shirt is a design.”

Christoph shoved his knife into its sheath. He was in no mood to listen to his partner. He wanted blood for blood.

They had a brief discussion about who was going to drive. Christoph wasn’t interested in debate. Finally he said, “I’m driving,” and pushed past Ollie.

The two Dutchmen got into the car and scanned the side-walks for Bennett and the girl as they drove. It was early evening and there weren’t that many people on the street.

Eventually Ollie pulled out his phone and dialed Henry. He put the phone on speaker, in case Christoph wanted to add anything.

Henry answered the phone with an impatient “What now?”