Ambush (Michael Bennett 11)

Seamus looked at me and said, “Help is on the way.”

Alonzo said, “You can’t do anything here. Go catch her and end this nightmare.”

I was running just as hard as she was in an instant.

Chapter 89

This was not how Alex Martinez had imagined the hit would go. But the mark of a professional is to make adjustments and come home alive at the end of the day. That was her goal right now.

She had no idea who’d grabbed her from behind, but he gave a good fight and barely let go even after she fired into his stomach.

She had run from the shooting and wandered for a few seconds inside the studio. She had turned from the main hallway and now was in a maze of corridors and storage rooms. She knew if she kept heading away from the door she had come through, she would find a way out. Going back through the same door would be suicide.

Alex wasn’t panicked. She never panicked. But she had never been in quite this situation. She wiped the sweat from her face several times and got control of her breathing. Every pillar and curtain looked the same. Was she going in circles?

She passed two different people in the patchwork of hallways and kept the gun in her hand, hidden in her purse.

She stopped the second man, apparently some kind of lighting technician, carrying a long pole with a set of lights on the end of it.

Alex said in a very calm and quiet voice, “Excuse me. I’ve gotten turned around. I want the exit facing the East River. Which way is that?”

The man put down the pole, which wasn’t a good sign for brevity.

Alex restrained her desire to screw the pistol into his neck and tell him to speak.

The man pointed behind him and said, “If you take this hallway to the end and turn left, I think there’s a door that takes you into the executive offices in the back of the building. The door may be locked.”

She mumbled, “Thanks,” as she kept heading that way. She picked up her pace and, as soon as the man was out of sight, broke into another run.

Alex wasn’t even thinking about laying another trap for Bennett. That guy was either really lucky or really sharp. She was afraid he was really sharp, but she knew he had a soft spot. She hoped that he had stayed to help the man she had shot in the abdomen.

She found the door the man was talking about and, as he said, it was locked.

Alex was going through it anyway—the only question was how much noise she would make. She knocked on it lightly and felt how sturdy it was. The hinges were on the other side.

She checked the lock, then pulled her stiletto from her purse. Unlike a regular knife, it didn’t have a perfectly flat blade, but it was still able to fit between the doorjamb and the door. Just that little bit of room allowed her to wiggle the knife and cause the locking mechanism to slip.

After a moment of playing with it, Alex was able to pull the door open. She saw brighter lights in the hallway beyond the door and knew this was where she wanted to be. She took a moment to straighten her blouse, then took a napkin from her purse and wiped it across her face to clean up any sweat.

Then she walked through the offices as if she were the supervisor. No one paid any attention to her as she walked toward the sunlight coming through wide bay windows facing the East River.

Chapter 90

I raced through the hallway with my pistol up in front of me, aware of the fact

that this woman could be waiting behind any corner with her pistol ready to fire. At that point it was a risk I was willing to take.

The terror I felt at seeing Juliana with a gun screwed to her temple had mutated to resolve. And anger. Any time people thought they could stir up shit in my city without any repercussions, I got mad. Now I was determined to stop this killer. If I didn’t, who knew when this nightmare might end and how many more people she would kill?

I ran all the way to the stage area, and of course the first person I saw was Carter Javits.

He was shaken to see me out of breath and with a gun in my hand. In my frantic state, I fairly shouted, “Carter, did a woman with long dark hair run through here?”

He just stared at me like a little kid. He didn’t say a word.

I called his name out sharp and loud. “Carter!”

He shook his head no.