Exit Strategy (Nadia Stafford 1)

Jack turned the wheel so sharply I smacked into the door panel. The car slowed at the side of the road. Without a word, Jack got out and headed for a dirt track leading into a cornfield.

Evelyn looked over the seat at me.

"Go on. You won't get another chance."

Brown cornstalks whispered in the breeze, empty and dying, waiting to be mowed down for next year's crop. Through them I could see the back of Jack's jacket.

"I'm here," I said.

He didn't move. I walked through the rows to come out in front of him.

"I'm here," I said. "So talk."

He only stared at the setting sun.

"Okay, you don't want to talk. You just want Evelyn to shut up, and you know what, Jack? That's fine with me. We can stand here and pretend we're having it out, then go back and tell Evelyn everything's fine. But the next time you decide to take some cryptic jab at me? Think about whether or not you plan to follow through. And if the answer's no?" I met his gaze. "Then shut the fuck up."

He didn't so much as blink. Just held my gaze for a moment, then looked away. So I guess that meant we were waiting it out, and that was fine with me. Anything to avoid a fight.

I gave it five minutes, then said, "Good enough. Let's go back to the car."

I made it two steps.

"Back there," he said. "In that alley. When things went bad. What'd you do?"

"Do?"

"When it went off course. Could have run. Didn't."

I turned to look at him. "Run? And let him shoot me in the back?"

"Gun wasn't out. You'd know that. Too risky. Cops everywhere. Even if it was? Could have made it."

"Made it where? I was in the middle of an empty alley."

He stepped closer. "Second alley. Ten feet away. You saw it."

"It looked a lot farther than ten feet from where I was standing and maybe that's my fault, but I sure as hell didn't see an escape route and just ignore it, if that's what you meant."

"Yeah. That's what I meant."

He met my gaze and, in his look, I knew he'd seen through my lie--knew I'd seen a chance to escape and rejected it.

I broke away, and continued, "As for getting caught, I misjudged--and yes, I admit that I screwed up. I thought I could turn and get the jump on him, but he was right there."

Jack nodded, gaze down, as if studying a mole hole at the bottom of a cornstalk. Without looking up, he spoke again, his voice quiet. "Let's say...sake of argument. You saw the alley. Knew you'd make it. Would you?"

I considered lying, but from that look in his eyes, he already knew the answer.

I squared my shoulders. "Not while I saw a reasonable chance to catch him."

"What's reasonable? Greater than zero?"

I opened my mouth, then snapped it shut, and forced out a calm tone. "Reasonable is whatever I decide it is because, as Evelyn said, it's my risk to tak

e. Maybe you don't like that, but I'd never endanger you or anyone else, so I don't see the point of arguing about it."

His eyes darkened. "No, you don't, do you? You die? Who gives a shit? No one to care."