Page 79 of Reckoning (FBI Thriller 26)

Two SUVs were parked in the driveway. Sherlock opened the door of one of them, found no key. There was a pile of overcoats in the passenger seat. She grabbed two of them and shouted out, “No key!”

Molly shouted back, “No key in this one, either.”

Sherlock threw one of the coats to Molly as Stankovic came running around the side of the house, firing. “Molly, drop, roll behind the SUV.” Molly fired back at him and he dove for cover. She fired several times, until her gun was empty. He laughed at her. “Got you, bitch. Now where’s the FBI agent?”

“Right here.” Sherlock rose from behind the other SUV, took two fast steps before he saw her and she fired. The bullet struck his shoulder. He groaned and bent forward, but he managed to raise his gun toward her. She shot him again, center mass. He fell to his knees, trying to suck in air, stared at her a moment, disbelieving, and fell onto his back.

They froze at the sound of a man’s voice. “Stankovic, what’s going on? I heard gunshots. Where are you?” It had to be Caruso, and where had he been? They heard him curse when he saw Stankovic, and then he saw them and fired.

Sherlock grabbed Molly’s arm. They ran across the overgrown driveway, juking left to right, Caruso firing after them, his bullets cutting into the tall grass beside them. Finally, he stopped. He was out of ammunition, running back into the house for more.

“Okay, there’s only Caruso left and he’ll have to hunt up Nero and Domino, so we’ve got some time. But they’ll be after us again soon.”

Molly blew on the muzzle of her Beretta like a gunslinger, laughed aloud. “Not that soon. I shot out a tire on both of the SUVs.”

Sherlock hadn’t heard any tires blow. She grinned at Molly. “I love you. That was great. You’ve given us more time. We can run along the road for a while, hope a car comes by. But when they’ve changed the tires, they’ll be patrolling the road so we’ll have to be watchful. I have no idea which way to go.”

“Let’s go right. The hero always goes right.”

Sherlock didn’t know where it came from but a laugh burst out. They broke into a fast trot down the asphalt two-laner toward the right.

Sherlock raised her hand for Molly to stop several minutes later. They both bent over, breathing hard, slowing their heart rates. Sherlock said, “No sign of any vehicles yet coming our way. They’ve got the tires changed by now, so let’s walk along the side of the road. We can duck into the woods when we hear them coming.” She looked down at her watch. “It’ll be dark soon. Crap, Molly, we don’t have a car and we don’t have a cell phone.”

“We still have these coats, so we won’t freeze to death, and you’ve still got some bullets left, right? We left four of them in sorry shape, and we’re free, Sherlock. I call that a big win.”

But for how long? Whoever Nero’s boss was—Rule Shaker or someone else—Nero would call him for help, and others would come. They’d been lucky neither of them had been shot already. “You’re right, Molly, we’ll count our blessings. I figure if we keep moving we shouldn’t get hypothermic.”

Molly looked up at the darkening sky. “Well, drat. I sure hope it doesn’t rain.”

Sherlock imagined the temperature would turn freezing once the sun set, and rain would mean real trouble. They’d have no choice but to stop and look for shelter. But she wouldn’t think about that now. Now, they had to run.

She said, “Let’s go find ourselves a nice warm house.”

They broke back into a fast trot.