Logan didn’t want to waste any more time, so he kneed him in the groin, and shoved him to the ground.
The man writhed in pain, and wasn’t getting up any time soon.
When teaching self-defense techniques, Carl had always said, “Hit ’em fast, and hit ’em hard. Don’t ever give them a chance.”
Check. Check. And check.
Logan turned, intending to grab Angie and get the hell out there. But while her suitcase was sitting in the middle of the pavement, she was gone.
18
Logan scooped up the man’s gun, then headed straight for the street knowing there was little chance Angie had returned to her apartment. When he reached the sidewalk, he spotted her two buildings down, running away. Instead of chasing her on foot, he ran over to his El Camino and jumped in. By the time he pulled level with her, her pace had begun to slow.
As he rolled down his window he yelled, “Get in!”
She looked over, but didn’t stop.
“How far do you think you’ll get like that? Just get in the car!”
A squeal of tires echoed down the street from somewhere behind them. Logan looked back. A car had just sped out of Angie’s apartment complex driveway, and was now heading straight for them.
“Angie, now!” he yelled.
She didn’t need any further prompting. Logan slowed but didn’t stop as she raced around the back of the car, and opened the passenger door.
“Come on! Come on!” he yelled, his gaze firmly affixed on the rapidly approaching car in his mirror.
The moment her butt touched the seat, he hit the gas, but even as fast as they were accelerating, it wasn’t enough. Seconds after Angie had closed the door, they lurched forward with a loud, metallic crunch as the other car rammed into them.
Logan looked in the mirror again. One of the sedan’s headlights had been knocked out in the collision, but he doubted the man sitting behind the wheel cared. The guy looked like all he wanted to do was finish the job he’d started, and throw Logan in as a bonus.
Logan glanced at Angie. “Hold on! We’re going to make a quick turn.”
If she acknowledged him, he didn’t hear it.
He kept their speed up until the very last second, then backed off the gas, and turned the wheel. As he’d hoped, the guy behind them hadn’t anticipated the move, and was forced to rapidly decelerate.
They ended up with about a half block gap between them, which was a hell of a lot better than the half dozen feet they’d had before. Logan’s initial strategy was to lose the other car in the maze of the less-populated, residential streets, but while the tactic had kept the sedan from gaining on them, they weren’t shaking him, either.
Ahead, Logan saw a busy, six-lane boulevard, and decided to try something different. His timing was perfect as he reached the intersection, and was greeted with a space just large enough for the El Camino to make a right turn without stopping.
The sedan following them wasn’t so lucky. It had to wait for several cars to pass before it could turn onto the road behind them.
At the next intersection, the countdown clock on the crosswalk sign was almost at zero. Logan weaved into the fast lane, then pressed the accelerator to the floor again, and shot through the intersection as the traffic light went yellow.
He looked in the mirror, expecting to see that the sedan had been left behind. But instead of getting stuck at the light, the sedan pulled out into the oncoming lanes, and hit the intersection moments after the light turned red. Horns blared, and brakes screeched, but their pursuer didn’t stop.
Logan swore under him breath, then scanned ahead. A half block up was a sign that read: 405 FREEWAY. Below the words were arrows, one for southbound traffic and one for north.
Logan kept out of either lane until the last second, then shot across the traffic, and onto the 405 northbound onramp. The road dropped quickly toward the freeway. They got all the way to the bottom of the ramp before the now familiar single headlight car entered at the top.
The 405 freeway had always been one of the busiest in Los Angeles, and that evening was no exception. Though technically rush hour was over and everyone was going close to the speed limit, there were cars everywhere.
Logan moved from the slow lane to the next lane and then the next, dropping into gaps in the traffic the moment he spotted them. Soon they were approaching the junction with the I-10 freeway. Logan knew if he could get over to the transition without the guy tailing them realizing it, they could head east, putting their pursuer behind them for good. He eased the El Camino to the right, stopping just short of the transition lanes, then looked in his mirror to see if he could spot the other car.
“Watch out!” Angie screamed.
Logan’s gaze quickly shifted from the mirror to the road. The cars ahead of them had suddenly slowed to a crawl. He hit the brakes, then whipped the El Camino into a hole that opened up in the lane to their right just a few seconds before they would have smacked into the car that had been in front of them.
He glanced at Angie. “You all right?”
The nod she gave him said, “Yes,” but the look on her face said, “Hell
