Petr hadn’t wanted to do that, so he’d braked slightly.
King whipped into the right-hand lane, gaining on Petr’s car in a screaming flurry of noise, so now the three vehicles were lined up abreast for a fleeting moment: the semi-trailer, then Petr, then King.
Now travelling twenty miles per hour faster, King jerked the wheel to the left and tapped the side of Petr’s rear bumper with the left-hand corner of his hood.
Then he swerved back.
The backend of Petr’s car skidded out and he lost control completely, smoke screaming off all the tyres at once. The vehicle spun recklessly and the momentum carried it to the left, directly under the trailer.
The rear wheels flattened the vehicle into a pancake, sent steel shards flying in all directions.
King ducked as a couple of them scratched his hood when he flew past the wreckage.
Then he was clear.
Slowing closer to eighty, he spotted an exit looming ahead and veered onto it, rocketing off the interstate only a few minutes after he got on.
There’d be nothing left of Petr.
Yet another reason not to succumb to a drug habit.
King figured out where he was and, barely slowing down, gunned it back to the San Lorenzo Creek.
No knowing whether he’d make it in time.
68
They formed a chain, three in a row, beginning to end.
Heidi aiming her gun at Alexis’ face.
Frankie aiming his gun at the back of Alexis’ head.
Alexis facing Heidi, aiming at her forehead.
It was only a stalemate if Frankie cared about Heidi making it out alive, and evidently he did. He wanted to get paid, after all. Alexis assumed he didn’t have any men left, but she also assumed he’d go after all seven employees himself if it meant making life-changing money. He’d kill anyone for Heidi Waters; she could sense it. Now, the sheer pointlessness of her struggle ate away at her. She’d surged with hope when Petr fled, but one goon had simply been replaced by another.
It proved to her what she’d known all along.
That someone with money would always have people begging to serve them.
For noble reasons or monstrous ones, it really didn’t matter.
Frankie didn’t get a response and told her, again, to lower her gun. Heidi tried to look over Alexis’ shoulder and snapped, ‘You really think she’s gonna do that, you dumbass?’
Frankie said, ‘Woah…’
Well, Alexis thought. At least they’re bickering.
Heidi was flustered, starting to panic. ‘She’s gonna keep this gun in my face until she gets tired. How is that not crystal fucking clear?’
‘Cool it,’ Frankie said. ‘I’m here now.’
‘Great. That’s great, Frankie. You’re here now.’
‘You know something I don’t?! I just lost all my men, you good-for-nothing—’
‘Good for nothing?! I’m a businesswoman. I don’t do this shit. I run a company. But I still did a better job than you of getting this story straight, working out who’s a rat and who’s not. You’ve been floundering around in the dark, trusting anyone who smiles at you. You’re a moron.’
Frankie said, ‘Then I’ll walk away.’
That shut Heidi up. She was so used to the power imbalance hanging over every conversation with her employees. She could say basically whatever she wanted, because if anyone snapped back, she’d fire them on the spot. She hadn’t done it often, but they knew what she’d do. And she was paying Frankie, of course, so wasn’t he just another grunt working for her?
No.
He was an independent contractor, not an employee, and the power imbalance was gone. He knew she was operating on borrowed time, and he was capitalising on it. She had no one left and nothing she’d be able to hold onto, and there was a gun in her face. A world away from the woman who’d graced the cover of Forbes a couple of months back.
Heidi said, ‘Please don’t.’
Alexis saw the effort it took to get those words out, the way it went against every fibre of her being. It was odd circumstances, being able to stare into her eyes as she talked to Frankie. It seemed almost invasive, both their gazes penetrating.
Frankie sighed. ‘Who’s this I’m holding at gunpoint?’
Heidi said, ‘The one who’s been killing all of Petr’s crew.’
‘Where is that cokehead?’
‘He ran off.’
‘Of course he did.’
Heidi ignored the barb, kept her eyes on Alexis. ‘She spoke about buddying up with a couple of high-level operators a while back. Two guys. Apparently the three of them are a crew. You know anything about that, Frankie?’
Alexis heard air whistling through teeth behind her. The sound of barely repressed fury.
Frankie said, ‘I made a bad call.’
‘You’re goddamn right you did. All your men are dead because you trusted those new guys, because they lied to your face and you believed it. You’d believe anyone.’
‘I’ll make this right.’
‘How are you gonna get this gun out of my face, Frankie?’
‘I’m gonna—’
Frankie didn’t finish the rest of the sentence. There was the sound of air bursting from his mouth, a gargle in his throat, and the clatter of gunmetal against concrete. Then, maybe six feet away from Frankie’s original position, the noise of a life-or-death struggle.
Both Alexis and Heidi heard the choking and spluttering and clawing at the same time and their ears pricked up simultaneously. Alexis saw the strain in Heidi’s eyes, the desperation to see what was happening, but Alexis’ body was blocking her view. Alexis couldn’t see anything either.
They came to a silent agreement.
Gently shuffled around in a half-circle, taking small and measured steps as the gasps and grunts rose in intensity nearby. Neither of them shifted their aim but they managed to work their way round so they were side-on to the noises, then they both glanced over.
A young man in his early twenties had seized Frankie from behind, locking in a textbook rear naked choke, and had jerked him backwards in the same motion so the gun fell from his grasp. One sinewy forearm was around Frankie’s throat and he used the crook of his other elbow as a hinge to wrench
