“No,” said Sean. “And I don’t think we have time to do it now.”
“We’ll take a rain check, though,” said Michelle quickly, snatching a glance at Sean.
The driver slowed the carriage near an intersection.
“Straight down that street. There’s a car waiting, red four-door Toyota. Bloke at the wheel is named Charlie.”
Michelle shook his hand. “Thanks again. I’d be dead right now if it weren’t for you guys.”
“We’d all be dead if it weren’t for some guys,” said the driver. “Just stay alive so we didn’t waste the effort.”
They stepped down from the carriage, walked off in the gloomy rain, found the car, and were soon on their way to Penn Station.
They retrieved Michelle’s Land Cruiser from a nearby garage, gassed it up, and were on their way north before midnight. Michelle had changed the license plates on her SUV, replacing them with a pair of sterilized ones, just in case.
As they left Manhattan behind them, Sean reached out his hand and gripped Michelle’s arm. “Like the guy said, we cut it close. Way too close.”
“But we’re alive. That’s what counts.”
“Does it?”
She glanced at him as she changed lanes and accelerated. “What do you mean?”
“Can we both really keep doing this until it comes to the point where way too close instead becomes, ‘If she’d just not gone through that other doorway’?”
“We both take risks. It could be you too.”
“You take far more risks than I do.”
“Okay, so what?”
He removed his hand, looked away, and watched the wink of big-city lights in the side mirror until they disappeared from view.
“Okay, so what?” she said again.
“I don’t know where I’m going with this.”
“I think you do know.”
“Okay. If it were just the two of us, you’d be dead.”
“You did the best you could. And the alternative was what? Do nothing?”
“Maybe that would’ve been the smart thing to do.”
“Smart for our safety maybe, not so good for trying to solve the case, which happens to be our job.”
When Sean didn’t say anything she added, “We’re in a dangerous business. I thought we both understood that. It’s like playing in the NFL. Every Sunday you know you’re going to get your ass kicked but you do it anyway.”
“Well, players retire too, before it’s too late.”
“Not many do. At least voluntarily.”
“Well, maybe we should think about it. Seriously think about it.”
“Then what would we do?”
“There’s more to life than this, Michelle.”
“Is this because we slept together?”
“Probably, yes,” he conceded.
“So now we have something to lose?”
“Us, we have us to lose. Maybe you could… you could do something else.”
“Oh, I get it. I’m the girl. Let the big strong guy do the heavy lifting, play the hero while I stay home in pumps and pearls and bake the cookies and pop out the babies.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“In case you missed it, slick, I can take care of myself.”
“I’m not denying that.”
“So if you’re really gung ho on this domestication thing why don’t
“I can’t live my life that way. Always worried that you wouldn’t come home.”
She pulled off at an exit, drove the truck onto the shoulder, slammed the gear shift into park, and faced him.
“Well, how do you think I’d feel if
“The same as me,” he said quietly.
She nodded. “That’s right. The same as you. At least if we’re out here together, we have each other. We can rely on each other to get us both home every night.”
“And if we both take it in the end? Like what almost happened tonight?”
“I can’t think of any other way I’d want to go out. How about you?”
After a long moment of silence he tapped the steering wheel. “Put it in gear. We’ve got a job to do.”
“So we’re on the same page now?”
“Actually I’m pretty sure we always were.”
CHAPTER
59
THE SUV HAD SCREECHED to a halt on Fifth Avenue, the door had opened, two burly men had jumped out, lifted Peter Bunting completely off the pavement, and thrown him into the vehicle before he knew what was happening. The truck had raced off and he’d found himself squished between his two captors. They said nothing in response to his questions. They never even looked at him.
The place they took him to was belowground and heavily secured. It was a location New Yorkers would walk over millions of times a day and never know was even there. The room was dark. Bunting stared up at the man in fear.
James Harkes looked different than he had in past meetings. He was dressed the same; black suit that could barely restrain his muscular physique. But his demeanor was different. It was crystal clear that Bunting was no longer in charge.
Harkes was. Or rather whomever Harkes was reporting to, and Bunting now had a solid idea of who that was.
“Let’s go over your debrief one more time, Bunting.”
“We’ve been over it three times. I’ve told you everything.”
“We’ll go over it until I’m satisfied.”
When Bunting finished Harkes said, “Why did you meet with Sean King?”
“Are you keeping my calendar now?”
Harkes didn’t answer him. He was texting something on his BlackBerry. He looked up when he was finished. “There are certain people, all of whom would be familiar to you, that are not happy about your recent performance.”
“I was already aware of that,” Bunting shot back. “If that’s all you wanted to tell me, I’d like to go now.”
Harkes rose, went to the wall, and flicked a switch. The wall suddenly became transparent. As Bunting looked closer he saw that it was a one-way mirror. Seated in the brightly lit room was Avery. Bunting could see that he was strapped to a gurney. There was one intravenous cannula going to each of his arms. The young man was convulsed with fear. His head was turned and he seemed to be staring directly at Bunting, but it was apparent he couldn’t see him. With the special glass and the bright lights he would only be able to see his own terrified countenance reflected back. A heart monitor on a stand was next to the gurney with a line running to Avery’s neck.
