flight of stairs.
As she stumbled down the steps, smoke was starting to billow lazy and thick down the stairwell. It pursued them down.
At the bottom, they come out into a big showroom, empty and dusty. There was one long wall had a wide-open shutter door. A black van revved outside in a wide parking lot.
The other long wall had paper taped over floor to ceiling windows. At the far end of the room was a motorcycle.
As Mace bundled into the van, cop sirens were whooping and whining closer. The van ground into gear and lurched forward.
She heard ‘Jax’ mutter, “Asshole,” under his breath as the van made for the gap in the low wall. There was a thud from within the van and a screech as metal ground against stone.
The van stopped, and the door creaked and was wrenched open. A bundle fell from the door and the van started up again. With more wrenches of metal and stone, it was gone. By now, red and blue lights flashed across the lot.
‘Jax’ dragged her by the collar of her jacket and shoved a helmet at her. “Quick,” he said, climbing on to the bike. As she clambered on behind him he said, “Put your head down into my back and hold on tight.”
The bike engine shuddered and pounded beneath her, and she curled herself as tight as she could into the thick leather on his back. The sirens were right outside, and red and blue splashed across the room as brakes squealed and car doors clunked.
The bike bucked and leapt forward. Tiff held on and watched the paper peel away in slo-mo, as bright sunlight shot through the huge glass ahead. A spider’s web radiated from the center of the glass, and jagged shards rained down on her as the cycle bumped through the frame, onto and over the sidewalk, and bounced into the sun-scorched street.
Tiff’s arm felt a cold wind and some wetness. Why had her instinct been to follow the biker, to cling to her kidnapper, to run away from the cops and not towards them?
The bike was low and fast. As they passed the first intersection, Tiff saw the black van, on the street parallel and peeling away. The lights and noise of the sirens followed it.
The came towards her as the bike leaned over to the left, then picked up at speed. They were headed for the mall. They were in Summerlin. She’d been in Summerlin all this time.
A police siren wailed behind them, and a helicopter rose and chopped the air as it loomed like an ugly insect. Weaving nimbly around the pay barriers, the bike steered into the multi-level car park.
Tiff had lost her Mini in here enough times that she knew what a labyrinth it was. There were more than a dozen levels, and who knew how many exits. That’s his plan , she realized. He’s going to be out of here before the cops can cover the exits .
Has he planned this , she wondered, or is he really that good?
He made straight for one of the far exits, shimmied around the barrier and cut into the downtown traffic. The helicopter buzzed over the mall, looking in all the wrong directions.
The bike slowed and blended with the traffic and stayed on the highway until they peeled off to the Regional Justice Center and courthouse complex. He stopped the bike in the shade and climbed off.
“This is your stop.”
She could step right off and onto the sidewalk. She stayed on the bike seat. “Take me with you.”
“Now I know you’re crazy. Come on, your Daddy’s probably in there somewhere. Go find him.”
“You really don’t know anything about my Daddy, do you? He isn’t at a desk waiting for a phone call. If he wasn’t in one of the leading cop cars, he’ll be in that chopper you left behind.”
“Then he’ll come and find you.”
“Take me with you.”
“Why?”
It was hard for her to answer, so she just told him the truth. “I don’t know why. It’s what I want, is why.”
She didn’t even know his name. Tiffany wondered if that was a part of what made her want him, need him so very badly. Looking at him made her
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