Chapter 45

“Wait here, Rink. Anyone but me walks out of that room, just kill them.”

“Rather be coming in with you, brother.”

“Don’t know what we’re walking into. I’d rather one of us gets a second chance at him.”

“What about Hubbard’s men? They come up, you want me to stall them?”

I gave my friend a wink and he shook his head, laughing deeply in his throat. “Second chance, my ass,” he said, “you just want Rickard to yourself.”

“If he gets by me he’s all yours.”

Rink shrugged. After all, it was me that Rickard had originally targeted, so there was personal investment in it for me.

“Just be careful, okay?”

“I will.”

I left Rink at the head of the stairs and moved along the hall. My carbine was with Rink, as I’d chosen to go with the SIG that was such an integral part of me. I held the gun alongside my ribs, my elbow bent, finger on the trigger, ready for anything.

The intense feeling of déjà vu struck me. The astringent smell of disinfectant was heavy in the air, just like when I had approached Jimena Grajales’s sickroom. Inside I would find Luke Rickard poised to strike. The only difference this time would be that Rink was watching my back so there’d be no one lobbing hand grenades at us.

Didn’t mean that I’d walk away from this encounter alive, but I was more determined than ever that Rickard wouldn’t either.

The irony wasn’t lost on me that here again we were about to fight to the death alongside a woman’s hospital bed, but at least the patient wouldn’t attempt to shoot me this time. This poor soul, a Jane Doe with a passing resemblance to Alisha Rickard, had died from a drug overdose and had been brought here to pose as the killer’s wife. Maybe the trap Walter laid was a little unethical, but when it was weighed against the alternative I couldn’t really argue. Alisha was out of danger, tucked up nice and safe at another medical facility north of the city.

The ruse would last only seconds after Rickard entered the room, which was why I now hurried along the hall. I expected the door to fly open, for Rickard to come out in a rage. The hall didn’t offer much in the way of cover, just a couple of utility closets, and he’d cut me down in the enclosed space. I had to make it inside the room before he recovered from the shock of finding a corpse.