Page 57 of The Perfect Prey

CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN

Jessie and Kat scurried behind an empty squad car.Once there, Jessie only had to do a quick scan to see what had happened.

The prison transport bus was full of cops and guards, who had apparently been ordered onto it.The bus driver lay on the ground near the door, coughing quietly as he held his hands to a wound in his gut.

An officer was lying dead on the ground by the passenger door of his squad car.Another officer was hiding behind the driver’s door of the squad car, his weapon pointed at Ash Pierce, who was behind a dumpster, holding a gun to the head of a third officer, whom she was using as a human shield.

Off to the side, still manacled and looking at the whole situation with a mix of horror and fascination, was Mark Haddonfield.He was leaning against a wall for support.Pierce looked over at the new additions to the scene.

“Hey ladies,” she said with a nasty smile.“I thought I might eventually find Kat here, but Jessie Hunt?What a delightful surprise!You know, I never got to complete my assignment when it came to you.Maybe I should do that now.”

Jessie didn’t take her eyes off Pierce, but she could sense Kat stiffening beside her.Fearing that her friend would let her anger cloud her judgement, she responded quickly.

“It looks like you’ve already got a lot on your plate,” she called back.With everything that had gone down with Pierce—all the assassin’s attempts to harm her loved ones—Jessie realized that they’d never actually spoken until now.

“I can always make time for you, Miss Big Britches Celebrity Profiler,” Pierce said giddily.

“Let’s worry about you and me later,” Jessie said, refusing to play the killer’s game.“Right now, why don’t we talk about how to get all these folks out of here safely so that no one else has to die.”

“There’s no reasoning with her, Jessie,” Haddonfield told her.“You can’t trust a word she says.”

“Ha,” Pierce chuckled.“Are you going to take advice from the little punk who decided to kill people to get the attention of his dream girl?”

“It’s not like that!We’re colleagues,” Haddonfield shouted, before adding, as if in response to some invisible person who had disputed his claim, “yes we are.”

“Your little buddy seems to be a tad delusional,” Pierce teased.

Haddonfield, ignoring her taunts, turned to Jessie.His eyes were plaintive.

“Did you talk to Hannah?”he asked.“Did she pass on my message?It’s really important that you know what’s going on, Jessie.”

“She told me about your warning,” Jessie assured him.“Clearly you were right.”

“No, the other thing,” he insisted angrily.“The message I said was for you.”

Jessie didn’t know what he was talking about, and she didn’t have time to worry about it.Apparently, neither did Pierce.

“I’m getting tired of this whiny little bitch,” she said.“And time’s a’wastin’.I’m thinking I should just put him out of his misery.”

“Go ahead,” Kat shouted with venom, speaking for the first time.“Maybe you could actually do some good with those assassin skills for once.He had my fiancé’ killed.In fact, you should be embarrassed.This pathetic college dropout wannabe serial killer has been more effective than you lately.”

“I missed you and your deeply damaged soul, Kat,” Pierce said.“Do you remember our good times together in the desert?I sure do.”

“It seems like you remember everything these days,” Kat shot back.“I guess that whole amnesia bit is a thing of the past.”

Jessie noticed that her friend’s whole body was shaking slightly.There was no way she could accurately fire a gun right now.

“It really is,” Ash agreed.“And since I remember everything I did to you out in that desert, I think I owe you a solid.Here it is.”

Without warning, Pierce pulled the gun away from her hostage’s head and aimed it at Haddonfield, firing once.In the same instant, Jessie saw the officer behind the squad car driver’s door step out and fire at Pierce.He missed.She turned her gun on him and fired back.He immediately dropped to the ground, unmoving.

Jessie wanted to take a shot of her own, but Pierce had the gun back against the hostage’s head and his body in front of hers.She looked over at Mark Haddonfield.He was still standing, but only for a moment.

She realized that he had fully slumped against the wall he had been leaning on.Then he slowly slipped down as blood poured from his mouth.In the spot on the wall where his head had been only moments earlier was a large circle of red splatter, among other things.His body toppled unceremoniously to the left, and his head hit the garage floor like a bowling ball.His gray eyes were vacant.

Jessie blinked in disbelief.Mark Haddonfield was dead.Just like that.She had no idea how to feel.Next to her, Kat regripped her gun.

“I think I have a shot,” she whispered but she was still shaking.

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