Free Hard to Stop by Wendy Byrne Page A

of character for her.
    Her gaze traveled toward his face rather than the sidewalk. She swallowed and straightened her shoulders. "My brother said you've been hassling him. Do I need to file a restraining order?"
    "Don't take it out on me if your brother did something to piss you off—like maybe meet with a local thug by the name of Anthony Falcone?"
    "How did you…" She gave him one of those eat shit and die stares. "I can handle myself. In fact, I'll take out my gun and shoot you if I have to. But leave my brother alone."
    "I haven't been bothering your brother. But you and I both know he's in this mess up to his eyeballs. If I trail him, I have a better chance of figuring out who's responsible for my friend's murder."
    "As I keep telling you, that's a job for the police."
    "Why should I put my faith in them when it appears you don't have any faith in them yourself?"
    "Because otherwise there would be anarchy."
    "I don't know—sometimes a little anarchy is warranted if you—"
    He didn't finish his thought when the sound of squealing tires reverberated in the quiet street. Instinct brought up the hairs on the back of his neck as he spotted the car barreling toward them. He grabbed her. She grabbed him. They both dove for cover when bullets started to fly.

 
CHAPTER SEVEN
     
    They landed together in a small patch of grass between two buildings. He popped to his feet and offered his hand to help her up. That was when he spotted the blood dripping down the side of her face.
    "You're bleeding." He touched her temple.
    "I'm fine. See if you can get some plates." She swatted at his hand and tried to rise to a sitting position.
    "Give me your gun." He held out his hand.
    She slapped it back. "I'm not giving you my gun. Now go."
    Too much time had lapsed, but he did as instructed, without success. Dark car, passenger-side window rolled down, man with a baseball hat and teardrop outside his eye. Yep, he'd seen that guy before.
    After the break-in and the knife attack the other night, this was bad and getting worse. It was like he had a giant dollar sign on his head. He had to wonder if there was some kind of bounty on him and this was a bad-guy free-for-all to get to the prize, namely him. If so, he was not doing well. A drive-by could not be a coincidence. No way.
    Locals had started to filter onto the sidewalks while sirens wailed in the background. Maybe one of them had seen something. But if they did, would they suddenly have memory problems?
    Sirens blaring, two cop cars screeched to the curb. He figured things were only going to get a whole lot worse. The first guy to get out of the squad car looked like he'd taken a double dose of testosterone.
    "What happened here, sir? Gangbangers?" He looked at Max for an answer, which was probably the guy's first of many mistakes.
    Collini flipped out her badge. "Detective Collini, NYPD. The suspects were driving a dark-gray Ford Taurus. I imagined it's been abandoned. Send units toward Flushing. If they kept the car—which they've probably already ditched, but if they haven't, they would get on the 278. I counted only six shots." When the guy stood staring at her, she raised her voice. "Now, officer."
    He ran to his squad car and called it in.
    Her normally olive complexion had a pasty look. Based on the plant of her hands outside her knees, she was thinking about standing.
    "Don't get up. They're long gone." Max tried to keep her seated at least until the ambulance arrived, but she brushed off his attempts. "You're going to pass out."
    "Never." Despite her words of conviction, she didn't fight him off when he helped her to her feet.
    "You're bleeding like a stuck pig." Blood oozed from beneath her hairline and trailed down her cheek. "You probably need stitches." He pulled the handkerchief out of his breast pocket. "Let me see if this will help."
    When he went to press it against her forehead, she stopped him. "That thing probably costs more than I make in a week. It's silk. You'll