Free HARD FAL by CJ Lyons Page A

was as if she hadn’t seen sunlight in ages.
    Seth and Oshiro continued their conversation, bodies angled toward each other, shoulders and heads hunched like football players huddled together on fourth and long. Walden spotted Lucy and sprinted across the street, coming around to her driver’s side window. In his hand was a plastic bag, hopefully brimming with food for her and Taylor.
    She rolled down her window. It was breezy, in the fifties—not bad for a Pittsburgh March. Walden leaned in. “Knew you wouldn’t make it. Don’t worry, I have you covered.” He raised the bag, releasing the enticing aroma of Jagerschnitzel into the Forrester.
    “Thanks. I lost track of—” Motion from the group across the street caught her attention. No. Not the men standing at the curb waiting for Walden to return with the car. Rather a motorcyclist speeding down Water Street. The street was clear of traffic, yet he swerved directly at Seth and Oshiro. “What the—”
    Before she could finish her thought the motorcyclist raised a hand and aimed a gun at Oshiro and Seth Bernhart.
     

Chapter 10
     
     
    WALDEN DROPPED THE food and sprinted across the street as Lucy shouted a warning to Seth. Oshiro spotted the weapon and spun to push Seth down. The gun went off.
    The motorcycle jumped the curb, ramming Oshiro, the largest target, knocking his feet out from under him, and pushing him into Seth as he fell. With both men down, the motorcycle, a large, wide-based Harley, screeched as it changed trajectory. The cyclist wore a visor, darkened to hide his face so it was impossible to get a look at him.
    Lucy gunned the engine, swerving the SUV to stay out of Walden’s line of fire as he aimed his weapon at the motorcyclist. There was no clear shot because June was too close, pinned between the six-foot wide concrete planter and the motorcycle.
    The shooter saw his chance to grab a human shield, hauling June across the body of the motorcycle. At the sight of Walden standing, aiming his pistol, a motorist on Water Street slammed his brakes. The car’s fender clipped Walden, spinning him around and sending him sprawling to the ground.
    Lucy only had time for a quick glance in the mirror to check on Walden as she twisted the steering wheel—couldn’t ram the motorcycle and risk injuring June, but maybe she could get in front of him, block his escape on Water Street.
    The motorcyclist had another plan altogether. Instead of veering back onto the street to make his escape, he swerved down the nearest ramp leading past the amphitheater and to the river.
    Oshiro struggled to get up, blood covering his face and something obviously wrong with his arm. Seth crawled out from under him, calling June’s name.
    Lucy scanned the terrain in front of her. No way would the Forrester fit on the handicapped ramps and the steps were too steep. But adjacent to the plaza was an undeveloped parcel of land covered in dirt and weeds, surrounded only by a plastic mesh snow fence. She pressed down on the accelerator, twisted the steering wheel, and sent the SUV flying over the curb and through the fence.
    Mud and decapitated plants churned the air as she raced through the lot, dragging stray lengths of bright orange plastic fencing material behind her. She aimed for the corner of the lot that overlooked the trail leading to the river, praying that her memory was correct. If it was, then the slope of the trail meant that the paved path lay only six to eight feet below the parcel she was speeding across—the SUV could make that drop, as long as it didn’t roll over.
    Of course, even if she was right and the pavement was only a few feet below her, not the twenty some feet it was on the opposite side of the plaza, then she still had one more problem—how to turn the SUV to stay on the path without it sliding down the hill and into the river.
    Already planning her trajectory, she angled the Forrester and tried to gauge a speed fast enough to make the leap but slow