Disavowed(92)

****



Briar gripped the door handle with one hand and the center console with the other as Matt took a hard left, racing after Balducci. Alex and the other two agents were in pursuit in their own vehicles as well. She knew he wasn’t getting away, not with this many people after him, and yet her heart was still racing. She wanted him taken down now. No more chances for him.

Matt was updating Tuck as he drove, his voice clipped and urgent. He wove the SUV left and right, dodging slower traffic, ignoring the blaring horns, focused on getting to that beacon on screen. The BMW exited about a mile ahead and drove east along a side street. Matt followed but he couldn’t drive this fast and navigate via the tablet so she took over with the directions.

“Take your second left,” she told him, gaze riveted to the beacon. They were gaining on him.

He followed her instruction, taking the turn hard enough that the back wheels screeched. She jostled in her seat as the vehicle settled back onto its center of gravity and Matt hit the gas, picking up speed. The BMW was slowing, seemed to be stopped at an intersection, was hopefully hemmed in by traffic. She saw a better route to cut him off.

“Next right.” The BMW was moving again, gaining speed.

Matt did as she said and followed her next four directions, putting them a block ahead of where the BMW was headed.

“Right again,” she ordered.

He turned and up ahead was a red light.

“Hang a left into the oncoming lane. He’ll be heading right at us in a few seconds.”

Matt blew the light and made the turn, swinging into the wrong lane. The BMW was dead ahead. Even as Briar reached for her door handle, ready to jump out and run, she saw the car slow. Matt hit the gas, the big SUV surging forward.

Ahead of them the BMW swerved. Briar braced herself for when Matt made a countermove but went rigid in her seat as a minivan suddenly burst onto the road from a cross street. It ran the red light and accelerated, T-boning the BMW’s driver’s side, sending it spinning across the road.

“Shit,” Matt muttered. He stomped on the brake to avoid hitting it and before Briar could say anything the driver of the minivan jumped out.

Briar swallowed a cry. “Georgia,” she rasped out.

She had blood on her face as she scrambled around the hood of the bashed-in van, a pistol in her grip. Balducci was climbing out the BMW’s front passenger side door, shoving his wife out in front of him. The woman fell on her butt on the road, still in her evening gown. She appeared to be unhurt as Balducci scrambled over top of her, yanked her to her feet and shouted at her to run as he shoved her toward the sidewalk. He didn’t wait for her but started running, stumbling once as he gained his footing and raced away from the scene.

Georgia raised the pistol, her face a study in determination. Balducci suddenly whirled and whipped his own weapon up, fired twice.

“No!” Briar shouted, stomach grabbing when Georgia ducked out of the way just before the bullets slammed into the van’s hood.

Georgia popped up again, using the van’s hood as a shooting platform, and took aim.

Before Briar could say anything Matt floored it then stomped on the brake, tires screaming as he stopped them between the two battered vehicles, blocking Georgia’s shot.

“I’ll stop her—you go after him.” She didn’t give him time to argue. If she didn’t stop Georgia, her fellow Valkyrie would kill Balducci and they’d never get the confession or intel they needed from him to collar everyone else involved.

Briar was out her door with her own weapon drawn before Matt could put the SUV into park, her aim locked on her fellow Valkyrie.

Georgia stood with her own pistol raised at Balducci’s retreating figure, jaw set, eyes burning with fury as blood dripped down her face and neck. “Get out of my way, Briar.”

Briar shook her head. “Don’t do this. Don’t throw your life away over him. He’s not worth it.”

Georgia’s hands shook, “He lied to me, set me up. Killed Frank and Janaia. Would have killed you and me.”

“But he’s going down now. HRT is en route, they’ll handle it. Stand down.” Briar didn’t want to shoot her, but she would if Georgia gave her no option.

Georgia met her gaze fully for the first time and some of the wildness in her expression eased. “I want him dead.”

She could hear Matt behind her over by the trees now, chasing after Balducci and shouting for him to freeze. Her muscles twitched, wanting to follow and help. “I know. But that’s not gonna happen. As much as I wanted him to die for what he’s done, a quick death is too easy. Rotting behind bars for the rest of his life is a much crueler fate for him.” She paused, praying that sank in. “You do this, you’ll go down too.” Her index finger was curled around the trigger. If Georgia wouldn’t listen, Briar wouldn’t hesitate to take her down. She let Georgia see it in her face.