We raced up Lexington, our feet pounding on the sidewalk. He never gave up chase and we flew through crowds, past drink vendors, running red lights and green lights and everything else in between.
“Weave!” I yelled at Roux and Jesse. “Don’t run in a straight line!” I didn’t think Colton had a gun—we had taken him by surprise and then Roux had broken his nose, so there probably wasn’t time to grab one—but I wasn’t taking any chances.
“Look out!” Jesse yelled as a group of tourists came to a sudden stop on the corner of Twenty-Fourth and Lexington. The three of us skidded and ran around them.
“Asshole tourists! Learn to walk!” Roux screamed at them as we dashed past, giving them their first official New York Experience, I’m sure. I was too busy digging my phone out of my pocket, though. I knew I had to call someone for help. We could hail a cab, but that would give him too much time to catch up to us. We could go down into a subway station, but there was no guarantee that a train would be there, and even less guarantee that he wouldn’t end up on the same train as us. I couldn’t call my parents, not until we were safe.
There was only one person I could call, and I prayed he would answer this time.
He picked up on the second ring. “Maggie.”
“Angelo!” I cried. “Angelo, I’m in trouble!”
“Maggie, where—?”
“I got the files. I stopped it, but Colton’s chasing us! He’s a mole!”
“Who’s she talking to?” I heard Jesse yell over to Roux.
“Probably the assassin!” she yelled back.
“THE WHO?”
“I didn’t tell anyone,” I said to Angelo. “My parents don’t even know. I broke into his apartment and I got the files and …” A huge stitch was starting to form in my side and I was gasping for air. Colton was still after us, but his breathing sounded wet and ragged. He was way too close, only six or seven steps behind us.
“Maggie, where are you? Who’s with you?”
“Jesse and Roux, and we’re on”—I glanced at a street sign as we ran across the street and almost got decked by two cabs—“Twenty-Ninth and Lexington! I don’t know where to go and he’s right behind us!”
“Okay, Maggie. Listen to me, darling. Do you remember what we did for your eighth birthday?”
Of all the things I thought Angelo was going to say, that wasn’t one of them. “My what?” I screamed. “Are you serious right now?”
“Think, love.”
“Of course I remember! What does that have to do with anything? We took a helicopter ride around Manhattan from the East Thirty-Fourth—oh.” I could already see a helicopter heading down the east side of Manhattan, no bigger than a dot, but I knew that Angelo was on his way.
“I got your message, love, and I’m on my way back into the city right now. I’ll be there in six minutes.” And then his voice changed into something leaner and more dangerous than I had ever heard from him. “Do not let him catch you, Margaret, do you understand me?”
I glanced over my shoulder and saw the anger on Colton’s face, the blood now dripping off his chin, and the shell-shocked pedestrians that we were leaving in our wake.
“Got it,” I said, then hung up. “Come on!” I yelled to Roux and Jesse, then dashed across the intersection diagonally, barely dodging cars in our wake.
“I am so glad,” Roux cried, “that I gave up smoking!”
Ice hockey had apparently given Jesse some generous lung capacity, because he never fell behind, never even looked back. “Where are we going?” he said as we flew past a movie theater on Second Avenue. “Do you even know?”
“Trust me,” I said. “Okay? Just trust me.”
By the time we got across the FDR Drive, I could see the helicopter in the sky. Just knowing that Angelo was nearby made me feel a million times better, and I sprinted across the road and toward the helipad. I could feel the wind pick up as the helicopter made its descent, and just as it touched down, I turned back to look at Roux and Jesse, who were staring at the helicopter like they had never seen a flying machine before. “So,” I said to them. “Show of hands. Who’s been on a helicopter ride before?”
The door slid open and Angelo was sitting at the controls, helmet and sunglasses on. The three of us ran to the helicopter, and Angelo put out his hand to help Roux in, then me, then Jesse. We fell into the seats, Roux and Jesse behind me, and I pulled the door shut and put on my own headset as Angelo rose back into the sky, Colton becoming smaller and smaller, angrier and angrier. My stomach nearly dropped out, and I grabbed onto the armrest, shutting my eyes for a second. “Steady, darling,” Angelo said. “You’re all right now. Safe and sound up here in the sky.”
I took a deep breath and nodded. He was right. We were fine.
“May I ask what happened to his nose?” Angelo asked over the headset.
“Roux broke it!” I told him. Behind me, she was panting and pale, but she managed to give the finger to the man, who was still bleeding down on the tarmac.
“You and I still make a lovely team, my dear.” Angelo looked at me and smiled. “Are you all right?”
“Fine, fine.” I was pretty sure it was going to take a full day for my heartbeat to calm down, but I had the files in my bag. That was all that mattered.
Jesse was panting for air, but when I glanced back at him, his face lit up in a smile and he started to laugh. “What the hell was that?” he asked. “Who are you?”