Chapter 29 · The Calm Before the Breach

I drove with one hand on the wheel and the other jammed flat over the hole in Marcus's side.

"Red light," he said.

"I see it."

"You're not stopping."

"No." I went through it doing sixty. Cut left on Ninth. In the mirror, the cruiser braked, took the corner too wide, and dropped back two cars.

His blood was warm through my fingers. Then it wasn't. Then it was again, and that was worse, because it meant something in him was still pushing it out.

"Sixty-third," he said. "Between Park and Madison. Black door. No sign."

"Who's open at four in the morning behind a door with no sign?"

"A man who owes me a kidney." His head rolled against the headrest. "Among other things."

He was gray. Not pale. Gray, like the underside of a fish. His hand stayed on my knee the whole way, heavy, and every time I hit a pothole his fingers dug in and he made no sound at all, which scared me more than the blood.

I killed the lights two blocks out, rolled into the alley behind the building, and parked behind a dumpster with the engine running. Left the keys in it.