Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 93984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93984 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 470(@200wpm)___ 376(@250wpm)___ 313(@300wpm)
“Don’t call me that,” Gabriel said when he could speak evenly.
“What? G?”
“Yes.”
“How about G Love, and I can be Special Sauce?” he countered with a cheeky smile.
Horror filled Gabriel’s face and Justin cackled, causing the car to swerve slightly. He tapped a button on the steering wheel and issued a couple of commands. The car accessed the music from Justin’s phone and soon a warm, bluesy song filled the car.
Justin pointed to the radio. “G Love and Special Sauce.”
“You’re a disturbing man.”
“It’s all part of my Special Sauce.”
Gabriel looked away, staring out the window, but there wasn’t much to see besides darkness, trees, and the occasional house set back at the end of a long driveway. It was becoming harder to fight a smile.
“Don’t hurt yourself over there, G. I don’t think they’ll revoke your bad-ass assassin card if you happen to laugh.”
“Don’t call me G.”
“How about Gabe?”
“It’s Gabriel or Prescott.”
“Well, that’s not going to work for me. Why don’t you just tell me your real name, and we’ll go from there?”
Gabriel groaned and sank into his seat. There was no point in denying his accusation. Gabriel wasn’t his real name, but there was nothing in the world that was going to convince him to tell Justin his birth name. No, that man was dead, and that name would not be uttered again.
Luckily, he was saved from having to answer as Justin slowed the car and pulled into a long driveway that curved in front of a single-story modern house full of large windows and sharp angles. The front porch light and some landscape lights glowed as if someone were home, but Gabriel suspected a timer was holding the illusion in place.
Justin led the way to the front door, pulling on a pair of nitrile gloves. He handed a spare pair to Gabriel over his shoulder before withdrawing a lock pick from his other pocket. Gabriel watched the man as he pulled on the gloves, not bothering to hide his surprise. Gone was the teasing, mocking person who seemed completely incapable of taking anything seriously. Here was the trained specialist he believed him to be.
Gabriel palmed the gun hidden in the holster at the small of his back. With the weapon in his right hand, he carefully scanned the area, but his night vision had largely been destroyed by the front-porch light. Trees blocked the view of the house from the road, but he’d feel better when they were inside.
Sweat trickled down from his temple to slide along his jaw. The heat was fading, and a breeze stirred, bringing some relief. Crickets and toads serenaded them. Darting between the trees, yellow lights flickered on and off in an almost hypnotic dance. He hadn’t seen fireflies for the first time until he was well into his teens. He’d always summered with his family in cooler, drier climes that weren’t the preference of the little beetles. But even now, years later, he still found something magical about the lights.
“We good?” Justin demanded, breaking into his thoughts.
“Good.”
The second Justin opened the door, a security alarm sounded. He rushed in and quickly tapped in a code, silencing the alarm. Gabriel followed him inside, closing the door again. “You knew the code?”
“In the case file I pulled from the police database.”
Even in the low light leaking in through the front windows, they could clearly see the chaos that consumed the living room. Pictures had been knocked askew and pulled from the walls. Stuffing exploded from torn sofa cushions. The coffee table had been broken, its pieces left scattered about the large bloodstain dominating the center of the carpet.
“It was staged,” Justin murmured, stepping into the room. “They say he was pulled from his office at the back of the house, dragged to the living room and then beaten, possibly for a few hours, before they killed him.”
“Do you think they got the information they wanted?”
Justin shook his head. “No idea, but he wasn’t the first, and I doubt he’s going to be the last.”
Gabriel followed close behind Justin as he led the way through the house, his footsteps silent and unerring as he turned when he reached the kitchen and headed down the hallway, past the master bedroom to the doctor’s study. The man had obviously studied the layout of the house prior to their arrival.
“Any guesses as to who is contracting these murders?”
“Potentially someone high up in Iaso, protecting their investment.”
The office didn’t look much better than the living room. Only the bloodstain was missing. Gabriel pulled a small penlight out of his pocket, flicked it on, and handed it over to Justin as he quickly searched through the bits of paper and desk drawers. Gabriel moved to the open doorway, standing guard, straining to hear any noises that were out of place. Justin would know better what he was looking for, and Gabriel’s strength lay in force. It was why he’d been brought onto this job. Justin was the brain and hacker. Gabriel was the muscle. The killer.