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)
“Unless you’re the world’s best assassin, how likely is it that a professional wouldn’t have found at least something hidden in that room?” Justin asked.
“I am the world’s best,” Gabriel stated without a hint of bravado, earning him an irritated glare from Justin. “And I know how to hide my gear.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Justin prompted with a wave of his hand as if motioning for him to get to the damn point.
“But a professional…like yourself…” Gabriel paused, “would have been able to spot one, maybe two items. Of course, a professional searching a room wouldn’t have made it obvious that he or she had been in the room. A professional wouldn’t have scared his target into flight—”
“Unless he wanted him to run,” Justin finished with a growl.
“I don’t understand how I was spotted so quickly. There was only the run to the doctor’s house, and that got us the four morons from last night. Is it possible that there was a second car following us?”
Justin sighed. He relaxed in his seat, right hand on the steering wheel and left hand holding his head while his elbow rested on the door. He looked tired, but Gabriel wasn’t sure he believed it. Fuck. He didn’t know what to believe. This job was twenty-four hours old, and they had both sustained injuries already and had zero solid leads to speak of. It wasn’t reassuring.
“Possible. Not particularly likely, but possible.”
“Other thoughts?”
“Marilyn betrayed us,” Justin suggested, though to Gabriel it didn’t sound like he actually believed it at all. He was just brainstorming and saying anything that came to mind.
Gabriel shook his head. “She’s got nothing to gain by taking us both out. She makes far too much money off me.”
“Plus, if word were to get out that she burned clients…well, she knows she’d be putting herself out of business.”
“True.” Gabriel rubbed his face with his good hand, trying to push past the building frustration to see the answer that was just beyond his fingertips. “Someone else could know about the contract. Knows that Marilyn has promised delivery.”
Justin made a rude, dismissive noise. “If she didn’t betray us, then I can’t see her making such a mistake. I’ve worked with her for years, and she’s never slipped up. She’s not a freaking noob at this.”
“I’m not saying she is,” Gabriel said calmly. He could feel the smile pressing against the corners of his mouth when Justin groaned as if he’d suddenly realized where Gabriel’s train of thought was headed.
“You’re talking about the person who put out the contract,” Justin murmured.
Gabriel nodded. “If you’re new to this, or at least not careful, and go through the wrong channels, then the trail might not be too hard to follow.”
Justin shifted in his seat, straightening while his hand tightened on the wheel. “I don’t fucking like this,” he complained. “I’m more accustomed to working in the dark. No one knows when I’m on a job, and I’m definitely not hitting resistance this damn early. What the fuck!” He slammed his left hand against the wheel.
As much as Gabriel hated to admit, he had to agree with Justin. It felt like the whole job was already heading sideways, and they hadn’t made any real forward progress yet. They needed time to go over the information they had, dig up some additional intelligence, make plans, do a little reconnaissance, shake some people down. So far, all they’d accomplished was breaking into a dead man’s house and grabbing a backup hard drive and prints for hoodlums who tried to kill them. And well, that whole hospital fiasco that gave Justin potential access to some names. Lovely.
“Were you able to check the doctor’s hard drive? Or run the prints?”
Justin sighed heavily. “The hard drive is encrypted, which is what I expected. I’ve got a code-cracker running on it now, but it’ll take a while. The prints on the dumb fuck who shot at us revealed what we thought. Just some stupid punk. His rap sheet was filled with petty theft and drug charges. Nothing that would indicate he would know how to handle a hit.”
“And the hospital data?”
“I’ll need to do a lot of digging from my place. What I saw so far was mostly doctors and nurses who work at the hospital. No one from Iaso yet.”
“So, we’ve got nothing.”
“No, we’ve got leads,” Justin corrected sharply. “The only problem is that we’ve also got some psycho on our asses at the same time when we shouldn’t.”
“We should have expected this.”
“Really?” Justin hit the turn signal and crossed over a lane on the sparsely filled expressway to take the next exit.
Gabriel looked around at his surroundings for the first time as they paused for a red light. There wasn’t much to see at all. The last sign he saw was marked for a town called Fort Mitchell, but the place looked largely residential and quiet. He glanced over his shoulder to see one other car get off at the exit at the same time. A white minivan driven by a woman. She pulled up in the lane beside them, revealing a baby in the child seat in the back. Not a likely tail.