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)
“That was you in the truck at the grocery store?” Gabriel asked.
Peter pressed his lips together and glared at him until Justin moved his gun to his cock. “Yes! Yes!” he said with a hiss.
“And my hotel room?”
“No. Local freelancer I hired to go through the room while I followed you to the hospital. Looking for your name and if you were just some private investigator called in.”
“Got more than you expected, I would wager,” Gabriel sneered.
“Maybe, but you haven’t been so hard to track,” Peter snapped.
Justin laughed. “Yeah, but we’re not the ones with a gun against his balls. Who the fuck hired you?”
Peter looked up at Justin, his expression full of contempt. “Like you said, why the hell would I care who hired me? As long as the money is good.”
Justin stared at the bound hit man for a moment before wearily shaking his head. Something in his expression tightened Gabriel’s chest. He pushed off the wall and was starting to reach for him when Justin took a step toward Pete, pressed the muzzle to the assassin’s forehead, and pulled the trigger. The gunshot was loud in the small cabin, and Gabriel winced at the explosive sound. Peter slumped dead in the chair.
Frustration mounted within Gabriel, but it had nothing to do with Justin’s execution of the assassin. That, he agreed with. Peter either didn’t know or had no intention of telling them who ordered the contract that killed the two doctors or put them in his crosshairs. The continued interrogation would have been a waste of their time. Peter had no intention of halting his pursuit of them. Considering Justin could have been killed tonight by Peter, Gabriel didn’t feel as if they’d made enough progress in discovering who was the mastermind behind this fucking mess.
“How long before you think his client realizes he’s either left town or is dead?” Gabriel asked.
Justin shrugged. “Probably several days, if not longer. That should give us some time to work without needing to look over our shoulder every second of the day.” He holstered his gun under his arm again and turned toward the door.
“How do you want to dispose of the body?” Gabriel followed behind him into the fresh night air. The wind had picked up, carrying with it the smell of rain. It had cooled off significantly with the promise of another summer storm moving into the area.
“I’ll call a friend. He’s got gators.” He locked the door behind Gabriel and flashed him a wicked grin.
“Gators? As in alligators? In Ohio?” Gabriel wasn’t sure if Justin was teasing him, or if gators was a euphemism for something else, or if he meant the enormous reptile that closely resembled its dinosaur ancestors.
“Yes, as in alligators, but he’s actually in Kentucky. Not Ohio.”
“Aren’t those things more in your southern states? Like Florida?”
“Yeah, but my friend Nate’s a good ol’ southern boy, and he likes gators. And I pay him well to do a little cleanup for me. He uses the leftovers to feed his gators sometimes.”
Gabriel stared at Justin over the hood of the car, his hand on the driver’s side door handle. He truly did not know if Justin was telling the truth, and there may have been a little part of him that prayed he was. He liked the idea of Justin having a friend with gators. He just hoped he never served as a meal for those gators.
“Let’s get out of here and make some plans. We got one problem off our back at least temporarily, but we’ve still got to figure out who ordered the hit in the first place.”
Justin grunted, his expression turning dark again. He fell silent in the passenger seat, staring out the front windshield. It was only when they’d been on the road for a few minutes that he finally spoke up again.
“Drive by the Jones place again. I just want to see that everything is quiet there.”
“Agreed,” Gabriel murmured.
It wasn’t often he got to see his actions save a life. He’d taken out some horrible people in his lifetime, but never while they were in the middle of hunting down a target. It would be nice to see the Jones house quietly intact and peaceful. He wanted to believe that Devon and his daughter were asleep in their beds and unaware of how close they’d come to dying. That knowledge might help to wash away the stain of death clinging to them at the end of the night.
Chapter 18
Gabriel stood in the kitchen, leaning his hip against the sink while he sipped a glass of ice water. When they’d arrived back at Justin’s place, his partner had disappeared downstairs, muttering something about needing to check the security system. Gabriel had taken a quick shower, trying to wash away the events of the night, then returned to the first floor. He needed a drink, a real drink, but he didn’t know where Justin had his alcohol stashed. Searching his house while there were cameras hidden around every corner was a good way to unsettle the man, and he wasn’t looking too settled as it was.