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)
“Any luck?” Gabriel asked after five minutes.
“Couple of scraps of paper with notes. A few names that might be coworkers. A portable hard drive.”
Gabriel pivoted on his right heel to look over at Justin. “How the fuck did someone miss that?”
Justin held up a worn copy of Lord of the Rings. When he peeled back the cover, he revealed that the good doctor had cut out a section of the pages and slipped the small hard drive inside. “Seems like Dr. Weiss had seen one too many spy movies.”
Gabriel snorted and turned to face the hallway. “Worked for him all the same.”
As a team, they moved quickly to the other rooms of the house, sweeping them to make sure the doctor hadn’t hidden anything else that could help them. While Dr. Weiss had been sneaky with the portable hard drive, he’d not secured anything else of use. In fact, it seemed he’d been diligent in keeping his work in his office. The bedroom had a small stack of novels on the nightstand. The kitchen and bathroom possessed random sticky note reminders for things he needed to pick up at the store. The spare room was a bust, looking as if it had never been used after it had been set up with a bed and dresser.
“Done? We’ve been here long enough.” By Gabriel’s count, they’d been in the house for nearly thirty minutes. They needed to get moving soon.
“Think the house is being watched?” Justin’s voice sounded closer even though Gabriel hadn’t heard a single footstep across the carpet. The man moved like a ghost.
With his gun in front of him as he started down the hall, Gabriel led the way, sure that Justin was following. “If they didn’t get what they wanted out of the doctor, then it is.”
Slipping through the house, Gabriel checked the exterior one last time through one of the windows before moving away so Justin could follow him to the car. The sooner they were back in the city, the better. The gathering darkness and the thick crowd of trees made it difficult to spot anyone who might be watching them. He preferred to operate in the city than in the middle of nowhere.
“Well, that was depressingly simple and uneventful,” Gabriel announced as they turned onto the interstate half an hour later. “When you mentioned an outing, I had hoped for something more entertaining.”
Justin’s eyes flicked up to the rearview mirror as he shifted to the center lane. “You understand that I prefer to keep this a low-key operation. No explosions, car chases, or cross-town shoot-outs that leave behind a pile of bodies.”
Gabriel lifted both brows at his companion’s surprisingly serious tone. “I can be discreet and still have fun.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” Justin flashed him a wide grin. “Someone has been following us since we turned off the doctor’s street.”
“Where?” Gabriel demanded, turning in his seat to look out the rear window.
“Two back on your side. The dark sedan.”
“Police?”
“Possibly…but doubtful. I think our friends are waiting to see if we will lead them somewhere interesting.”
“And do you have somewhere interesting we can lead them? Preferably somewhere private.”
“Yeah, I’ve got a place.”
Gabriel didn’t bother asking where Justin was leading their newly acquired shadow. He didn’t know the city, not yet. Their meeting was just supposed to be an introduction, and then he’d planned to spend a few days surveying the city, learning the major roads and landmarks while he waited for Justin to pull his shit together.
The truth was, Gabriel felt out of sorts and edgy being the one utterly unprepared. He’d been in the business long enough to know you were a dead man if you weren’t ready when walking onto a job. And yet he’d still jumped into this outing without preparing.
Was he getting bored? Restless? Careless? He didn’t let himself examine the potential answers too closely. Not one of them was good. And neither was the fact that for the first time in too long, his pulse raced and he felt the urge to laugh. The thrill of the unknown put the excitement back into the job.
As they got closer to downtown, Justin chose an exit that put them in an area with squat buildings, rusting warehouses, sagging chain link fences, and boarded-up homes. The recession had taken a baseball bat to the neighborhood and left it to die.
At just after midnight, there were few cars on the road. The only stores with lights on were fast food, liquor, and the occasional grab-and-go. It was the type of place they could slide through unnoticed.
Gabriel glanced over his shoulder, watching as the dark sedan made the left at the light to follow them. The other car picked up speed, no longer trying to hide that it was following them. “How do you want to handle this?”