Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128260 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 641(@200wpm)___ 513(@250wpm)___ 428(@300wpm)
“Jesus. That was almost too easy,” Josh said, not even breathing hard.
“I don’t think you need to take the Lord’s name in vain on his birthday,” Leland offered.
Josh halted as he went toward the guard lying unconscious on the floor. “I wasn’t taking the Lord’s name in vain. I was praising him. Let me rephrase. Thank you, Jesus, my lord and savior, for making that so easy!” he exclaimed, raising his arms to the sky.
I rolled my eyes. “Hey, guys, mind focusing here? We need to separate them.” I gestured to the two guards and Bakos.
“I’m going to tie these jokers up in the room next door and make sure they don’t move,” Leland said, his gaze darting to Bakos’s ankle and then away. If I’d blinked, I’d have missed it. But Leland had made sure to give me the sign when I wasn’t blinking.
Bakos had a knife at his ankle just as the women who’d been unfortunate enough to make his acquaintance had told us he would. He liked to use that knife to terrorize and intimidate.
I stood up straight. Bakos was fully restrained, breathing hard, but still managing to spit out a string of epithets. I did a quick pat down of his legs for weapons, purposefully “missing” the one at his ankle and sat on the edge of the table.
“Can we cut that shit off?” Josh asked indicating the loud music. Bing Crosby was crooning about a white Christmas from a phone on a shelf in the corner.
I walked over and turned it off and pocketed the device as Leland dragged the second guard out of the room, his limp just slightly more exaggerated under the guard’s weight.
I gestured to the half-empty liquor bottle sitting next to three shot glasses. I set my gun down and picked up the bottle, sniffing it. “Good stuff,” I said, setting it back down. “That’s one of the reasons, taking them down was like a cakewalk,” I said to Josh, shaking my head. Even evil mother fuckers let their guard down once in a while. And thankfully, we’d been waiting for just such a moment.
Josh turned to Bakos. “I’m disappointed, old man. I expected more from a real-life super villain.”
Bakos narrowed his eyes, looking at Josh with disgust. This man’s disgust was a compliment. I itched to obliterate his face. He’d caused so much pain. He’d torn families apart and victimized the weak and the innocent. Keep calm, Stinger. Don’t let your emotions get the best of you. That’s when you slip up. I pulled in a deep breath, picturing Grace’s face momentarily. It gave me peace. And purpose. A reason to stay steady.
I watched from the corner of my eye as Bakos’s hand moved incrementally toward the weapon at his ankle, and I signaled to Josh the same way Leland had signaled to me. Josh’s gaze hung on mine an extra beat, letting me know he got it.
Josh sat down on the edge of the table where I had been a minute before, placing his firearm next to him and crossing his arms, pausing as he studied the fat man with the graying mustache tied to a chair in front of him. “So, Bakos, turns out this probably won’t be a very merry Christmas for you. In fact, it’s probably gonna be real shitty.”
Bakos remained silent, his eyes moving back and forth between us, that hand inching down every time we shifted or glanced away even for a second.
“Here’s how it’s gonna go, jackass,” Josh said. “I’m gonna press record on this little device here and you’re going to tell the story about framing me for a murder that I didn’t commit.”
Bakos laughed. “Why would I do that?” he asked. “I won’t talk. I’d rather die knowing you’ll spend the rest of your miserable life in prison for trying to ruin my business.”
“Your business?” Josh asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Yes, my business. Where there is money, there is business.”
“You’re a piece of human garbage, you know—”
“Josh,” I warned, “don’t waste your breath on him. Let’s just get what we need.”
Josh looked back at Bakos, studying him. “We didn’t figure you’d talk to save your own sorry ass, but maybe this will convince you,” Josh said, taking his cell phone out of his pocket.
Come on, Dylan, I thought. If he had been successful, there’d be a live video streaming to Josh’s phone right now. As Josh pressed a few buttons on his phone, I turned my head just enough to give Bakos the opportunity to slide the knife from his ankle. Both of our guns were just out of our reach. If Bakos was quick, he’d take us by surprise, unarmed. But I was almost positive he hadn’t gotten free just yet.
Josh held his phone up in front of Bakos. Bakos’s face paled.