Total pages in book: 26
Estimated words: 24538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 24538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 123(@200wpm)___ 98(@250wpm)___ 82(@300wpm)
“The kid found his backbone,” he mumbled after a few minutes.
I was getting antsy, feeling the need to move, to do fucking something.
“You must have scared him straight, Hamlin,” he joked. “He’s doing exactly what you told him.”
Silently, we moved toward the stairs and descended until we were on the first floor, ready to go when Huntley gave the signal.
“A black Hummer is approaching.”
Huntley was quiet again, and the need to act kept building.
“Motherfucker,” he hissed suddenly. “Bartman decided to skip the drama and show up now.”
“What the fuck?” Stirling snarled.
We sprang into action, darting toward our chosen positions while staying out of sight. We were SEALs—trained in stealth—but the conditions didn’t always support our abilities. In order for me to get behind Paul, I would have to step off the foot-wide curb that I was walking on to hug the building. I’d be directly in the light and the view of the shooter.
Poking my head around the corner, I spotted Paul in the hold of a big, ugly man who was clearly Bartman’s “muscle.”
The dealer was so average looking that most people would barely notice him, which worked in his favor since he didn’t want to be seen. But there was a gleeful expression on his face that failed to mask the evil inside.
“One of his goons has Paul,” I whispered. “One wrong move, and he’d be able to snap his neck like a twig.”
“What are you thinking?” Merrick asked.
“You got another long-range rifle in the car?”
“Of course.” He almost sounded insulted, and if the situation hadn’t been such a clusterfuck, I might have laughed.
“Huntley, take out the trigger man. Quietly. Merrick, get up to his spot ASAP. You’ll have to coordinate and make sure Bartman and the goon go down at the same time. Stirling, Kade, and I are gonna get close. When you fire, we’ll move to subdue the other three standing behind the boss.”
“On it,” Merrick muttered.
“Let me know when the coast is clear, Huntley.”
Silence ensued for a few heavy beats, then Huntley grunted, “Go.”
I backed up and crossed the street, then clung to the shadows as I moved closer to the small group. When I was a few feet from the Hummer, I spotted Kade and Stirling, both close to their targets but still out of sight. Everyone was standing with their back to the right side of the car, except the man I was aiming for. He was leaning against the vehicle's hood, doing something on his phone and paying little attention to what was happening around him. I crept up to the driver’s side door and lay in wait.
“On your signal,” I whispered.
“Ready,” Huntley announced.
We waited for sixty seconds until Merrick grunted, “Ready.”
A heavy gust of wind whipped through the alley, but as soon as it died down, there was a very faint whisper of sound, then Bartman cut off mid tirade, and Huntley hissed, “Go.”
Stirling, Kade, and I sprang into action. Everyone was staring at the two fallen men, frozen in shock. That worked in our favor, and Stirling and Kade had their targets unconscious and slumping to the ground in seconds.
I needed the last guy to be capable of understanding what I was going to tell him, so I jabbed him in the kidney so he instinctively bent over. Then I grabbed his wrists into one of my hands and used the other to slam his torso onto the hood of the car before placing it on his head to keep him down.
“It’s your lucky day, motherfucker,” I growled. “It would be so easy for me to take your life, but there’s a deal to be made here. Interested?”
“Yeth,” he mumbled since the side of his face was smashed against the metal.
“I’ll let you up, but if you make a single move that I don’t tell you to, I’ve got two sets of eyes in the sky. Either one of them would be more than happy to blow a hole through your head.”
“Yeth.”
I kept his arms twisted behind him but allowed him to rise to a standing position. Kade came over and patted him down, removing two guns, a knife, and a knucklebuster. “Clean,” he remarked before returning to stand by Stirling.
“Don’t try anything,” I warned. “If the sniper doesn’t get you first, believe me, I’ll have you screaming in agony with your next breath.”
I released Gorev, and he stumbled a few steps, then looked from side to side. At the sound of the growl rumbling in my chest, he tensed and slowly turned to face me.
“That kid? Paul?”
Gorev nodded.
“His debt is clean.”
“That’s it?” Gorev asked hesitantly in a thick Brooklyn accent. SRV, my ass.
I rolled my eyes. “Did I knock your head too hard? Of course there’s more. You think we’d go through all of this to clear his bill? It would be easier to come up with the ten grand.”