Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91452 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
“He’s old enough to be her father.”
“So the fuck what? The man is hot. And what is this whole ageist thing you’ve got going on? Since when is age a determining factor when it comes to love?”
“We should maybe focus right now,” I told her.
“We are actually hiding right now,” she reminded me, “and are perfectly safe right here in the most empty shop I’ve ever seen in my life.”
It was but that was to be expected. There were hundreds of hole-in-the-wall shops selling all the same stuff.
“We should probably—”
“This is the thing that’s got you all twisted up about Owen, isn’t it?”
We were in a tiny store, waiting to move, and she thought right then was the time to take a deep dive into my psyche. “Are you kidding me?”
“Fine,” she groused, “but we are going to talk about this.”
I had no doubt.
“Okay, people, let’s go,” said a voice behind me.
Rounding on the man who’d spoken, reaching for the Sig Sauer P229 that George had brought me, I was a second from pulling the trigger when I realized I was facing Garland Murray.
“Hold on, Colonel. I come in peace.”
“Holy shit,” I groaned, and it was my turn to bend over, shaking, having nearly put a bullet in his head. Nam returned the favor from earlier and patted my back.
“You guys should get off the street, don’t you think?”
“Don’t you think,” Jing parroted back.
“What did I do?”
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe announce yourself next time before he shoots you or I gut you,” she snapped, and only then did he see the blade in her hand.
Because of her luminous beauty and charismatic presence, people thought Jing couldn’t be lethal. But she could cut a swath through a room with just a knife.
“Sorry,” Garland said sheepishly. “I really thought he saw me.”
She nodded. “Yeah, I know. Unfortunately, his reflexes are not as good as they used to be.”
“I’m right here,” I snapped at her.
“Hi, I’m Charkrit Nam,” the young man said, introducing himself, offering Garland his hand. “But please call me Krit. I’m not actually with them. We’re just running from the bad guys who tried to kill me, together.”
“Pleasure,” Garland told him, shaking his hand. “Garland Murray, but you can call me Gar.”
“In all honesty, Gar, I’m the one responsible for Owen being kidnapped, but I must tell you that I was pressured into it. They threatened my sister and niece.”
“I understand,” Garland assured Nam. “When people threaten your family, what’re you supposed to do?”
“Yes,” Nam agreed, still holding his hand.
“Can we go?” Jing was clearly still annoyed. She hated to be startled or scared. It made her cranky. I’d seen her get up and leave the room when we were watching a horror movie because jump scares pissed her off.
Garland turned to me, his grin never faltering. “I’m meeting Dante and Arden to get this gentleman to his family, and we—shit,” he gasped as a car pulled up in front of the store and six men got out. “I think we’re done here, Colonel.”
Stepping in front of Nam, shoving Garland to the right, behind a pillar, I pulled my gun just as they started shooting.
At that moment, again, I was reminded I was rusty. Every ex-Army man sensed that moment when he’d lost his fighting sharpness, and I hadn’t fired a weapon in months. I was like a pro athlete who’d been out of training for the better part of a year. Darius, as usual, had been right. Dry firing would have been a good idea.
Of course, shooting a gun at people that close didn’t require as much skill as what George was doing on the roof of whatever building he’d moved to. When another car arrived, and the men all died inside the car, not even getting out, George dispatching them in seconds, it was understood that we had help.
The gunfire reverberated loudly. I hit two men point-blank in the chest, but one of their pistols kicked and a round hit the wall inches from my head.
Years ago, I would have seen the first car coming a mile off and dropped them all as they got out. Now, it had taken Garland announcing the threat to get me to see it. I’d lost my edge, and when I got home—not if, but when—I vowed to fix that.
“Okay,” Jing shouted, and I turned to look at her. “Since there’s ten dead men in the street, we need to go.”
Moving through the empty store quickly, the bored clerk now down behind the counter, Jing in front, Garland in back, we made our way to the rear exit and popped out into an alley.
“Hey,” Dante’s voice came over the comms. “We’ve secured the laptop and a duffel of clothes, pictures, and a few more items I thought Nam might want. We just exited the lobby, and there’s a whole legion of guys going up the stairs carrying automatic rifles. We can also hear gunfire from our present position.”