Henry Martin was into hookers far more than I had ever been. He would go through a half dozen of them in a week, and I knew where he’d been picking them out lately. I also knew of a nice, tall building right down the street with a perfectly unobstructed view of the corner where he would likely pick up a whore.
I didn’t even have to wait long.
From the top floor of a high-rise apartment building, I located myself inside an abandoned unit at the far edge and watched Henry’s eighties-style Cadillac pull up to the corner. The position gave me a clear view of the area I was targeting on the other side of the river, and no one would be able to locate which unit I was in even if the shot was heard.
Without even using the bipod, I held the weapon up against my chest. I closed my eyes for a moment and reveled in the feeling of the Barrett’s stock against my shoulder and my hand on the grip. I opened my eyes again to look down the scope, make a couple of minor adjustments, and wait for Henry to position his car at just the right angle.
He seemed happy to comply.
I took a deep breath and slowly let it out through my mouth. As soon as all the air was out of my lungs, I pulled back on the trigger.
The kickback was welcomed. The scent of the blast entered my nose, and there was no way a hot meal on Christmas Eve ever smelled any better. I didn’t even care so much that the shot was perfect, clean, and precise—it was just having my rifle with me again that mattered.
As I slid the window closed, I couldn’t hear the screams of the hooker who had been leaning up against the car. I stood slowly, caressed the barrel, and quickly disassembled the rifle to put it back in the bag and make my exit. I went back to the hotel room and cleaned the whole weapon again just because I could.
Nothing could have completed me more than having my Barrett back.
Chapter 17—Altered Plans
“We spend too much time on this cargo,” Rurik was saying to Gavino as we all sat around his office and discussed the plans for the next shipment of human cargo. “We should focus on real money—drugs and caviar.”
“We must see this through.” Andrey shook his head. “We were cheated with the last batch Jenna picked up, and we must be sure we are not cheated again.”
“We weren’t cheated,” Jenna muttered. “It’s not like they crossed us on purpose.”
“You don’t know that,” Gavino growled. “That’s why you need a babysitter this time.”
“I am not babysitter!” Rurik shouted.
Andrey responded harshly in Russian, but Rurik was not to be dissuaded.
“You go, then!” Rurik said to the other Russian. “You go be caretaker for babies, and I will take care of caviar. Micah and I have more important businesses.”
Andrey glanced at Gavino, who only shrugged. Micah remained uncharacteristically silent.
“One of you must be there,” he said. “You want to be a bigger part of this organization, then you are going to represent.”
“It is dangerous,” Andrey remarked.
“Evan will be there for our safety.”
Rurik snorted and shook his head. I leaned back in my seat and raised my eyebrows at him as I took out a cigarette, and they all continued to argue over who was going to be where. Ultimately, Rurik talked his way out of the trip, and Andrey was assigned to go in his place.
He seemed very pleased with what was a very minor victory, I thought. Too pleased. If I gave a rat’s ass about Rurik, I might have paid more attention, but I didn’t.
I should have.
The meeting broke up, and I stood to leave. I needed to get all the details to Trent quickly so he would get off my ass about it.
Jenna brushed up beside me as we were leaving.
“It looks like we’ll be working together in a couple weeks,” I said.
I stepped out of Gavino’s office building and into the cool wind as it blew down the street from the lake, signifying the beginning of fall. Jenna had followed me out, which she often did when we had a little group chat with the boss. It usually turned into a heavy make out session, but we hadn’t done anything else.
It still left me feeling uneasy every time it happened, but I kept telling myself it was part of the job.
Jenna leaned against me and wrapped her arms around my body to grip my ass and pull me against her. I’d spent six weeks lying low with Lia—moving her around and making sure no one was following us—and avoiding Jenna. It also meant Lia was right there in my sights the whole time, so I could be sure she was safe. Though I’d kept in contact with Gavino and done a few jobs for him, for the most part, we stayed in hiding.
“Mmm…yes, working together will be nice.” Her mouth found mine, and I did my best to seem receptive.
Even as I made out with her, my thoughts were focused on the plan that lay ahead of me.
Gavino was leaving his office with his goons to get their side of everything organized. The plans had been laid out for picking up a shipment of girls from Haiti, and I was supposed to go along as protection for the group. Gavino was going because he was an idiot.
Well, that wasn’t his reason, but it was still true. No one as high up in an organization like his should be anywhere near those kinds of goods, but he seemed to think it was the only way he could guarantee the cargo was what he wanted. The last shipment came loaded with some contagious disease, and the cargo was practically unsellable.
It was a sick, twisted business to be in at all, and that was from the point of view of a killer.
Jenna seemed perfectly fine with the whole thing, which was also fairly disturbing. Maybe spending time with Lia was making me soft or something, but the more I was around Jenna, the less I liked her.
It’s just part of the job, I reminded myself.
“When are you going to give this to me?” Jenna hummed against my mouth as her hand found its way to my cock….again.
“Maybe it’ll be your reward for a job well done,” I responded. I nipped at her lip before I stepped back a bit and smiled at her. “I gotta get prepared.”
“Prepared?” she asked as she gave me a look of disbelief. “What do you do besides aim and shoot?”
“It helps to have ammo,” I told her. “I need to go shopping.”
Ammo shopping was probably the male equivalent of a chick claiming she needed to wash her hair, but it got me out of the situation for the time being. I had enough for the job as it stood, but I was going to stock up anyway. I had the feeling additional ammunition was going to be necessary at some point, and the last thing I needed was to run out. I also had to meet with Trent and couldn’t have Jenna delaying me too long.
Trent went above and beyond to be a total dickhead.
“Playing hide-and-seek with your bitch?” he said as he sat down across from me and smirked.
I leaned against the plush seat in the 676 Bar and tried to keep my cool. Though it was near the window, I made sure I was carefully blocked from street view.
“Not sure what you mean,” I replied. It was better to sit back and let Trent be an asshole than to let him get to me, though it was difficult a lot of the time. He was a master at pushing my buttons.
“Well, you moved out of that posh place on Kingsbury to a crappy little shack up north,” Trent said with a smile. “Now you’ve ditched that one for an apartment downtown. Much more convenient.”
And the paranoia button was pressed most decisively.