Besides, how did they locate us? Did these assholes put a tracker on my truck? That thought added fuel under my ass to put a bullet in each of their heads. But I couldn’t go in half-cocked, based on those words alone. I had to keep listening. Had to be sure.
“Not we, Jerome,” a shaky voice countered. “You. And I don’t feel right about this. I listened when I placed the tracker on his truck. I listened when we followed them all the way here to no man’s land. Now you want me to hurry up and wait longer? For what?” After a pause, he continued. “You said it wouldn’t take long. I don’t have the right clothes with me—and are you sure we have the right vehicle? I mean, your handler sometimes misses the mark. He did mist?—”
A loud growl echoed out of the cabin. “Babe! For one, Dan doesn’t like it when you talk about him like he’s a dumbass.”
“He is a dumbass.”
“And two. It’s not like we’re going to dig up buried treasure. We’re here to kill the bad people,” the other guy grated out.
Buried treasure? The right clothes? What the fuck?
I wanted to snort at the absurdity of what I was hearing, but I clamped my mouth shut and kept my ears tuned to what these assholes were saying. At least I now knew about the tracker.
“I’d rather dig for treasure than sit here and wait.”
“Stop being a pussy, Josh. You do want that trip to Paris, don’t you?” Jerome’s voice was laced with annoyance.
“I don’t want to kill for it,” Josh growled. “I’m not like you, Jerome.”
“Yes, you are, sweetheart. Just nicer doing it.”
“Thank you, but that still doesn’t change the fact that you lied to me. You dragged me here under false pretenses. How do you expect me to feel?”
“Jesus H. Christ, Josh. How in the fuck am I going to make the kind of coin I need to keep you happy? You’re the one who wanted that trip in the first place. I’m doing this for you.”
“Oh, no. Don’t you be blaming this shit on me. You lied about coming here. Then once we got here, you told me you had contracts for two marks—and when I asked you if they were horrible people and if they deserved what was coming to them, so I wouldn’t feel guilty about their deaths—you gave me nothing. So, I can’t. I won’t, Jero?—”
A gunshot echoed from the cabin. I dropped, belly-to-the-ground, and stilled, listening for more.
“Fuck,” Jerome bellowed. “You made me do this to you.”
Shit. The guy just killed his partner.
“You asshole. Why couldn’t you just keep your mouth shut for once.” Another gun shot, and a grunt.
I waited and listened. Not a second later, the door to the cabin crashed open and a tall, large black man raced out. In his arms, was a much smaller white guy, cradled to his chest.
“I’m sorry,” Jerome mumbled. “I didn’t mean to shoot your leg.”
Even in the dim light of early morning, I could see that Jerome’s shirt was covered in blood. The amount was enough to tell me the other guy was dead, or near to it.
Jerome laid the small man on the ground and began frantically pulling the branches off the ATV.
Right as he turned around, Jerome abruptly stopped and trained his sights on me. He screamed and ran toward me, his gun aimed my way. His first shot missed me by a yard. The second? Too damn close to my left shoulder.
I didn’t know what had given me away, but I had the advantage. Still on my stomach, I aimed my nine at the dead center of his chest, and pulled the trigger.
One shot, and the big bastard hit the ground hard.
I cautiously got up and carefully walked over to him. He was gasping, eyes wide and looking at me like what-the-fuck.
“You came for what is mine,” I muttered, kicked his side and gave him the final send off. A bullet between the eyes.
A groan from the left caught my attention.
Shit. The other guy is still alive.
I contemplated for one second what I should do. Finish him off and bury the two? Or… I could hear Regina in the back of my head, telling me to help the man.
