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“Check the rest of the house. You have three minutes, or I keep your share of the cash I’ve pulled from these bastards. And they were paid well. Probably half up front, half when they completed whatever job they were here to do. And that job involved Poppy. Move it.”
They moved.
The three men rushed to the other rooms, the sounds of drawers falling to the floor and a general search filling the house for the required three minutes.
Before Jack was finished checking the bodies, the others were back. No information had been found, but to judge by the weapons dangling from their shoulders and shoved into the pockets and waistbands of their pants, they’d found plenty of weapons. Hank carried a pillowcase of what appeared to be boxes of ammo, the material bulging with the amount it held.
“There’s still more up there.” Lucas lifted the four automatic weapons he carried by the shoulder slings attached to them. “Thought we’d leave a few just for appearance’s sake.”
In other words, there were too many to carry them all down. Lucas was a weapon-hoarding motherfucker. He didn’t leave any behind unless he just couldn’t drag them to his ride.
“If they have a contact, he kept the information in his head.” Lucas kicked at Rollins’s body as he paused next to it. “No phones, no laptop. Just packing enough arms and ammo to start a war.”
No phones, laptop, electric, or gas. No generator, just the two vehicles and weapons.
“They were looking to be supplied while here or didn’t expect to be long in the area,” Jack stated. “I’m going to say they were looking to be supplied. I found this on Rollins’s body.”
He showed the other men the picture of Poppy.
“This was taken a couple days before anyone knew I was in the area; I remember the outfit. They didn’t just arrive—they’ve been here over a week, getting the lay of things and waiting for the job.”
“They were here to snatch her,” Lucas said, his gaze calculating now. “That’s why Van Nyes came up on her in the grocery parking lot.”
“They wouldn’t have kept her here.” Jack looked around the farmhouse. “At least not for long. Too much risk.”
“Insurance?” Hayes questioned. “You two have history. Whoever hired them knew that, and knew taking her would affect you.”
But insurance for what?
“Contact wouldn’t wait long to bring what Rollins needed, yet they’ve been hanging out here with no electric? Don’t sound like Rollins to me. He likes to be comfortable,” Hank stated from the door.
“Let’s clear out,” Jack ordered, heading for the door. “We don’t want to be caught here.”
Not that the group’s employers would have any doubt about who had left the bodies lying here. But they didn’t need anyone that could definitively ID them.
Packing the weapons beneath the seats with their own and the extras in the heavy metal utility box in the bed of the truck, they were headed out of the area within minutes.
The weapons and ammunition Jack would add to the safe room in the basement, the money would be divided between the four of them. There was no sense in leaving either with the dead bodies, not when they could put it to much better use.
The next order of business was to figure out why they were after Poppy.
“Hey, boss, can you slide me some of that cash and let me out at my bike?” Hank questioned as they were pulling back out onto the interstate. “I figure you’re probably going to the party for Ms. Porter’s friend Lilith after you clean all the blood and gore off you. I thought I’d stop and get her a card or something. Just to be polite, ya know?”
Silence filled the truck, and from his periphery Jack caught Lucas’s confused look as the same disbelief worked through his own mind.
Jack’s gaze shot to the rearview mirror, where he stared at the other man’s expressionless face and hard eyes. Hank Brady was not a buy-her-a-card-type man. He wasn’t a birthday-type man. He damned sure didn’t care about being friendly.
What the fuck was he up to?
“You got a fever, man?” Hayes muttered. “Seriously?”
“Fuck you,” Hank drawled, the tone borderline dangerous. “And yes, I’m dead damned serious. Rest of you better not show up empty-handed either. Man don’t show up at a lady’s party without a gift. Don’t you know that, moron?”
As Jack’s gaze moved back to the road, the words hit him.
Jack felt his jaw tighten.
Poppy was going to that damned bar again and hadn’t even invited him?
