“Jesus,” he muttered. “That’s not happening.”
“No, it’s not, but we put everything on the table.”
Once finished, they suited up. On went their Kevlar. Both pulled on a double holster, both attached a silencer to their primary Glock, then placed a secondary weapon in the other holster. Like a second skin, her switchblade was already tucked in the leather sheath around her ankle.
In her go-bag, she replaced the smoke bomb, her helmet with night goggles, and her ski mask with a plastic tarp. She tied her hair in a ponytail, pulled on a black, knit cap, handed a cap to Carrera.
Slash made a call. Luciano answered.
“We’re leaving,” she said.
“You’re clear,” Luciano replied.
The line went dead.
Luciano had shut down the home surveillance systems in Tosh’s immediate neighborhood.
She and Carrera were armed, and they were ready.
They walked down the hall in silence, made their way into the hangar.
“I’ll drive,” he said.
After placing her bag in the back seat, she slid into the front. He covered the front and back license plates with a deflector. Once the large hangar door closed, they rolled out. As they headed toward Springfield, she removed the heart necklace he’d given her and stored it in the glove box.
He opened the sunroof, and she stared into the night sky dotted with twinkling stars. She appreciated that he stayed silent so she could focus on the mission, running through the scenarios in her mind, ensuring that each one ended with the death of Elwood Tosh.
But taking another’s life came with a heavy burden on her soul. Life was precious, something to be revered. She went into law enforcement to protect and to serve, but she spent her days chasing evil.
The atrocities of others bled into her nightmares, into her life, into every decision she made. The stench of the wicked clung to her daily.
Tosh was a predator who preyed on the innocent, the gullible, the defenseless. The worst kind of evil. And because hewas cunning, he’d never been caught. Didn’t have a record. In fact, he was probably viewed as a good Samaritan, offering up his home and his time toward those who needed a helping hand.
A growl ripped from the depths of her soul.
The hunger for revenge had festered for too many years. Tonight, she would take out one of Satan’s helpers, and she could not fucking wait.
It was almost midnight when they drove into Tosh’s quiet suburban neighborhood. Carrera killed the headlights, backed into Tosh’s driveway. The front light was on, an upstairs light too. The blinds in the front room were open, but the room was dark.
He clasped her hand. “I got your back.”
“And I got yours.”
They pulled on their black gloves and exited the SUV. She grabbed her go-bag before quietly closing the vehicle doors. On the front porch, she rang the bell.
Seconds later, Tosh opened the door. “Where is she?”
Slash brushed past him. “Waiting in the vehicle.”
Carrera entered the house, shut the door, and killed the outside light.
Tosh eyed their body armor. “What’s going on? Where’s the girl?”
“We’ve had some complaints about you, so we want to clear those up before we bring her inside,” Slash said.
“Complaints? Like what?”
Slash’s fingers tingled to take him out, to end it, to move on, but she needed closure. She needed to say what she couldn’t all those years ago.
