AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tyrone’s eyes bounced between the two of us, his face white with fear. “Nobody gets out. No one. The only people who get out of the game are informants. I’m not an idiot. You show up afteryears, with afriendin tow, wanting to make introductions? He’s a cop.”
Emerson’s face turned red. “I’m not a cop!” He punched Tyrone in the face, hard, causing blood to leak out of his nose. “The name is Emerson, mercenary captain of theHawk. I’m about as far from a cop as you can get.”
If it was even possible, Tyrone’s face turned even whiter. “You—you are?” he stuttered.
I cocked my head at him and then cocked my gun as well. “Yes. He’s not a cop, and I amnotan informant.”
Emerson swore again and shook Tyrone before pushing him away. He had no balance and fell against a shelving unit, breaking one of the shelves and knocking boxes to the ground. Tyrone flinched and groaned again, but I felt no pity. I crouched down, waving the gun in his face until his shifty eyes locked onto the weapon.
“Listen closely; we are looking for information. If you don’t give us what we want, we’re going to kill you. I would think long and hard before answering. Got it?”
Tyrone nodded, one hand clutching his leg while the other one held him upright. “Okay. Okay.”
Emerson took over, walking around the counter and crouching on the other side of him. “A shipment of guns was stolen from me night before last. Bunch of modified laser rifles. They belong to Lyle Archuleta. Someone stole them, and I want to know if they contacted you to try and fence them.”
Tyrone opened his mouth, but nothing came out except for a serious whiff of garlic. My nose bunched up of its own accord and I leaned back slightly. “Come on, Tyrone. Answer.”
He gulped and nodded. “I was contacted last night about some guns like that.”
“By whom?”
“They didn’t give me a name. It was all done electronically. He wanted me to match up a buyer for him.”
“And what did you say?”
He blinked rapidly. “I didn’t know anyone offhand without making inquiries, so I told him I’d let him know if I found someone.”
My patience was wearing thin, and it was obvious Emerson’s had already snapped when he grabbed Tyrone again. “How can you contact him?”
Tyrone’s voice went up in pitch. “He left a code for me to post on an anonymous discussion board on the net. All the information is written on a pad of paper over there, under the register.” He pointed towards the cash register. I stood up and stepped over to it, lifting the cash drawer out, but there was nothing underneath it. I lifted my eyebrow at Tyrone, and he gulped again. “It’s under the chip reader.”
Sighing, I set the cash drawer back down and lifted the scanner. Underneath it was a slim pad of paper with some scribbles on it. I looked it over and frowned. “This is it?”
He nodded vigorously. “That’s all, I swear. I don’t have any more information.”
Emerson’s hand went around his throat, putting pressure against his Adam’s apple. “You wouldn’t be lying to us, would you? Because that would be a very stupid idea.”
“No,” his voice sounded strangled when he tried to speak past Emerson’s grip. “I’m not lying. I swear. That’s all the information I have.”
I believed him. Tyrone was a complete coward at heart, and he knew it would be deadly if he held anything back from us. “If he contacts you again, you get a hold of Goliath and tell him to pass it on to me, you understand me?”
Tyrone tried to nod as best he could. I glared at him some more while I tucked the paper into my pocket. “He’s telling the truth.”
Emerson released him and stood up. Anger continued to seethe from him. “If I find out you’re lying, I will come back here and kill you.”
Tears were leaking down his face when he nodded back. “I’m not lying. I swear.”
“Let’s go.” I hated watching him cry. Only cowards cried like that. Some things were important enough to cry about, but this wasn’t one of those things.
Emerson followed me back outside, and the blast of cold air helped to cool a little of my anger, though I don’t think it helped Emerson much. He still looked ready to kill when he got back in his car. I took a deep breath before I climbed in as well.
The engine fired up immediately and I barely had the door closed before we were in the air. I glanced warily at Emerson. He was gripping the wheel so tightly his knuckles were white. “Are you alright?”
He practically bared his teeth at me. “I should have killed him. I can’t believe he fired a gun with that little girl in there. That’s unforgivable! What if he had accidentally hit her? She’s just a kid.” He let out another curse word and slapped the wheel.
Obviously, the captain was protective of kids. That was positive news at least. I didn’t know much about the captain, though I knew that, for whatever reason, Julia thought he was a decent man, apart from being a mercenary. I hadn’t seen much swaying me either way on his character, but the vehemence with which he protected a child made me believe maybe he was a decent person after all.
“The point is that the girl is safe, and we have our information.”
