AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hangman misses the subtlety. “We wanna draw them out, so we’ll feed you info. They call, you give it to them.”
“They won’t have another face-to-face,” Joker muses. “They’ll arrange a drop.”
“Yeah. If they want a meeting, it’ll be to kill you,” Trigger adds bluntly. I stiffen and he pulls me closer. “Don’t worry, babe. We’ll have her back all the way.”
Hangman glances between me and Wendy, then to the rest of us, he says, “Let’s go. I have some thinkin’ to do.”
CHAPTERTHIRTY-SIX
Trigger
Crip lives in a double-wide mobile home on a one-acre parcel of land on the southern edge of the Cold Springs area outside Reno. The yard is bush, bare dirt and incongruously, some rectangular wood boxes for gardening and a couple of small greenhouses.
“Didn’t realize Crip had a green thumb,” Red says as we survey the property with infrared night vision goggles. Rocky, Red, and I are lying on our bellies concealed by some brush, waiting for Coyote to get here. He wasn’t initially part of the plan, but then we thought it would be a blast to film Crip’s reaction. Shits and giggles and all that. We could’ve set up the cameras on our own, but Coyote will make sure it’s done right.
Rocky sniggers. “Gangrene, I’d call it. You ever see his fingernails? They look like they haven’t been cleaned in a decade.”
“Yeah,” I smirk. “His stink is like an early warning system. Helps to know when he’s coming.”
Red sniffs the air. “Can’t smell anything but fuckin’ dust and weeds. Guess he ain’t around.”
Stink aside, the lack of visible light and movement suggest the house is empty. It’s only eleven o’clock, dark enough for us to hide ourselves, but early enough that we know Crip won’t be home yet.
Red shifts his big ass body. “Christ, the guy is stupid, living out here in the boonies unprotected. Not even a fence.”
“Fence wouldn’t keep anyone out,” I reply. “Not even us.”
Red sniggers. “Maybe you, asshole.”
“We goin’ in or what?” Rocky says, impatient to get done and home. “Jess don’t like being kept waiting.”
Red whistles air. “Whipped!”
Rocky don’t take offence. “You wait. It’ll happen to you too.”
“Already happened,” Red replies, his good humour fading. “Never gonna happen again.”
“Shut up, both of you,” I grumble. “You’re fucking with my good mood.”
Rocky chuckles. “Yeah. Let’s focus on puttin’ Dino’s head in the asshole’s bed. Crip wants his property back, we’ll give it to him in spades.”
“Where the fuck is Coyote?” I growl. “Not like him to be late.”
“He ain’t comin’,” Red decides. “Let’s go in.”
“The fuck’s reliable. He’ll show,” Rocky interjects.
A scuff sounds behind us and Red whips out his gun. “Fuckin’ better be you, Coyote.”
Coyote emerges from the gloom with a case in his hand. “It’s me. Put the cannon away.”
Red holsters his Glock. “Where the fuck have you been?”
Coyote drops down beside him. “Getting the equipment together. I was short on mikes. Had to go shopping.”
“It’s eleven o’clock. What kind of electronics store stays open that late?” Rocky asks.
Coyote’s pearlies cut the dark as he grins. “My kind.” He peers at Crip’s trailer. “The asshole’s not home?”
