AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He kept talking, but all I heard was the engine’s roar as the car surged forward.
CHAPTER26
Nicole
Traffic sucked on I-5 today. It had rained, earlier, and several idiots had spun out on the wet highway, snarling things up. Finally, after far too long a time breathing the shit-scented halitosis of Maynard the Tit-Squeezer, they had managed to dart and weave their way up behind Katrin Banner’s Portland-bound bus.
Maynard put on the turn signal to move up alongside the back of the bus, but Nicole raised her hard. “Not yet.”
“But I have an opening,” he said. “Just use the nail gun.”
“No,” she said. “Wait.”’
“For what?” he demanded.
“For them to get closer to the rest area, you fucking idiot. Do you want to cuff her and muscle her into the back of the SUV in front of fifty witnesses on a slow highway? Were you dropped on your head as a baby?”
“No need to be rude,” Maynard said. “If we’re going to work together—”
“No, Maynard. We do not work ‘together,’” she cut in. “I’m team leader. You work for me, not with me. It’s an important distinction. Are we clear?”
He looked at her swollen, bruised jaw, and then his gaze flicked down to her breasts. “Yeah, boss,” he said softly. “We’re real clear.”
Ohhh. Death was too good for this turd.
Her phone buzzed. Nicole murmured obscenities under her breath as she pulled it out. Probably Vincent, micromanaging like the priggish, controlling little bitch that he was. Her jaw throbbed sickeningly as she squinted at the display.
Not Vincent. It was her asset in the Masters complex. A gift she’d offered to Vincent that the idiot did not appreciate. She picked up. “Mick. What have you got for me?”
“The blonde woman ran away,” Mick Drummond reported, his voice low, as if he were muttering in a dark corner. “She crawled out a window and gave Ethan’s guys the slip. They’re all looking for her. Word is, she’s headed for the downtown bus station.”
“Hmmm. This news is pretty fucking stale,” she replied. “We’ve known she was on the move for some time now. Which begs the question, Mick. How committed are you to keeping up your side of our bargain?”
“Bargain?” Mick’s voice was bitter. “Hah.”
Nicole clucked her tongue. “Do I detect self-pity? Looks like poor Jay will have to go without his pain meds again. It’s excruciating to listen to, but we all manage so much better now that I’ve had him moved down to the basement level. Now no one can hear him screaming.”
“No,” Mick said swiftly. “Please.”
“Those metastases in his spine, ouch,” she said. “His bones are like chalk. The last time I kicked him, I think I broke three ribs in a single blow.”
Jay was Mick Drummond’s great-uncle, the man who had raised him. Drummond was pathetically attached to the old coot. After she’d had him abducted from the care home, he’d deteriorated sharply, and he was dementing fast, but he was an effective lever to manipulate Mick. With the help of some very graphic videos.
“Maybe I’ll crush his kneecap,” she mused. “Or I could shatter his pelvis. It wouldn’t take much, at this point. Like crumpling paper.”
“Please, no,” Mick said hastily. “Don’t. I have news that will interest you. About Kat Banner.”
“Is that what they call her? Kat? That’s cute. Like a little pussy-cat,” Nicole tittered. “So? Let’s hear your news.”
“Give Jay his meds,” Mick said desperately. “Don’t hurt him. And I’ll tell you.”
“You dumb prick,” she said coldly. “Do exactly as you’re told, or I’ll livestream a session with the meat cleaver. Don’t waste my time.”
Mick let out a strange sound, like air hissing out of a balloon. “l, ah…I put that software on Ethan’s phone. I listened in while he called our contact in the FBI, Arch Dorne. Today, he got confirmation for the story she told him about her past.”
“And this should interest me exactly why?” The traffic was still crawling along, but they’d approach the rest stop soon. There was no time for Mick’s dithering.
“Kat Banner was put into the Witness Protection Program when she was fourteen,” Mick said. “She testified against the mobster who murdered her sisters. An older one, nineteen, who was the mobster’s mistress. The younger one was seven. Her name was Francesca Lovero. She’s been flying under the radar ever since.”
