You dumbasses. Why would you take a hit with a contingency-based payment plan? That’s just bad business. Unfortunately for you, I’m gonna prove to you why it’s such bad business.
“Fucking Randy.” She shook her head. “You’re dumber than the Harriken. You should have given up when you had the chance since I’m fucking through with looking the other way with you.”
Shay took a few breaths and picked up her phone. Peyton needed and deserved to know what was going on.
She gritted her teeth. Or was she already too late? He wasn’t at the warehouse even though she’d expected him. There was one possible fatal reason that might be the case.
She dialed his number. One ring. Two rings.
“Hello,” he answered on the third ring.
The relief that washed through Shay surprised her. “Where the fuck are you, Peyton?”
“My place still. Sorry, I overslept.”
“Who is that, Peyton?” called a female voice in the background.
“Just my boss.”
Shay hadn’t met the woman, but she’d already done enough surveillance on her to recognize the voice. Amber, Peyton’s girlfriend.
The tomb raider sighed. No reason to ruin both their mornings.
“What’s up?” he asked. “Or are you just pissed that I’m not there?”
“Don’t worry about it, Peyton. Not like I’m aching to go on another job right away. Take your time. I’ve got my own shit to look into anyway.”
“You sure?” The doubt in his voice almost made Shay laugh.
“Yeah, I’m sure.”
“Everything okay? This just doesn’t sound like you. Do we need some sort of distress codes for phone calls so I can know you’re okay?”
Shay snorted. “Even I can’t be a bitch 24/7.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“Handle your girlfriend,” Shay snapped, “and I’ll handle shit here.”
Peyton sighed. “Okay. If you need me, just let me know.”
“Let’s just say I’m sure I don’t need you for what I’m about to do.”
James shook his head as he stepped out of the black van with a ski mask on. “Why didn’t you just fucking kill this guy a while ago? You chewed me out about not killing Lars Hansen’s buddies, but you’ve let this fucker slide when he already tried to have Peyton killed?”
Shay sighed and slipped on her ski mask. The bounty hunter did have a point. It wasn’t so much that she gave that much of a shit about being hypocritical. It was more that she found it annoying to have to explain it.
“Because Peyton didn’t want me to, and it’s his brother, so I figured he got to make the call.”
The bounty hunter shook his head. “Just saying, even now it’d be easier to just go directly to him and kill him if he’s your big problem instead of all this complicated shit you’ve set up.”
The tomb raider shook her head. “Peyton’s not me, and I don’t think he could handle it if I pulled the trigger. It doesn’t matter that his brother’s been trying to kill him for a while now or that we’ve given the asshole every chance in the world to walk away.” She shrugged. “What can I say? He’s fucking soft, okay?”
Shay patted her tactical harness to confirm she had extra magazines and grenades. If everything went according to plan she might not have to kill anyone, but with a dozen men on the way, they needed to be prepared in case shit went south.
She looked at James. “You got Whispy Doom on?”
James shook his head and slapped his chest. “Not bonded. Don’t need the amulet for only twelve normal guys. I feel like he’s got more of an attitude now. I think I liked it better when I couldn’t understand what the fuck he was saying.”
Shay shrugged. “If you end up getting killed, I’m gonna mock you at your funeral.”
He grunted. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
They threw open a side door to the old abandoned factory where they’d hidden the van just inside the loading bay. The pair hurried outside to get into position on both sides of their kill zone.
There were a lot of moving parts in the plan where things could go wrong. Shay had to cover up the contract on Peyton’s life before he found out about it while simultaneously leaving breadcrumbs for the hit team. It’d taken several days of time and effort, especially since she’d had to do it under Peyton’s nose. The big risk was actually giving the team the information that their target might be in LA.
She’d anonymously reached out to Tyler and a few other information brokers across town to provide them a juicy little tidbit: a hit team was setting a trap for the Peyton kill team, with the relevant people meeting in an abandoned industrial park.
In minutes, the future of Peyton and Randy Coolidge would be determined.
Two vans and an Audi with tinted windows were parked outside the closest factory, all with dummies inside. Jammers choked the EM waves in the area, stopping drones from getting a closer look or launching any aerial assaults.
James and Shay already knew the men were en route. She had been tracking them by drone before she activated the jammers.
If anything, the jamming would make the hitmen more apt to believe a meeting of killers was occurring. No one jammed an area unless they were trying to hide something.
Anyone who wanted to finish off the alleged ambush team would need to get up close and personal.
Shay pulled her magical silencer out of a pouch in her harness and screwed it onto her 9mm. James would make the big noise, but she’d break her typical pattern and be a little less up close and personal with her kills.
It’d have to be a careful balance. An ambush where you wanted to kill everyone was easy enough to pull off, but one where you were trying to leave some survivors and pass along a message without being obvious? Not so much.
James jogged toward several rusted oil
