“All right then.” Jason rubbed his hands together. “Let’s get this done.”
Dalton scanned the area, glanced back toward the road as a truck rolled by headed west. “We’re a little exposed here. Let’s go somewhere more private where we can hammer out this new partnership and get you resupplied.”
“Sounds good,” Jason said.
Dalton gripped Marla’s arm and tugged her toward the back of the park where the trees thickened. She tried to pull away. “I can walk,” she said.
“You seem a little wobbly,” Dalton said as his grip tightened. “Don’t want you to fall and hurt yourself.”
He literally tugged her into the trees. She glanced back. Jason followed, and behind him, the scary dude.
CHAPTER 72
Harper heard movement to her left. Footfalls and the friction of clothing against foliage. Moonlight slanted through the trees. She settled in the shadows and waited as the sounds neared. Then she saw them. Fifty feet away, now moving at an angle away from her. She cupped one hand over her mouth, and whispered, “I have eyes on them. Dalton, Navarro, Jason, and Marla. Headed north, deeper in the trees.”
“We’re at the main entrance,” Cassie said. “We’ll head that way.”
“Slowly,” Harper said. “Make a perimeter in case they double back.”
“Got it.”
Harper then heard two taps through her earpiece. Cain. Meant he was in quiet mode. He must have heard them, too. The group was likely headed his way.
Harper worked quietly through the trees, following the sounds the group made. Another fifty feet or so and the noises of movement evaporated. Then voices. Or one anyway.
“This should work.” A deep voice. Probably Dalton.
Harper crept forward, staying low, until she caught sight of them again. She settled behind a hydrangea that bordered a small clearing where Dalton and Navarro faced Marla and Jason.
“So, what’s the plan?” Jason asked. “How are we going to set this up?”
“Every business has to go through a little restructuring every now and again,” Dalton said. “To keep it healthy and running on all cylinders.”
“Makes sense,” Jason said.
“Sort of like crop rotation and weeding the field. That sort of thing.”
Jason laughed, rubbed his hands together. “Like me taking over for Tommy.”
“Something like that,” Dalton said. “Maybe more like pruning the tree.”
Dalton pulled out his Glock. Navarro followed suit.
“What’s this?” Jason asked.
“Business. Now get on your knees. Both of you.”
“You don’t have to do this,” Jason said.
“Actually I do. You, and especially little Miss Sunshine here, know too much. You can identify me and Chris and I can’t take that chance.”
“We won’t say a word. Better, we’ll work with you and make you money.”
“Yeah, that might be so. Right up until the cops lean on you. I don’t see either of you having much backbone.”
“Come on, Dalton.”
“On your knees. Now.”
Harper raised slightly, leveling her weapon toward the men. Take the shot or wait? Could she get both of them quickly enough? The only clear shot she had was Navarro as Dalton was partially shielded by the thicker man.
Jason dropped to his knees, Navarro moved to face him, raised his weapon. Now she saw the silencer. These guys weren’t so stupid after all.
Marla began to drop but as soon as she bent and flexed her legs, she spun away, lunged forward, and disappeared into the trees.
“Fuck,” Dalton said. “You hold him while I run this bitch down.” He took off.
Harper stood, stepped around the shrub. “Drop the weapon.”
Navarro’s head swiveled her way. Surprise erupted on his face. But he recovered, kept his Glock aimed at Jason’s head.
“You drop your weapon, or he goes down.” He actually smiled.
Harper didn’t have time to debate the issue. She fired. A single shot. It entered Navarro’s throat in the soft depression between his jaw and larynx. Where it would sever his spinal cord. He never got the shot off as his brain’s communication with his hand, and everything else, fractured. Navarro went limp, the gun fell. He did too.
“Navarro down,” Harper said. “I have Jason. Marla is on the move to the north and west. Dalton pursuing.”
“We’re on it,” Cassie said.
Nothing from Cain.
CHAPTER 73
Cain entered the park’s north end, where the forest was thickest. He employed all his childhood hunting skills to move quickly, but quietly.
Harper’s voice came through his earpiece: “I have eyes on them. Dalton, Navarro, Jason, and Marla. Headed your way.”
He didn’t respond but rather tapped the earpiece twice. Harper would get the message.
He worked his way to the south, alert for any sounds of movement. It didn’t take long before he detected voices. Vague and distant so he couldn’t make out what was being said. He dropped beneath a series of low hanging tree limbs and bear crawled to get closer.
Then a gun shot, followed by Harper: “Navarro down. I have Jason. Marla is on the move to the north and west. Dalton pursuing.”
Cain already knew the latter part of her message. He could hear them coming his way. Tree limbs and shrubs rasping against clothing. Frantic footsteps. Harsh breathing. He flattened against a large tree trunk, a throwing knife in his right hand. He peeked around it. Marla came charging toward him, tried to run by the tree. He hooked her with his other arm, dragged her to the ground, and clamped his hand over her mouth.
“Don’t make a sound. Don’t move.”
Her eyes were dinner plates but, to her credit, she nodded.
Dalton wasn’t far behind. In his desperation to catch Marla, he moved rapidly and noisily toward Cain. Cain peeked around the tree as Dalton wedged his way between two shrubs.
“Stop,” Cain ordered.
Dalton’s feet almost came out from beneath him as he heeled the ground and slid to a halt. His head swiveled. He couldn’t pick Cain out in the darkness.
“I’ll kill you,” Dalton said.
“No you won’t.”
He obviously wasn’t very good at triangulating sound as the silenced shot he fired, a soft spit, was a good fifteen feet in the wrong direction. Marla flinched. Cain looked down at her, raised a hand.
“Drop the weapon,” Cain said.
Another shot. This one closer. The bullet thumped a tree behind
