As he glowered at the man, he saw the smile disappear. For the first time, he saw the true eyes of a killer. Burlington was no coward. He’d faced death down several times. But this man, when the façade was stripped away, and you really looked into those eyes, you were reminded of something predatory. Like a great white shark. Or a lioness stalking a wounded gazelle.
Frost said nothing for several seconds, and a tense silence developed. Finally, he spoke, much calmer than what Burlington had expected. “Again, I apologize for what happened tonight. And I do understand your hostility. I’ve been in your shoes. So, trust me when I say there’s no hard feelings.”
What? Am I supposed to be grateful for that? Burlington decided he probably should be, but he’d be damned if he’d let Frost know.
“Unfortunately,” Frost continued. “I’m not here to make friends. I have a job to do.”
“As do I, Frost.” Burlington waved the escort officer forward. “Retrieve your … ‘asset’ and get out of my town. And if you so much as double park that fancy rig of yours before you do, I’ll be all over your ass!” He turned away and pulled out a cigarette. He no longer cared who saw. “We’re done here.”
***
“What do you mean you lost them?” Frost roared. “Has everyone on my team suddenly become an incompetent meat sack?”
“They were ambushed, sir.”
“Ambushed? By whom?” Frost was incredulous. What else could go wrong tonight?
“Some whack job civilian on top of Monte Sano. Seemed like a real psycho guy. When we came to their aid, to prevent the asset from being harmed, they slipped away in the confusion.”
“Y’know there’s something to be said about good gun control legislation,” Frost remarked as he watched a couple of ZiPs catalog his men’s pulse rifles, rocket launchers, rail pistols, and tac-knives. “Too many crazies out there with firearms these days.”
“Yessir.”
“Get your ass on back here. We need to regroup from this clusterfuck.”
Yessir, I’m very sor—”
Frost broke the connection abruptly, resisting the urge to hurl the device across the hotel parking lot. He looked up and motioned for Cee Tee.
“Yes sir?” The comtech scurried up. He knew Frost was aggravated after the debacle that had just occurred. He’d been with Frost on almost ten jobs now. Enough to know the man liked things to go smooth and according to plan. He didn’t like jobs to run over schedule and despised failures. He’d seen the man deal with failure before. Thus, he was eager to please now.
He jerked his head toward a local cop. “I want these ZiPs monitored. That shot up old Peg is not gonna get far. When it goes down, I wanna know where and when. I want that fuckin’ Thomas! You hear me?”
“Copy that, Boss!”
“In the meantime, I want everybody to roll as soon as these fuckin’ ZiPs are through playin’ cops and robbers.”
“Yessir.”
As Cee Tee walked away, Frost’s PDC began buzzing. As he looked down and saw who was calling, he genuinely wished now he had tossed it across the parking lot.
***
At Huntsville Mercy, Gideon Tuttle was still awaiting a doctor in the E.R. With no insurance, he’d been tagged “Government Subsidized” and moved to the low-priority category. He’d been stabilized, the bleeding stopped, and pain meds administered, but he still needed the gaping hole in the side of his head closed up.
Thankfully, Rayford was in such bad shape he could be prioritized. He’d been taken right up to surgery. Junior had been going back and forth, keeping his father updated on the latest. He’d just arrived to let his father know that Rayford was now out of surgery and had been moved to a room when Number Two arrived in an ambulance.
“Look there, boy,” Gideon slurred, his words heavy from the painkillers administered to him. “You recognize that there black get-up?”
Junior turned to gaze upon the bloodied man being brought in on a gurney by paramedics. “I sure do, Pa! Sorry bastard! Looks like he gotta taste of his own medicine!”
“He ain’t tasted Tuttle medicine yet!” the old man replied, and a string of slobber oozed down the corner of his mouth all the way to the floor. “You find out where they’re takin’ that sonofabitch. Then you get back here and lemme know.”
“Sure will, Pa!” Junior put two fingers to his temple in a quasi-salute and then was off to shadow the bounty hunter. Gideon watched him go, a smile flittering lazily across his drug-addled face.
“Ya fucked up, stranger!” he muttered, savoring the wicked anticipation of vengeance. “Yer ass is mine now!”
***
“Report.” McCallister’s brusque tone only added to Frost’s agitated mood.
“At this time, there’s nothing to report,” he retorted shortly. “I do not have the package yet. When I do, I’ll let you know.”
“Just saw something on my newsfeed about a shootout and explosions at some old hotel down there. You wouldn’t have anything to do with that, would you?”
“It seems our little lady has found a worthy ally.”
“Who?” Concern and alarm watered down the arrogance in the man’s voice now. This was much more to Frost’s liking.
“Nobody I can’t handle. Just a do-gooder with a little skill and a lotta luck who happened to be in the wrong place at the right time. He’s the one that caused all the trouble here at the inn.”
“That’s a lot of bad publicity. That is something we need to avoid … at
