Blink of an Eye (Kendra Michaels #8) - Roy Johansen Page 0,82
worse.
He took another look around at his surroundings. This was a lousy place for him to have to cool his heels while he waited. He was parked behind the large main building of what was once the Shelby Machine and Tool Company, which obviously hadn’t seen any action in years, maybe decades. The buildings sat in the middle of a thousand-acre parking lot riddled with potholes and desert weeds protruding from every crack in the asphalt. Winds howled across the desolate landscape.
Dorset wasn’t even aware of the place’s existence until a few days before, when he and Paul Fantinelli had stowed a motorcycle there after their highway run-in with Jessie Mercado and Kendra Michaels. His hand instinctively went to his injured right leg, which still might require surgery.
Bitches.
No matter. In spite of everything that had gone wrong last night, he had made himself a very rich man. Now if only Fantinelli would get his ass back here so that he could—
Fantinelli’s van sped around the far end of the building. Finally. As the van approached, Dorset climbed out of his pickup.
Fantinelli parked, opened his door, and joined Dorset in the shadow of the building’s rusty awning. He was a tall man with a thick red beard. “How’s the leg?”
“Hurts like hell,” he said sourly. “I still think you should have let me punch Mercado’s face a few times on the way out of town.”
“Huh. I ask you, what kind of man wants to beat up an unconscious woman?”
“My kind. Especially if she’s why I may have to walk with a limp for the rest of my life.”
“I see your point.” Fantinelli smiled. “But Kendra Michaels is the one you should be mad at. She’s the one who sent you sailing over your handlebars.”
“Trust me, I haven’t forgotten about her.” Dorset gestured toward the dilapidated building. “I might pay her a visit one day soon. Are you sure no one’s around?”
“Nah, it’s been deserted since the ’nineties. Half my family used to work here. It went belly-up when the aerospace industry collapsed. Don’t get nervous. We’re safe out here.”
Dorset nodded. “Okay, if it’s so safe, maybe you can tell me why the boss wanted me to hang out here and not go with you and the other guys when you took Mercado and the money back with you?”
Fantinelli looked uneasy. “I need to talk to you about that.”
Dorset stiffened. “This doesn’t sound good.”
“It isn’t.”
Dorset’s face flushed with anger. “What the hell? Is he trying to screw me?”
“No. Calm down. It’s not that at all.”
“Then what is it?”
Fantinelli hesitated for a long moment. “It may just be smarter for you not to be seen. They may be onto you.”
“What?”
“The FBI’s been sniffing around. An agent even went to your old apartment building in Burbank.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Is there any other reason the Feds might be interested in you right now?”
Dorset shook his head. “No. How in the hell did this happen?”
“I don’t know. Maybe they typed your DNA from blood off your wrecked motorcycle.”
“I told you, my DNA isn’t in any database.”
“It is now, Dorset, even if your name isn’t attached to it. And if they catch you, you’re one blood test away from being placed on that highway where we offed Adrian.”
“Shit.”
“And as long as you have this kind of heat on you, you can’t be anywhere near Delilah Winter. Or any of us. You’ll have to lay low.”
“Here in this rat trap of a factory?” Dorset tried to quell the panic and anger he heard in his own voice. “How long am I supposed to stay here? What the hell am I supposed to do?”
Fantinelli took a deep breath as he looked out at the barren landscape. Then he said soothingly, “Not long. I wouldn’t leave you in the lurch. Don’t worry, Dorset. We have a plan.”
* * *
“Listen, you have to open your eyes, Jessie. I can’t take this.”
Dee…It was Dee’s voice.
“Wake up!” Dee’s voice was fierce. “I know she lied. She just wanted to hurt me. You’re going to be fine. I won’t let her do that to us. But you have to open your eyes and prove it to her.” She sounded so upset that Jessie forced her lids to open. Dee was looking down at her, tears pouring down her cheeks. “See. I told you. It wasn’t poison; it was just more of that damn sedative she gave me.” She wiped the tears away with the back of her manacled hands and lifted her chin. “Now, don’t you