Rescuing Jenna - Anna Blakely Page 0,64

address. Adrian hadn’t put a lot of stock in finding him, mainly because he assumed the man was smart enough to use an alias.

He wasn’t.

With Nate’s impressive remote hacking abilities, they were able to breach Perez’s residence without incident. Since Adrian’s gun was currently in police custody, along with his rental car, as part of the evidence from the drive-by, Gabe had generously loaned him one, along with the mask.

Did he look ridiculous hobbling in on crutches while wearing scrubs and a ski mask? Sure did. Did Adrian give a flying fuck?

Not a single one.

Within three minutes of their arrival, both men had stormed into the above-average home, armed and ready for answers. Unfortunately for them, it didn’t look as though they’d be getting any.

Not from Amanté, anyway.

“Anything about this seem familiar to you?” Gabe turned to him.

“You mean besides the smell?” Adrian’s stomach turned. He’d never gotten used to the smell of death. Ironic given his past profession.

“One shot to the temple,” he answered Gabe. “Point blank Range.” Just like Ben.

They’d found Perez lying face-first on his bathroom floor wearing nothing but a towel. A large pool of coagulated blood had seeped into the Spanish tiles beneath the man’s head.

He’d clearly been dead a while.

“They took him out before executing Ben.” Gabe turned, his expression hard as he headed for the door. “Someone’s cleaning house.”

The other man was right. Adrian just wished like hell they knew who was doing the cleaning. And why.

“This doesn’t make any goddamn sense,” Adrian grumbled as he and Gabe began searching the house for evidence tying Perez to whatever the hell was going on.

Thankfully Gabe had also thought to grab a pair of disposable gloves to avoid leaving any fingerprints.

“No,” Gabe agreed as he took out his phone and tapped the screen. “It sure as hell doesn’t.”

“Who you calling?”

“Nate.” Putting it on speaker, he held the phone between them as they walked through the hallway to the main section of the house.

“Hey, Dawson.” Nate picked up on the second ring. “I was just about to call you.”

“Perez is dead,” Gabe informed his teammate bluntly.

“You sure?”

“They guy’s face down in a puddle of his own brains and blood.” Adrian’s response was clipped. “So yeah, Carter. We’re pretty sure.”

He and Gabe entered a room that appeared to be Perez’s home office. Leaning his crutches against the dead man’s desk, Adrian began opening drawers while they continued their conversation.

“What the fuck?” Nate’s question mimicked Adrian’s recent thoughts. “Is it just me, or does something seem off with this whole thing?”

“We were just talking about that,” Adrian spoke loudly as he rummaged through bills and other irrelevant papers. “Nothing with this case makes sense. Like the shooting. The more I replay that shit, the more confident I am that the shooter wasn’t aiming for Jenna.”

“Makes sense.” Gabe opened a cabinet positioned against the far wall. “Like you said before, they obviously wanted her alive.”

“That was actually why I was going to call,” Nate chimed back in. “I went over the footage from the street cams outside the police station again. There were two shots taken. One right before you were hit in the leg, which took out your driver’s side window. Jenna was standing directly across from you at the time, and given the bullet’s trajectory, the shooter had to have had a clear shot at her head.”

“Jesus, Carter.” Adrian blew out a breath. Just hearing the possibility play out like that through the speaker made his gut tighten and his chest ache.

“Sorry.” Picking up on Adrian’s dislike for the conversation’s direction, Nate quickly got to his point. “All I’m saying is, Jenna wasn’t the shooter’s target, and either the gunman was a horrible shot, or he wasn’t actually trying to kill you, either.”

Adrian halted his search, his mind replaying the scene one last time. “He could’ve easily shot me in the head or the back. Instead, he went lower.” He slid his gaze to the set of metal crutches and then across the room to Gabe. “He purposely aimed for my leg.”

“Maybe they didn’t want a possible murder charge hanging over their heads,” Nate suggested.

“Except they had no problem taking out Campillo and Perez,” Gabe reminded him.

“Good point,” Nate muttered. “Maybe they just wanted Walker out of the way so they could get to Jenna?”

Adrian nodded. “That makes sense. They had to have been watching us to know where we’d be.”

The idea that he’d missed a tail burned his ass.

“Or they were tipped off by someone else.”