Bad Men - Piper Stone Page 0,81
the same place?” Lindsey looked from one of us to the other.
Dante held the pieces into the light, waiting to see my reaction. I glanced at her, suddenly realizing that the necklace she’d been wearing wasn’t around her neck. “How did you buy these, Lindsey?”
“Money, of course,” she answered.
I stormed toward her, yanking her hair away from her shoulders and gripping her neck. “Something like that had to cost a great deal of money, funds you weren’t given.”
“You’re hurting me,” she hissed. “I didn’t steal them.”
Diego seemed to pick up on what I was doing, inching closer, his tone imploring. “Lindsey, what happened to your necklace?”
“I traded it. I didn’t want the damn thing, even though it was obviously worth some money according to the store clerk. Michael gave that to me just before I left. The bastard told me to stay safe and keep praying to whatever God I believed in.” Her eyes suddenly opened wide. “What was wrong with the necklace?”
“It was a tracking device,” I said quietly, releasing my hold.
As my anger turned into something else entirely.
The need for revenge.
Sweet, bloody revenge.
“I don’t give a shit, Dante. You will find us a way out of this fucking country from Lima,” I barked as I constantly scanned the busy road while Diego drove. It was dangerous as fuck to be taking out in the middle of the day but both Diego and I felt we had no choice.
Not if any of us wanted to live.
Lima was our only hope of getting out within a decent timeframe. What little we’d learned about the bombing told us in no uncertain terms that we had to get out now. There were no such things as coincidences in our world.
“You disappear without a word. You ignore calls and now you want a ride out of there. You better tell me what’s going on, Jack,” Dante commanded, cursing in Italian afterward.
“Hear me. We had a tracking system all along, a piece of jewelry given to the good doctor by her boyfriend. As in Michael Mancini? Ever hear of the guy?”
His silence told me far too many things. The bastard knew but had refused to tell us.
“I’ll get you out. There’s more to the story, but I’m glad you were able to keep her safe.”
“No thanks to you. You’re getting us on a one-way flight to Washington and then you and me, we’re gonna talk. Call me when you have specifics. Do not fuck with me, Dante.” I ended the communication before he had a chance to disagree with me. As if I cared.
“What the hell, Jack? We don’t want to piss him off,” Diego snapped.
“In case you haven’t figured out, it would appear that we are nothing but collateral damage, my friend.” I swung around in the seat, searching the area behind us. While it didn’t appear that we’d been followed, I knew it was only a matter of time. “Where the hell are you going?” We’d yet to leave the city limits. Although he’d taken backroads up to this point in his effort to get us out of town, I had the distinct feeling that his business in the city wasn’t completed.
“One stop. I have to do this,” he said in a far too quiet voice.
“Fuck. You’re going after Felipe, aren’t you?”
He threw me a look then swung around a curve. “He has the right to know.”
“You mean if he’s still alive.”
“At least we’ll learn if we are the intended targets,” he retorted.
“Are we getting out of here?” Lindsey asked as she scooted forward in her seat.
“Hell, yeah, we are.” My comment was dry, likely unbelievable. We drove in silence for a couple of minutes until Diego turned onto another street. I finally recognized the area. Felipe’s store was just up ahead.
As we neared the address, Diego began to slow. Another instinct kicked me in the gut. “Keep moving. Don’t stop, Diego. Go. Go!”
The flash of gunfire was easy to see even in the bright sunlight. As I turned my head, prepared to shoot if necessary, there was no doubt what I was seeing.
All the windows were blown out, glass covering the sidewalk and a portion of the street.
Along with blood.
Diego shifted into third and pressed on the accelerator, not bothering to take a good look at the carnage.
“Oh, my God,” Lindsey whispered, covering her face. “I’m so sorry about all the things I said before. The apartment. Trying to keep me safe.”
“Get down and stay down,” I instructed, making certain the