Betrayal of the Dove - By Capri Montgomery Page 0,67

a.k.a. Percileo Dugan-Mishoto, was clearly a lot like his highly lethal sister, Valencia. She wouldn’t want to be on enemy grounds with that family.

“I thought you were alone at first,” Petrof continued speaking; maybe he was trying to explain his actions—or his failure to accomplish his goal. “When I walked to the back of your lot this morning and only saw your car, I thought you had fired the other guy and you were alone. But then Gary came into my bistro to verify catering for his stupid art show and he mentioned that you had some big guy in your store looking out for you. That ruined my afternoon visit,” he laughed and she felt her anger rising. He didn’t even care that what he had done was wrong. He didn’t even care about the pain he had caused to Shatrel.

“Thought my store didn’t have anything worth anything to you,” she heard the bitterness in her tone. She really was starting to hate this guy. He seemed so innocent when she met him; so guy from the high country in Sedona turned guy from the valley who wanted to make a place for himself in the elite areas of Scottsdale. He was nice, always respectful, and usually too busy to make a lot of social calls, but everybody loved him. She could honestly say now that judging the proverbial book by its cover was a phenomenally dumb idea. The guy was a monster.

“Your stuff is getting up there in popularity—might be worth something some day. But I was more interested in you than your products. I’ve liked you since you moved in here. Shatrel was practice, a distraction if you will because I’ve read they profile based on stereotypes. I figured if I did Shatrel first, then came back after you they’d start looking for more than just a robber. Let’s face it,” he laughed. “Everybody knows I’m gay—or at least they think they know that. A man puts on nice clothes and actually cares about how he looks and people assume things they shouldn’t. But hey, it worked to my advantage. None of you idiots even suspected me. And she was just so stupid, staying open an hour later even with the robberies going on when none of the other shops were open. She should have closed up and went home when everybody else did.” he laughed until she applied more pressure of her heel on his spine, then he started squealing like a baby.

“You can stop talking now,” she said because she was sick of hearing his voice, his excuses, his unfeeling and highly calculated insults. That was the problem with a lot of people in this world; they never took responsibility, it was always somebody else’s fault.

It didn’t take long for the cops to arrive, although it felt like an eternity, it really wasn’t. And once they did, they arrested Petrof and read him his rights the entire time he just laughed. She couldn’t even fathom the kind of crazy it took for somebody to do what he did and laugh about it. She didn’t even want to think about what tactics his lawyers might use to get him off with a light sentence—or no sentence at all.

“I knew you’d come back eventually,” Nevin pointed his nine mil at Shane’s back. “Turn around slow,” he said. Shane turned slowly to access his options. He could either go for his weapon and get shot in the back or he could go for hand to hand, provided the option presented itself to him. His primary concern was Alyssa. She and Leo should have been inside his home and if Leo wasn’t coming out ready to fight a battle then something had already gone wrong.

“Should have known it was you,” Shane looked at the short, lanky man in front of him. “You always were a shady bastard.”

He laughed. “Yeah, well, you all didn’t think I was good enough and look what I’ve done. I took out two Dove Team members, and you’re next. Or maybe I’ll kill your lady first and let you watch.”

“Where is she!?”

“Up there,” he nodded his head in the direction of the mountains. “And if the rattlers and cougars haven’t got at her yet I plan to. You see, you and your team hurt me, and now I’m going to hurt all of you. You should have approved my application.”

Shane felt the rage threatening to eat him from the inside out. Even if he could