We maneuvered past the block of concrete, and made our descent to the first floor. Chunks of concrete and portions of the building’s wall littered the stairs. The light from Jackal’s phone washed over the rubble as I searched for Lawson’s body.
A part of me hoped he had been crushed by the debris. It would have made this easier and finished out our assignment. Another part hoped that he had escaped and was still on the run. Perhaps it was the rush of the hunt. The thrill of the chase. It had been some time since I had to track down a target that was as elusive as Lawson.
The landing that led out into the lobby was carpeted with fragments of busted rock. Jackal took point and stopped on the last remaining step. He kneeled down and skimmed over the jagged pieces of concrete before him.
Jackal grabbed chunks of the debris and tossed them aside. “I’m not seeing a body.”
I stood over his shoulder, and skimmed over the mess in search of any sign of Lawson, but spotted nothing.
More light became visible from the lobby, but it was dull, not bright like a typical California day.
“Guess this means we’re still on the clock then, huh?” Jackal threw one of the chunks of concrete to the side. It crashed into the wall, and echoed throughout the stairwell. He wasn’t known for having a good amount of patience. After all, there were booze and women that required his attention.
“It’ll be fine. Just keep your shit in check and remain professional,” I said as I slipped past him. “Mr. Coleman is a priority client, and we don’t want to get sideways of him. We’ve made a lot of money off the jobs he has thrown our way.” I traversed the loose mound of debris, and made my way out into the lobby.
“Probably why you’re the front man for our business,” Jackal said as he flanked me. “I don’t have the patience for such things.”
He was right about that.
The three mercs entered through the front entrance and headed our way. The stone-cold expression remained on their faces. They didn’t look pleased.
Their rifles were pressed to their chests. Boots squished through what shred of carpet wasn’t covered in rubble.
“Did you see our mark?” Jackal asked. The pistol he carried remained grasped in his hand. It was trained toward the ground, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t ready to lay down some heat at the drop of a dime.
Jackal was a quick draw. One of the fastest I had ever seen. When shit went down, he was ready to go.
He was sharp and had good instincts. I didn’t have to tell him or hint to a situation that verged on the edge of going haywire. Just one of the many reasons why I liked working with him. He could be a dick at times, then again, we all could.
“You mean the mark you failed to kill who escaped out of that window?” Brawny pointed to the far side of the hotel. I looked over and noticed the jagged shards of glass that rimmed the outer edge of the window frame.
Jackal pushed past me in a huff. My hand pressed to his mid-section, stopping him from escalating matters with Mr. Coleman’s men.
“We would’ve completed the job, but an earthquake hit,” Jackal said in a sharp tone. “Don’t come at us with that failure bullshit.”
Jackal could stoke a fire with just a few words. Another gift he had that wasn’t helpful in that moment.
Brawny cut his eyes over to Jackal, who snarled through enlarged nostrils. The other two mercs stopped a few paces back from Brawny.
The pistol twitched in Jackal’s hand. The two mercs who hung back repositioned their grips on their rifles. The tension mounted.
Killing Mr. Coleman’s men wouldn’t be good for business.
“Get some air and cool off, Jackal. See if you can pick up Lawson’s trail.”
Jackal huffed, then dropped the duffle bag at my side. “Yeah. I’m on it.”
Brawny and Jackal eyed one another as he stepped away.
“You need to tell your partner there to watch his mouth before it gets him in trouble,” Brawny warned.
“He’ll be fine,” I countered. “Where were you three when Lawson went through the window?”
Brawny pursed his lips.
“We did as instructed, by you, and held our positions at the entrance. The mark spotted us and made for the window. I think we tagged him in the shoulder, so it shouldn’t be too hard to track him, even for you two.”
“Looks like we both failed, then.”
Brawny came up on me. He halted a scant inch away from me, ripped the sunglasses from his face, and peered long at me with his narrow, beady eyes.
I contemplated ramming my dagger into the side of his neck, just below the jaw, but stayed that notion.
“Don’t forget that Mr. Coleman hired you two to bring him in, so this mess rests on your heads, not ours.” Brawny pointed his finger at my face. He didn’t back down and neither did I.
“Inform Mr. Coleman that we’ll make this right when you speak to him. Let him know we’ll find the mark, and complete our assignment,” I said. “Besides, we’ve got his duffle bag that has his belongings, so I doubt he’ll get too far.”
Brawny snickered, then grinned. “He’s not going to want to hear this from me. He paid you two to handle this matter. Besides, I’ve already tried to reach him and couldn’t. Not sure what’s up with the cell service. No signal.” Brawny took a hearty step back. The sound of sirens in the distance defused the situation.
“We need to vanish before anyone else shows up.” Brawny spun about and nodded at his men. They headed for the door.
I reached around to my back pocket. My fingers dug in and retrieved my phone.
I hit the power button. The manufacturer logo splashed on the screen as the phone booted up.
In the upper right-hand corner, there was a round circle with a line through it. No service.
Great.
I did have a cryptic message from Rhys. He never texted.
Have one more contractor in town. Need this wrapped up fast. Try not to kill each other.
Jackal approached from my left and stood next to me. His gaze fixed on Rhys’s men as they fled the hotel. “I found a blood trail that we can follow,”
The wad of gum shifted in my mouth as I thought of Lawson and Rhys’s text. “Good. We need to get this wrapped up fast. Looks like we have some competition in town.”
“Another contractor?”
“Yep.”
Jackal nodded in the merc’s direction. “And them?”
“Consider that a bonus.”
CHAPTER NINE
CORY
I didn’t let up. I ran hard and fast, and kept to the alleyways and hidden places of the city like a damn rat. Guess it was better than getting a slug to the head.
Los Angeles was in dire shape. Portions of the city had been blocked off by the LAPD and supporting military presence. Buildings were toppled and laid in ruins. The streets were spiderwebbed with a mixture of small and large cavernous pits. Smoke tainted the air from the fires burning unchallenged.
Haggard residents moved about, their long faces smirched with dust as they trudged through the streets.
Pandemonium reigned in areas that were void of any law enforcement. Any stores that had survived the quake and flooding were looted by vandals. They ran from the battered store fronts with their arms full of stolen merchandise.
I blended with the residents. None offered a curious glance my way. I stopped for a moment to catch my breath. The nagging pain in my side festered. I tried to ignore my broken ribs and the other wounds, but that was easier said than done.
My body deflated against the abrasive exterior of the brick building I was near. I tilted my head back, and let my mouth drop open. My skin was slathered in a layer of sweat that coated every inch of my body. Every cut and open wound burned.
The sound of gunfire caught my attention. I searched for the source down the streets, worried that the hit men had found me. I spied no movement close by on the road or near the buildings close to me. The coast was clear, for now.
I pushed away from the wall and was back on the move. My right arm cradled my side; the palm of my hand pressed against my ribs. I darted across the street in the direction of the alleyway. To my right, the intersection was blocked with crowd control barriers.
A scream loomed from the alley. It sounded like a woman’s voice, distressed and as if she was in need of some help. I leapt up onto the sidewalk and slowed my stride. I veered to the side of the alley, and stopped shy of the corner of the building.
Down the narrow passage, I spotted two large men dragging a girl behind a tan Toyota Corolla. She looked young, but it was hard to tell. One of the grisly looking thugs had his arm wrapped around her chest from behind. His long, black strands of hair crawled over her like spider legs. His cohort dropped her legs, then turned and skimmed the area for any curious eyes as his tongue slithered across his lips.
Shit.
I didn’t want to get involved. It wasn’t part of my plan. I looked to my left, and considered bolting down the sidewalk, but stayed that notion as I thought of Janet.
Damn it.
I might be a deviant, but I sure as hell didn’t condone attacking an innocent girl.
Her screams fell off. Not a single peep could be heard from behind the car. If I was going to do something, I had to act now.
I moved out from the safety of the building and entered the alleyway. I kept low to the ground, and crept up on the vile thugs.
“No.” the girl shouted. “Get your damn hands off of me, asshole.”
I inched closer to the edge of the car, and slithered down the driver’s side. Through the windows, I watched as the long-haired fiend chuckled and grinned as he held her close. He leaned over and sniffed the side of her neck as his partner rummaged through her backpack.
“Will you shut her up, man?” he said, with a scowl while he sifted through her belongings.
“Get your damn hands off me,” she said, with a cat-like snarl.
“Man., we got a live wire here, Frank.” The man restraining the young woman chuckled some more.
Scum.
I thought of myself as evil at times, but these thugs scraped the bottom of the gutter for sure. As if things weren’t bad enough, these pieces of shit were going out of their way to take advantage of a helpless girl.
I sprung up from the cover of the car in a fit of anger. “Hey, assholes, let the girl go.”
Their smug smiles vanished, and an angry scowl formed on their faces. Both of them cut their eyes in my direction.
“Move on, pal,” the thug clutching her bag said. “Do it while you can still walk.”
I didn’t listen. “Sorry. Can’t do that. How about you two ass wipes let her go before there’s trouble?”
The man clutching her bag tossed it to the ground. His gaze narrowed and his body tensed. His thick arms flexed through the tight black jacket he had on.
“Kick this fool’s ass, Frank,” the long-haired man said.
I didn’t budge as he walked toward me. He reached behind his back, and pulled free a butterfly knife. He twirled it about in his hand, revealing the sharpened blade that gleamed from what little light shone through the puffy-darkened clouds overhead.
The girl continued to thrash about. She reached for the thug’s arms and tried to get free, but he held her close.
“I’m going to mess you up, pal,” the man said through gritted teeth.
He pointed the tip of the knife in my direction. He was but a few steps away. I remained planted. I wasn’t afraid of the brutish degenerate that had a beat down waiting for him.
He got within range and ratcheted his arm into the air.
The palm of my hand slammed into his throat. He stopped dead in his tracks. The knife fell from his hand as he clutched his neck, gasping for air. His face turned a deep red and purple.
“Frank,” his cohort yelled out in a panic.
I balled my fingers into a fist and struck the thug in the side of the face. His head snapped to the side as his body collapsed to the cement.
Prone on his back, he twitched and coughed, but didn’t get back up.
“You made a big mistake,” the other thug said. “You’re going to—aw.”
The girl sunk her teeth into his forearm. She clamped down, eyes wild and angry. The man bellowed in pain as blood trickled down his arm.
He released her and she moved away from him. She planted her feet, and tossed her right arm back, her elbow connecting with the bridge of his nose. A bone-cracking sound filled the air.
His head snapped back. His hands sprung up and covered his nose. Blood rushed out and down his face. He mumbled something, but I couldn’t make any of it out.
She huffed and turned to face him. “Asshole.” She kicked him in his genitals, forcing a high-pitched squeal from the thug’s mouth. He doubled over and crumbled to the ground.
She stood over her attacker, hands on hips, her face radiating anger. He made no attempts to get up or move, opting to remain curled up in the fetal position.
She kicked him once more in the back. He yelped like a wounded dog.
I approached with caution. I reached out and placed my hand on her shoulder with great care. “Are you okay?”
She jumped, but then relaxed. “Yeah. I’m fine. No thanks to these two pricks.” She huffed, then tossed her long, brown hair out of her flushed face. Blood trickled down the side of her busted lip.
Her attacker moaned, rocking from side to side while he clutched his privates. Blood flowed from both of his nostrils.
I retrieved her bag from the ground as she stepped away from the thug. Her shirt was askew. She straightened the distressed fabric out. I presented her purse to her.
“Thanks.” She snatched it from my hands, and slipped it over her right shoulder. An unsettling feeling festered in my gut. I had been stagnant for too long and worried that the hit men were close by.
I snapped my head in the direction of the street. I fidgeted in place, and craned my neck in search of Scarface, or the other hit men. There was no one there.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
I glanced back at her. “Um, yeah.”
She looked me over with unsettled eyes. “If you say so. You look like you’ve been put through a meat grinder.”
I had, and then some. “It’s been a shitty couple of days.” I peered back over my shoulder, then back to her. She seemed to be fine, and out of harm’s way. I had to get back on the move.
“I’m sorry, but I need to go.” I didn’t offer her the chance to say a word, but instead, took off down the alleyway in the opposite direction.
“Wait,” she shouted.
I didn’t look back or stop to listen. The guilt of having pulled my family into the mess I was in wouldn’t allow it.
The thumping of feet hammering the pavement flanked me. Her panted breath filled my ears. “Wait up, will ya?”
I kept running until I made the next street. My hand pressed against my ribs, trying to ease the pain. Every step I took sent a shock wave of misery that stabbed at my side. I was drained of energy, and the injuries I sustained were wearing me down.
“Christ, will you stop?” She grabbed my arm and tugged. I slowed to a brisk walk. She didn’t let go.
“I have to keep moving. I can’t stop,” I said.
She released her hand from my arm as we stopped on the sidewalk. “From the way you’re grabbing your side and moving, you may want to take it easy. Like I said, you don’t look too great.”
I doubled over. “I’ll be fine.”
“Just take a few minutes and gather yourself. What’s the worst that could happen?”
More than she knew, but my body needed a breather and a moment to rest given its state.
I trudged to the building next to us, turned, and deflated against the wall. She stood nearby.
“I’m Anna, by the way.” She pulled her hair up into a tight ponytail.
“Cory.”
“Well, Cory, thanks for saving my ass back ther
e. I was lucky you came along when you did.”
“Don’t mention it.” I glanced down the street toward the intersection. I narrowed my eyes, and scanned over the area for Scarface and the other hit men. How far behind were they?
Anna followed my gaze. She cleared her throat. “So, seeing as you look like you could use a hand, and I don’t want to be out here alone, mind if I tag along with you? I won’t be a problem. I promise.”
“I’m not sure I’d be the best person for you to be hanging out with right now, kid.” I peered back to her, trying to determine how old she was. She looked young, perhaps sixteen or seventeen even. “Why are you out here all alone? It’s not exactly safe.”
Anna adjusted the strap of the bag that hung from her shoulder. “Long story. Family problems. I have a friend that I’m going to stay with in Glenwood. Hopefully, they’re okay. I haven’t been able to reach them since the earthquake hit.”
The phone pinged from my trousers. My hand dug into the pocket and ripped it out. I hit the power button. The screen flashed and came to life. There was a missed call and a message waiting.
Oh my God.
It was from Janet.
CHAPTER TEN
CORY
A message from my wife was what I needed. It was like a shot of adrenaline to my system. A surge of life swelled within me.
I pushed away from the wall. My eyes were fixed to the screen as my fingers retrieved the message. The anticipation of hearing Janet’s voice had me on the cusp of shaking.
Tension clawed at my nerves as I waited for the message to play. Every second that ticked by felt like an eternity. Like a child at Christmas, I was impatient.
Come on. Play already, damn it.
My fingers moved through my damp hair in frustration. I paced back and forth on the sidewalk while mumbling. Anna watched, but didn’t say a word.
The phone was pressed to my ear, but nothing happened.
Brink of Extinction | Book 1 | Sudden Impact Page 4