The Exit Strategy Bundle

by Jocelynn Drake

  Justin gave him a mocking smile. “Deny everything.”

  “Brilliant.” Leaning forward, he pulled his gun free and slid out the magazine out of habit before chambering a round. This did not feel like cops.

  At the end of the block, Justin pulled into the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse and drove toward the back where the shadows would be the heaviest. They were a good distance from any prying eyes, but the sound of gunshots would undoubtedly carry across the open air. As Justin started to turn the car to face the other that was approaching them, Gabriel jerked open the door and darted out, running toward deeper shadows. He ducked around the large warehouse and peered around the corner, watching as Justin turned the car and dropped it into park. He left the headlights on, illuminating the immediate area as much as possible. It would help Gabriel, but if the men who had been following them left their lights on as well, Justin would be at a distinct disadvantage.

  Luckily, Gabriel could see just fine as the sedan entered their section of the parking lot and stopped several yards away, its lights still on. Justin opened the driver’s side door and stood, keeping his body blocked by the door. He placed one hand on the roof of the car and the other on the top of the door, clearly showing that he didn’t have a weapon.

  All four doors of the dark sedan swung open, and Gabriel lifted the gun in both hands, taking aim at the man closest to him. He breathed in slowly through his nose, held it, and pushed it out again through his parted lips. This was the easy part of the job, the part he was most familiar and certainly most comfortable with. There were four men, and they didn’t have any problem flashing about that they were armed while not one of them made a comment about being cops.

  That certainly answered their question about whether the attackers had gotten what they wanted out of Dr. Weiss. They were still watching the place, waiting to see if anyone showed up to pull out what they couldn’t get. Interesting. Of course, these men didn’t have that computer hacker or even mad scientist vibe. No, these guys were more of the “didn’t finish high school” thug variety.

  “You got it?” called the man standing at the front passenger side of the car. The man had no discernible accent. He just sounded like the average uneducated American to Gabriel. He kept his gun drawn on the man who had spoken, but he closely watched as the men from the back seat stepped forward, coming around their companions, their heavy footsteps echoing across the empty parking lot. All four men had a clear view of Justin, but Gabriel now had a clear shot at each of them.

  They all wore jeans and dark shirts. Tattoos covered their necks and forearms, but Gabriel was too far away to make out anything important from the black ink.

  “Got what?”

  “The doctor’s research.”

  “I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about,” Justin said with a little chuckle. “I’m just from the service.”

  “The service? What fucking service?”

  “The cleaning service. We’re scheduled to come by every Wednesday and Friday. I gotta tell you, I had a helluva time getting the blood out of the carpet. I mean, that shit really set in. And then trying to track down all the sofa stuffing and putting the right bits into the right cushion.”

  “What the fuck?” the leader snarled.

  “Hey! There was another guy in the car,” the driver interrupted before Justin could continue with his nonsense. “Where is he?”

  A smirk lifted one corner of Justin’s mouth. “He’s around.”

  “You know what…fuck this shit. Kill him. Find the other guy and kill him. We can just take the shit off their dead bodies.”

  Gabriel growled low, squaring his shoulders, holding to Justin’s command to hold his fire until the other men fired first. His companion opened his mouth as if he wanted to argue, but he never got the chance to speak as all four men opened fire on Justin’s location. He twisted back, diving toward the interior of the car. Gabriel squeezed the trigger again and again, expertly placing one bullet in the shoulder of the speaker, spinning him around before putting a bullet in the arm of the man closest to him. He glanced over to find Justin on his knees, his back to the rear door. One hand was pressed tightly to his abdomen, pain digging lines deep in his face.

  Fuck. They’d gotten in a lucky shot, and two of the men were moving closer to the car. This was what he got for listening to his partner in the first place. He should have just put a bullet into each of their heads as soon as they all stepped clear of the car.

  Moving away from his cover, Gabriel pursed his lips together and whistled sharply. Like dogs, the two men approaching Justin stopped and looked up. As quick as a flash of lightning, Gabriel squeezed on two rounds, burying a bullet into each man’s forehead and dropping them in the middle of the parking lot. A shot fired, pinging off the side of the building, and Gabriel ducked back into hiding, peeking out to see that the man he’d hit in the arm was now trying to fire at him using his left arm. He waited, breathing in and out calmly, letting his irritation slide away as he listened for the soft click of an empty chamber. Swinging out again, Gabriel exhaled and squeezed, sending the slug through the middle of the man’s chest.

  “Fuck,” Justin groaned. A loud thud followed where he hit his head against the metal door. “Can you leave one of them alive, please?”

  Gabriel walked over to Justin’s side but kept his eyes trained on the one man leaning against the side panel at the front of the opposite car, holding his shoulder and cursing. His gun lay at his feet, but Gabriel wasn’t letting his guard down.

  “You good?”

  “No, but I’ll live,” Justin grunted. He took the hand Gabriel extended to him and used it to get to his feet with another round of swearing. “Let’s get this done.”

  Gabriel took the lead, approaching the other man. He paled as they stood over him, his dark blue shirt soaked with blood.

  “Who hired you?” Gabriel demanded.

  “Fuck you. I don’t gotta tell you nothing.”

  Gabriel lowered the end of the gun from the man’s head to his stomach and fired again. The man screamed, lurching and rolling to the side, only to scream again when he landed on his wounded shoulder. Blood smeared across the car and started to pool on the fractured concrete.

  “What the hell?” Justin shouted. “I said not to kill him.”

  “It’s just a little shot to the stomach,” Gabriel said softly, not bothering to look up at his partner. He squatted down, narrowing his eyes on the man panting unevenly in front of him. “Slow bleeder. It’ll take a while to die from that. Slow and painful.”

  “Fuck!”

  “And I can keep doing it.” He pressed the end of the gun to the knee closest to him. “One joint after another. All pain. Slow death.”

  “Fuck, I don’t know! I don’t know!” their assailant spat, struggling to turn just enough onto his back so that he wasn’t putting his weight on his shoulder. “Just some suit. Paid us a few G’s to watch that house. Said some doc stole research. If anyone snuck into the house, we were to get back whatever they stole.”

  “Fabulous,” Justin grumbled.

  It was about what Gabriel had expected. He stood and aimed for the man’s forehead, but Justin grabbed his wrist, pulling his arm to the side.

  “Don’t,” Justin growled.

  “He can identify us.”

  “He won’t.” Kneeling down, Justin pulled what appeared to be a white business card out of his back pocket and held it up. He roughly grabbed the hand the man was pressing to his stomach and lined up three of his fingers before pressing the tips onto the white card he held in his left hand, leaving behind three perfect bloody fingerprints. Justin held it up, showing the man the card. “I’m going to bet that your fingerprints are on record somewhere, and I am going to promise you that I can locate them. I can locate it, your name, address, and the location of your entire family. One word to the cops and my friend will hunt down everyone you care about before he comes to finish you off.”

  “Got it,”
he whined.

  Justin stood and turned back to the car, while Gabriel scooped up the gun at the wounded man’s feet before following his companion. He watched his steps slow, but Justin stubbornly held himself upright as if determined to hide how injured he was.

  Catching him as he reached the driver’s side, Gabriel gave Justin a push to keep him walking around the car. “I’m driving.”

  “Like I trust you to drive,” Justin muttered, but he kept walking to the passenger side. He slid into the car with groan, his face scrunched up in pain. He managed to pull the door closed behind him and then sat still, breathing heavily.

  Dropping his gun into the cup holder, Gabriel reached across Justin, causing the other man to jerk in surprise, his eyes popping open wide.

  “What are you doing?” he demanded on a gasp.

  Gabriel bit back a smile, keeping his voice low. “Seatbelt.” He carefully pulled the restraint across the man, clicking it into place. “How bad is it?”

  “Stomach wound. Lots of pain, but I think it’s mostly just in the meat.”

  “Can you stay awake long enough to give me directions back to downtown? I can sew you up in my hotel room.”

  “Yeah, I got it,” he sighed, his eyes falling shut again.

  Gabriel glanced over at his companion. His face was lined with pain. No smartass or snarky remarks. This was not how he’d wanted their first outing to go. Gabriel pressed down the anger and sickening sense of failure that churned in his stomach. Justin had asked him to watch his back and now he was injured because Gabriel had failed to keep him safe.

  Chapter Four

  Oh, this was just a brilliant first impression.

  Justin leaned his forehead against the wall outside Gabriel’s hotel room. The first time he attempts to work with a partner and he ends up getting shot like some useless rookie on his first mission. This was not how the night was supposed to go. First and foremost, he hadn’t expected Gabriel to accompany him, but shuffle back off to his hotel like a good little assassin. He would then stay out of Justin’s hair until he was needed.

  But no, he had to come too. He had to be involved too, in order to protect his investment. His cut of the final take.

  Idiot—both himself and Gabriel.

  Of course, if Gabriel had stayed behind he’d be dead right now. What the fuck? Who just opened fire like that without at least finding out who you were up against? Well, sure…four against two wasn’t exactly a bad thing if you were part of the four.

  Resisting the urge to thump his head against the wall in frustration, he looked over to see Gabriel unlock the door to his hotel room using an iron skeleton key rather than the little plastic card that slides into the readers. He always hated those fucking cards. He demagnetized one every damn time he traveled. But the Cincinnatian was one of the oldest hotels in Cincinnati and despite having all the modern amenities, it still used real keys. He liked that. Sure, it made it a little easier to break into someone’s room when they weren’t there, but it was also quaint and pleasingly old fashioned.

  Standing there, Justin listened to the scrape of metal on metal, trying to keep from leaning his body against the wall. They were white walls, perfect for a dark red smudge of blood. Don’t lean. Don’t lean. Don’t fucking lean. The air was cold. Not comfortably cool from the lingering summer heat, but cold like he’d stepped into a walk-in freezer. But that could have also been the blood loss. He wasn’t sure any more. His thin T-shirt really didn’t absorb the blood like he would have preferred and it was now soaking into the waist of his jeans and cotton boxer briefs.

  At the sound of the door opening, Justin lifted his eyes but hesitated in the doorway, watching as Gabriel slowly entered. His gun was pressed to this thigh as if keeping it hidden. Even as the pain broke and jumbled Justin’s thoughts, he didn’t miss Gabriel’s smooth movements, his steps silent as he rolled his feet evenly across the thick carpet. Each motion was sharp and precise. No waste of energy.

  There was no mistaking Gabriel had been professionally trained, but he couldn’t begin to guess by whom. Definitely not American. There were little slips here and there, hints of an accent or a strange cadence to his words. Most would never notice it, but Justin had been trained to listen for it. Military, plus something else? MI6? KGB? Massad?

  “Clear,” Gabriel said as he stepped back out of the bathroom, walking toward Justin with a stack of thick white towels in hand. He tossed them onto the end of the king-size bed that dominated the room before shutting the door behind Justin.

  The room was comfortably large with two windows looking out on downtown Cincinnati. The walls were pale blue as if to keep the occupants floating on a sea of calm while framed abstract art attempted to break up the mind-numbing monotony. The only sign that Gabriel was staying in the room was a small leather satchel laying on the top of the desk in the far corner of the room.

  A soft yelp escaped Justin when Gabriel stepped up behind him and jerked up his shirt. Justin twisted around, his bloody hand still pressed to his side, trying to slow the bleeding.

  “Damn it,” Gabriel grumbled, stepping around to stand in front of Justin. “It didn’t go straight through.”

  “Yeah, that’d mean I was bleeding from two holes instead of just one.”

  “It also means that the bullet is still in there and I’ve got to dig it out before sewing the hole shut.”

  Quick, efficient hands grabbed the end of Justin’s shirt and pulled it up before he could do more than groan in pain. He bit back another curse as Gabriel wiped the excess blood away with his wadded-up T-shirt. He leaned down, inspecting the hole in the side of Justin’s abdomen before pressing the shirt against the wound again to stanch the bleeding.

  “It’s not bad. Hopefully, the bullet is easy to find,” Gabriel said before turning to walk into the bathroom.

  “Are you a doctor?”

  “No.” His voice echoed slightly off the marble floor, followed by the sound of running water.

  “But you’ve done this before?”

  “A few times.”

  Gabriel returned, carrying a bottle of water, a damp towel, and a black leather shaving kit. But Justin barely noticed. While in the bathroom, Gabriel had shed his button-down shirt so that he was now naked from the waist up, revealing hard muscles covered in dozens of black tattoos. His chest, shoulders, and arms down to the elbow were etched in intricate designs, words in multiple languages, and symbols. And because it was the last thing he would have expected to see on his tight-lipped partner, it was all the more stunning and maybe even a little frightening.

  Justin was speechless as he watched Gabriel approach the bed. Hooking his foot around the chair for the desk, Gabriel dragged it over to rest next to the bed before placing the water bottle and the towel on the nightstand and the kit on the chair. Turning back to Justin, his nimble fingers started pulling at Justin’s belt.

  “Hey now!” he gasped, trying to bat his fingers away with one hand while still holding his T-shirt to his stomach with the other. “Not on the first date.”

  Gabriel gave his hand one smack. “Shut up.” He pulled the belt free with one hard jerk, causing Justin’s heart to start racing. A light, dizzy feeling settled around his brain, causing him to sway slightly on his feet. Gabriel methodically unbuttoned and unzipped the blood-soaked jeans, pulling them down to Justin’s hips while leaving his dark red boxer briefs in place.

  “Sit.”

  Blinking furiously to clear his head, Justin sank down faster than he intended. He watched as Gabriel turned the leather kit over and opened a secret compartment that revealed a variety of needles, vials, gauze, and other medical items. A little surgery-to-go kit.

  “Are you allergic to anything?”

  “No,” he quickly answered.

  Gabriel glared at Justin over his shoulder, and he responded with a lopsided smile. “Not trying to kill you, remember.” There was a hard edge to Gabriel’s voice, and Justin couldn’t fight the blush that lightened his
cheeks. “I’m allergic to bees,” Gabriel volunteered, his tone softening just a small amount when Justin remained silent.

  “Penicillin. But it’s not lethal.”

  Gabriel nodded and turned his attention back to the kit. “Won’t need that,” he said, almost talking to himself. When he turned back, he poured a couple white pills into his hand and set both the bottle and the pills on the nightstand. Pulling the gun from its holster at the small of his back, he smashed the pills with the butt of the gun.

  “What the hell?”

  Sweeping the broken pills into his hand, he dropped the bits into Justin’s free hand. “Take it.”

  “What is it?”

  “Pain killer.

  “But—”

  “You need to get that working in your system as fast as possible. Now take it.”

  Grimacing, Justin tossed the bits of pills into his mouth, wincing at the disgusting chemical taste that coated his tongue. He eagerly accepted the water bottle, washing the remains of the pills down with several large swallows of water. “What was it?” he demanded again as he put the water bottle on the nightstand. He watched the play of muscles in Gabriel’s broad shoulders as the man dug around in the shaving kit.

  “Something like your OxyContin.”

  “Are you fucking kidding me?”

  “You’ll live. Now lie down.”

  Justin rolled his eyes but dropped back on the bed as he’d been directed, positioning one of the thick towels under him to try to keep the blood from soaking into the sheets. When Gabriel turned back, he had a syringe in hand. He pulled Justin’s T-shirt aside and jabbed the needle in near his wound.

  “It’s a local,” Gabriel said before Justin could ask. “It’ll numb you so I can work. The painkillers should catch what the local doesn’t. Just tell me if you have trouble breathing or your heart rate speeds up.”

  “Why? Is that a sign that I’m dying?”

  “Probably.” Gabriel lifted his dark gaze to Justin and flashed a rare grin. His heart gave a strange flip-flop, but it had nothing to do with the drugs pumping through his system. Gabriel was just…sexy. His wicked good looks, no-nonsense attitude, and just those fucking lips… Justin wanted to reach up and pull the man down on him so he could kiss them both absolutely senseless. Instead, he rolled his eyes at Gabriel and looked away. Now was not the time for such things. Fun like that took place when he was no longer at risk of bleeding on everything.