The Exit Strategy Bundle

by Jocelynn Drake

  Gabriel looked over at Justin, not sure how much to tell the grieving man. Was it kinder for him to think that it was just a cruel accident or better to know the truth, that someone put a hit out on his wife because she had the power to stop it from hitting the market?

  “Yes, we think your wife might have been killed for what she knew about the drug,” Justin said evenly. “It doesn’t look like a car accident. We think that someone intentionally ran her off the road. The same way that Dr. Weiss’s death was not about a burglary.”

  “Fuck,” Devon whispered. He covered his mouth with his hand, but there was no missing the way his eyes glistened with tears. He blinked and the tears spilled down his cheeks. “She hadn’t been sleeping. I’d been sure that she’d fallen asleep behind the wheel one night on her way home from work. How could someone do that? She was trying to save lives with her work.”

  “And the drug stands to make Iaso billions if it is approved by the FDA,” Gabriel said.

  Devon stood, bringing Gabriel to his feet as well. “What should I do? There’s got to be something I can do. My wife was killed and—”

  “Your first priority is to take care of your daughter,” Justin interrupted. “I’m sure that’s what your wife would have wanted you to focus on.”

  “We will investigate your wife’s and Dr. Weiss’s deaths further. If we have any additional questions or information, we will contact you,” Gabriel continued.

  Devon looked at Justin and then Gabriel before finally nodding. He didn’t appear to be happy with their advice, but it really was the best thing in this situation.

  “Thank you.”

  Gabriel pushed to his feet. “We’ll be in contact if we have any information we can share.”

  Justin led the way back to the front door with Gabriel and a dazed Devon following behind them. They were lucky the poor man was so stunned by their information and questions that he wasn’t asking for their contact information.

  As they got back to the street, Gabriel paused and looked back at the house, then up and down the street. No one was out. There were no kids playing and no cars on the road. A breeze stirred, rustling the trees and pushing around the flowers. He could see no people, but he could feel eyes on him. And not just the nosy-neighbor-type of eyes.

  “I’m thinking that we need to have another little outing this evening after the sun sets,” Gabriel murmured.

  “How do you know he’s going to come after the widower?” Justin asked. He stood with his hands shoved into the pockets of his slacks.

  “I don’t. The person who hired the killer is either Elba, and he will need to make sure that the husband didn’t know anything. Or it’s Dane, which means the killer could go after the husband or Elba.”

  “We risk Elba.”

  Gabriel shrugged. “But then we know it’s Hamilton.” He glanced over to see Justin giving him a look to indicate that he wasn’t in the least bit amused. “Besides, if it was Hamilton, he would have likely gone after Elba already.”

  “Unless he needed Elba to complete the FDA application.”

  A groan of frustration rumbled up Gabriel’s throat, and he led the way back to the car. “Fine. Then we check out Elba tonight.”

  “No, I think you’re right.”

  Gabriel swung around to find Justin grinning at him. “You’re a pain in the ass.”

  “True. But there’s also a little girl in that house who’s already lost her mom. It’d be good if she didn’t lose her dad too.”

  Gabriel nodded and hit the key fob to unlock the car. That was another point that he’d not wanted to make out loud. That family had been torn apart enough, and he didn’t want another innocent death on his conscious. Devon Jones should be raising his daughter with his wife, but that wasn’t going to happen. Gabriel had a sneaking suspicion the killer was already out there watching them or the house. If they’d put the Jones family in danger, he would not forgive himself.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Justin really hated to admit it, but he was struggling to keep his eyes off Gabriel’s ass in those damn tight black pants. They were sneaking through the heavily landscaped yards near the Jones home, with Gabriel in the lead. The man looked sexy as hell dressed all in black. He also looked deadly as hell since he knew the outfit was topped off with two Glocks and at least a half-dozen knives. God only knew what else was stashed on his long, muscular frame.

  The fact that he was crawling through the bushes near the Jones home sporting a fucking semi meant he’d either lost his mind or he’d developed something of a death wish. Probably a little of both. He definitely wanted to crawl all over Gabriel and see if he could find where he hid all his weapons.

  His attraction for Gabriel wasn’t sane. He half expected the assassin to go all “praying mantis” on his ass after they fucked again. Popping off at him when they arrived to talk to Devon only proved that he couldn’t get his head in the game. They’d walked out in the open down the block in broad daylight and the warning voice in his head had screamed for him to tackle Gabriel to the ground, that a sniper was just waiting to take them both out.

  Gabriel was right—not that he was in any hurry to admit that to the man. Their luck was absolute shit on this job. They had to catch this asshole and find out how he kept getting ahead of them.

  Reaching fresh cover under a massive maple tree, Justin hunkered down and looked over the two-story house. All the main lights were out, but from his view in the back yard, it looked as if there was a nightlight or possibly the work light over the stove left on. Probably an old habit from the days of when his wife would return home late from work or when one of them would need to make a late-night bottle for their daughter.

  Justin scrubbed a hand over his head and forced his thoughts away from Kristen and Kevin’s disrupted lives. Sure, he was doing this job for the money, but it was also about getting justice for two innocent people. Though he wasn’t so confident that his partner would agree with those reasons. He could feel something dark slithering around in Gabriel’s brain, and Justin wasn’t sure if it was from his training or something that had happened to him. There was just something in his touch, in his quiet smile, that made Justin refuse to believe that the man was innately evil and indifferent to the world. For Gabriel, it felt more like a survival technique, and Justin could understand that all too well.

  At just after midnight, the house appeared to be locked up tight. Some of the surrounding neighbors still had some lights on, but for the most part, the residents of this quiet subdivision were in bed for the night. That worked for them. The fewer eyes watching out the windows the better.

  Justin glanced over at Gabriel’s position on the side of the house in time to see him motioning toward the person casually jogging down the sidewalk. The only problem was that this person was dressed in dark clothes when other local runners were at least smart enough to pull on something reflective or light in color.

  As the tall, slender runner reached the front yard, it became clear he was holding a bottle of sorts in his right hand. Taking the first step into the yard, there was a soft snick and a little teardrop of fire appeared from a lighter. The flame was raised closer to the bottle. It didn’t take any more for Justin to realize the bastard was about to light a Molotov cocktail and toss it against the house or through a window.

  Pushing to his feet, Justin saw Gabriel raise his gun toward the arsonist. The suppressor screwed onto the front muffled the single shot significantly, but it did nothing for the sound of shattering glass or the cursing of the surprised man. The lighter disappeared, and the bastard failed to burst into flames as Justin had hoped. It didn’t matter. Justin was already charging toward his target as a second-floor light flicked on.

  Leaping onto the man as he started to turn, Justin tackled him to the hard ground. The fresh scent of dirt and grass surrounded them. As Justin grappled to get in position on top of the man, the assailant’s knee came up and slammed into the wound in Justin’s side. Air rushed out of him
between clenched teeth and his hands loosened against his will. The bastard shoved Justin off him and rolled until he was back on his feet. Gabriel shouted for him to stop, but the man kept going down the street. It was on the tip of Justin’s tongue to shout at Gabriel to shoot the fucker in the back, but there was little doubt in his mind that someone was now looking out their window at them.

  With a snarl, Gabriel ran after the Jones’s would-be attacker, and Justin followed close behind. They might have been hesitant to shoot the guy, but all bets were off if the guy reached a car before they did and tried to run them down. Justin would happily put two in the asshole’s forehead, and he didn’t care who was watching.

  The same idea must have occurred to Gabriel because they ran after the man until they saw him pull up his pace as he approached a dark car. Gabriel stopped and raised his gun. With an exhaled breath, he squeezed the trigger. In the streetlight, they could see the bullet tear through the meaty section of the man’s calf. As that foot came down, he cried out and hit the pavement hard.

  They both reached the firebug at roughly the same time. Justin was about to reach for him when Gabriel flipped his gun around and slammed it against the side of the man’s head. Their prey crumpled to the ground like a sack of rotten potatoes. Justin looked up at Gabriel to find the man grinning at him.

  “Tell me you’ve got a secret little hideaway we can use to talk to our new friend,” Gabriel said.

  Now he was definitely hard, and there was no question that the remains of his sanity had flown out the window. “How turned on would you be if I did?”

  “Very,” he growled, taking a step over the unconscious man to get closer to Justin.

  “Then go get the car. I’ve got a secret clubhouse we can use.”

  Gabriel nodded before darting off to where they’d parked the rental car more than a block away. Okay, so maybe he had like four super-secret clubhouses where he could do top secret things on the fly if he happened to be on the run, but there was no way he was going to show Gabriel his favorites. He might be dying to stick his dick in the man and fuck them both senseless, but he had enough brains to know that he couldn’t trust the assassin. Well, not completely…maybe.

  Justin looked down at the hitman at his feet, bleeding from his temple and leg. He and Gabriel might be working on this contract together, but if Justin were to cross the wrong people, he could find himself bleeding on the ground and Gabriel standing over him far too easily.

  They were in a cabin in the woods.

  Gabriel grimaced, sure that this was the start of every bad horror movie he’d ever watched in his life. Justin had brought him and the hitman targeting them to a fucking cabin in the goddamn woods. And judging by the enormous grin on Justin’s face, he knew exactly how twisted Gabriel found this location and he was reveling in it.

  Of course, maybe he’d revealed a little too much in shooting and pistol-whipping the bastard who had made their life hell so far. But it had been nice to be the one delivering the ass-kicking for once.

  Every inch of this job had been an absolute shitshow and if twenty-two million hadn’t been on the line, Gabriel would have seriously considered walking away. But with his half of the money, he could take a year or two off. Maybe relax and take up a hobby. He wouldn’t, of course. He’d be bored out of his mind inside of a week, but the idea of having that option was always comforting.

  While Justin secured the man to a sturdy chair using a mix of wire, rope, and duct tape, Gabriel leaned against the wall and glanced quickly over their surroundings. It was largely a one-room open floor plan with a little kitchenette off to his left and a door that probably led to a bathroom. The rest of the room was empty except for the chair in the center under a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling and a battered folding table shoved against the far wall. The floor was just a slab of concrete that looked a bit stained where the chair rested, as if blood had pooled there on more than one occasion and then been partially washed away with bleach.

  Gabriel recognized this cabin as Justin’s secret interrogation room only because he’d played in similar setups over the years. Even been the one sitting in the chair a time or two. He’d just never had the pleasure of having a set location because he was constantly on the move.

  “So, how do you want to do this?” Justin asked after he placed a final piece of tape across the man’s mouth.

  “Check his leg. I don’t want him bleeding out before we can get any information from him,” Gabriel said.

  Justin nodded and pulled out a knife from some secret holster on his body. He easily sliced through the soft material of his jogging pants and pulled it away to reveal blood-covered flesh and a clean wound through the muscle. “Through and through. No bullet for you to dig out,” Justin replied.

  “I don’t dig bullets out of assholes trying to kill me.” He frowned at the silent man with the shaggy brown hair and pale face. There was a sprinkling of gray in the scruff on his cheeks and more threaded through the mop on his head. He looked to be at least in his forties. Not bad for a hitman. Gabriel took it as a sign that he must be pretty good at his job. At least, usually. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have lived quite so long. “Do you recognize him?”

  Justin grunted. “One of his aliases is Peter Molston. I know that he’s picked up several contracts that I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. Nasty ones.”

  “Careful now,” Gabriel warned softly.

  Justin whipped around to face him, eyes narrowing. “I know he was the triggerman on at least two contracts where the targets were kids. One contract her own father took out. Divorce case that he lost. Didn’t want to pay child support. Another was a senator who found out his thirteen-year-old son was gay. He was worried about his re-election chances if the news came out.”

  Gabriel clenched his teeth to keep from speaking, but he knew he failed to keep all reaction from his face because something in Justin relaxed just a little bit. He knew the man had doubts about him, questioned exactly where he drew the line when it came to taking a contract. Gabriel had distinct lines in the sand. He never targeted children and rarely women, though he’d taken out a couple who were fellow assassins. But those women knew how to take care of themselves in this business, and they would have happily killed him if he’d given them the opening. He also avoided any contracts where the target was clearly innocent of any substantial wrongdoing, but he wasn’t going to admit to Justin that he appeared to be as picky as his temporary partner.

  “You’ve got a point,” Gabriel murmured.

  Justin rolled his eyes and then turned back to their guest. “This douchenozzle will happily kill a target for just about any price.”

  “And it appears that the price was just right for us.”

  Dark eyes blazed at Gabriel above the strip of silver duct tape. Peter had come around while Justin had been poking at the gunshot wound in his leg. Sweat streaked with blood dripped down his pale face. He looked as if he wanted to kill them both with his bare hands if given the chance. It was sad. He was accustomed to others in the business being so remote and reserved in their dealings. Gabriel found himself wondering if this hotheaded passion was an American trait.

  “So, you know how this game goes,” Justin said, his voice becoming deceptively playful. “You answer our questions and we won’t hurt you. Lie or refuse to answer, and we start removing body parts.”

  Reaching up, he grabbed the corner of the tape and ripped it off the man’s lips, pulling a loud hiss from him.

  “Fuck you!” Peter snarled.

  “Who hired you?” Gabriel demanded.

  “Fuck off!”

  “Who put out the contract for us?”

  “Fuck. Off.”

  Justin grabbed his gun and fired one bullet neatly into the man’s right knee. The man’s loud howl filled the cabin, and Gabriel just sighed.

  “That’s a bit of a large target to start with when you know we’re going to be here for a while,” he said, earning a glare from Justin. Sometimes
he couldn’t help but needle the man. The passionate side of Justin was too damn much fun. “Maybe we should have started with torture for an hour or so and then got to the questions.”

  “Nope, I’m not spending my entire night here. I’ve got other things I’d rather do with my evening.” Justin turned back to the assassin who was sucking in short, sharp breaths through his clenched teeth. “Maybe you don’t know who put out the contract. A lot of those are anonymous, and you don’t seem like the type to research them. How about you tell us what the job was?”

  “Fuck—”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Justin muttered. He stepped closer and pressed the muzzle right up against the man’s dick.

  Peter jerked as best he could, trying to get away despite being tied down and having two injured legs. He screamed in pain and Justin hadn’t even pulled the trigger yet. “The doctors! The doctors!” he shouted. Justin took a step back but kept the gun pointed at Peter’s groin. “Kill the doctors. But when I was getting ready to leave town, another contract came in. Watch the homes of the two doctors as well as that old lady. If anyone that wasn’t a cop came snooping around, I was to kill them.”

  “That was you in the truck at the grocery store?” Gabriel asked.

  Peter pressed his lips together and glared at him until Justin moved his gun back against his cock. “Yes! Yes!” he said with a hiss.

  “And my hotel room?”

  “No. Local freelancer I hired to go through the room while I followed you to the hospital. Looking for your name and if you were just some private investigator called in.”

  “Got more than you expected, I would wager,” Gabriel sneered.

  “Maybe, but you haven’t been so hard to track,” Peter snapped back.

  Justin laughed. “Yeah, but we’re not the ones with a gun against his balls. Who the fuck hired you?”