Page 44 of Cruel Savior

Tel's eyes shuttered for a moment. "He's scrubbed clean. I've never seen anything quite like it. Either he's a lily-white newcomer to the crime world—unlikely, since no one would trust anyone that new—or he's got a real pro working for him."

"Any idea who that might be?" Axel asked.

"Who? The cleaner?"

Axel nodded.

"Not yet. So far, I've been unable to find a trace of anyone associated with this name. Only this picture."

"Why does it look so familiar? Have we seen this before?" The perplexed look on Axel's face pulled my attention.

"Good catch. Yeah, we have. Check this out." Tel pulled another picture from his bag of tricks and handed it over. I looked around Axel to get a better look, but this one, I hadn't seen before and had no idea what it related to. Axel, on the other hand, had a good eye for detail. Maybe too good. He never seemed to forget anything.

"Is this what I think it is?" There were two men in the photograph. This one as grainy as the first. How in the hell was this guy avoiding getting his image captured? No one was that good.

"Fuck yeah, we think it is." JD grumbled. "It's hard to tell, one hundred percent, because these images suck ass, but I'm pretty sure that's our coffee hut in the background. The first one that got hit."

"What do you mean hit?" I was out of the loop.

"There was an incident about two weeks ago. Propane tank on our flagship coffee drive-through exploded. We thought it was an accident, until two more went down just like it."

"You own coffee huts?" I don't know why that sounded ridiculous, but it did.

"Sure do." Axel laughed. "One of our old ladies had the idea to add some legitimate revenue to our coffers, and this state's love of coffee is no joke. Each of our huts is a mini cash cow. Well, they were, until three of them were taken down by mysterious accidents.”

My mind boggled."Three of them? And you think this guy had something to do with it?" I nudged the photo still in Axel's hand.

JD shrugged. "It’s as good a theory as anything else we've got. We were all involved in bringing down Mazzeo and his international sex slave ring. If this guy is really Frank's son and out to avenge his father's death, then his list of targets just got a lot longer."

"Shit," Axel exclaimed. "This is bullshit."

"It's the price of doing the business we do. Just means we have to go on the attack instead of sitting back waiting on this fucker to make a move. But I ain't going to lie, we’re sitting ducks. He seems to know a lot more about us than we know about him. Our security is good here at the compound, so that’s in our favor, but one step off, and that changes."

"What do you want to do?" Axel asked, looking confident that he already knew the answer.

"Take the fight to him, of course. We've still got a line into that new club. Someone there has to know something."

"But you just said leaving the compound wasn't safe. Why the hell would you encroach on his turf until you know more about him?"

JD laughed and the other men followed suit. "No way in hell are we going to sit around and wait to be picked off. He's already put a dent in our income and killed a Fed. He needs to be stopped before this shit escalates."

I wasn't sure it wasn’t already too late for that. Getting a head in a box felt pretty damned escalated.

"Maybe that's exactly what he wants. If he can divide the club, he might think that gives him an advantage." I wanted to know a lot more about this syndicate they kept mentioning. But that was the analyst in me talking, not the field agent. I couldn't blame them for wanting to do something. I had the same urge. And it seemed they were going to do what they wanted, no matter what I had to say about it.

So, when in Rome...

"When are we leaving for Seattle?" I asked, already calculating the weapons and ammunition I had brought with me and where I could get more. Because what I had was not enough.

All four men turned and looked at me. "Wearen't going anywhere. There's crazy, which I'm all for, and then there's asinine. If he's trying to do anything, it's probably to getyouoff of the compound."

I narrowed my eyes at Axel. "If you think I'm going to sit around while you go fight my battle for me, you're an idiot. If anything,I'mbetter trained for this kind of thing."

Axel's eyebrows climbed into his hairline and the scowl on his face turned downright explosive. The other men, they looked away, but there were mumbles I couldn't make out under their breath.

"Oh yeah?" Axel drawled, an aura of calm about him that felt deceptive. "Do you want to put that to the test?"

Since my frustration and anger were as high as his, I was game for whatever. "Sure. What did you have in mind?"

---