Page 45 of Bullets and Dandelions

I raised my eyebrows in mock surprise. “Me? Shoot you? Never happen.”

Tex snorted.

I ate another candy bar while Tex moved his stethoscope around my chest.

Rodriquez frowned. “Did your father ever let you have fun? Go to parties? Have friends?”

“No,” I crammed an entire candy bar into my mouth. I was through talking.

“Your blood pressure is good, but you need to stay on the oxygen for another twenty minutes,” Tex said.

I mumbled, “Okay.”

A black smear across his mouth, Kamous charged up the stairs. “Buckle up, little one, we are going to pay Roberts a visit.” He leaned down. “But he is mine to kill. Are we clear on that?”

Before I could swallow my mouthful of chocolate, Tex’s hands clamped down on my wrists and he whispered, “Nod your head.”

I did.

“Good.” Smiling brightly, Kamous entered the cockpit, and settled in the pilot’s seat.

I watched Kamous confidently go through his pre-flight checklist. Thank God, he knew what he was doing. I did not want to get stuck trying to land a Learjet.

Sergeant Stone closed and secured the outer door. “Can you fly a fixed wing aircraft, Tess?”

“I’ve taken some lessons.” I gestured at the cockpit. “But only in a Beechcraft. Nothing as fancy as a Learjet.”

Stone took the seat next to me and fastened his seatbelt. “Kamous might have been raised in Our Lady of the Lake Catholic orphanage, but he is a vicious fighter. If Roberts has harmed his wife or child, he will hack him and his crew to pieces. Don’t get in his way.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I mean it Tess.”

“Roberts deserves a bloody death. I won’t stop Kamous.”

“That’s my girl.”

His girl? As if.

The tattooed man jerked upright. His gaze fell on me, and he went nuts, trying to break free of the duct tape.

I could only make out bits and pieces of what he was yelling, and boy, did he have a potty mouth. I raised the oxygen tank.

“No!” Stone bellowed.

“But…”

“Do you want to be duct taped to the seat?”

I lowered the tank. “No, sir.”

Stone glared at me. “We need to interrogate him, and we can’t do that if you knock him out again.”

“Yes, sir.” What crawled up his ass and died.

Stone spouted something in a language I didn’t understand.

The tattooed man literally froze.

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