Page 57 of Mine to Keep
The Director’s voice was too calm, too muchI don’t give a fuckin his tone for Skylar’s liking. He swore that as soon as he was done with Viper, he’d kill The Director for setting themup on this suicide mission. But right now, he needed him. He needed to find Viper and his head was too fucked up for him to do it alone.
Pulling a long breath through his teeth, Skylar said, “Stabbed in the chest. With her own fucking blade.” His voice caught on the last word. It’s some fucked up karma to have Martha’s weapon of choice used against her. “I need her body taken back to the States. I want to bury her.”
“Done. Now,” The Director said, the inflection in his voice not changing at all.He really doesn’t care, Skylar thought to himself. “I have eyes on where Viper has been staying. He’s in Siloq. About an hour away. He’s with?—”
“Send me coordinates. He can’t be too far ahead of me.” He swallowed roughly and said, “Martha is still warm. The death is recent.”
“Coordinates sent. We’ll clean up this scene. Don’t fuck up again.”
With a growl, Skylar hung up the phone and muttered, “Fuck you.”
He pulled Martha’s body close to the only garbage bin in the alley, hiding her from prying eyes. He didn’t want anyone to see what was done to her. She wouldn’t want anyone but him to see her like this.
Wiping at his eyes once more, Skylar bent down to Martha and kissed her rapidly cooling lips gently. “I’ll get him,” he whispered against his mouth. “I swear it.”
His phone pinged in his hands and he looked down at a set of coordinates with the name and address of a hotel. There wasn’t a room number included, but that was fine. He could wait until Viper stepped out of the hotel and put a fucking bullet in his head.
With one last look at his wife, he stood and jogged down the alley to collect his gun case from the apartment across the street.
And to kill the man that took away his entire world.
nineteen
trouble
“Peggy!”I shout when she answers the phone. I weave in and out of traffic, trying to be careful to avoid the police.
My arm throbs and blood drips onto my lap from my arm wound as well as the steering wheel from my fucked up hand, but I didn’t have time to add more than a ripped piece of my shirt to staunch the bleeding. I’m not sure if whoever was running towards the alley is behind me or not.
She hears the frantic tone in my voice. “What is it? What happened?”
“The job. It was fucked up. Someone was there.” I pause as I slow down to take my exit, glancing in my rearview mirror to ensure I’m not being followed.
“Someone was there?” Peggy asks, sounding confused. “What do you mean?”
“The same couple I told you about. They tried to kill me. The woman is dead. I took her out. It’s The Void, Peggy. She called me Viper.”
“What?” I hear furious typing on the other end of the line, Peggy cursing every now and then. “I’m checking all of my systems and can’t find them or a jacket on you. Although….Let me check something and I’ll get back to you. In the meantime,you need to get away from wherever you are. It’s only a matter of time before they locate your hotel if they haven’t already.”
“Where?” I take a sharp turn and the GPS blares for me to make a U-turn. If someone is tailing me, I need to shake them off. When I check the rearview mirror, I don’t see anyone, so I let up off the gas and take the directions the GPS reroute me to. “I don’t have anywhere set up in this country.”
“Don’t worry. I have somewhere. I sent the address to your phone, along with the necessary code for the safe house. Get there as soon as you can.”
After the shit that just went down with The Void, I don’t trust them or anyone that works for them.
I start to say as much, but Peggy cuts me off. “Knox, I’ve known where you were since you touched down. If I was in on them getting rid of you, I would have sent you straight into an ambush. It’s not easy in this business, but you can trust me. I’m more vested in you than The Void.”
I know she’s right. In all the years she’s been my handler, Peggy has been nothing but straight with me. In the business we’re in, it’s rare to have friends, but Peggy is mine. It might be foolish, but I trust her.
“Okay,” I say on a sigh. “Okay. I trust you.”
“Thank you. Now get to the safe house as soon as you can. It should only be about forty-five minutes from your hotel, but it’s secure and no one knows about it. It’s basically impenetrable and it has an escape hatch. I’ll send you all the schematics so you know where everything is. It has everything you’ll need—food, water, first aid kit, firepower, cash, cars. You’ll be good. Just…be safe, yeah? I can’t lose you too.”
My throat tightens as I pull up to the back of the hotel, turning the car off. “Yeah, I will. Thanks, Pegs.”
“I’ll be in touch, handsome.” Then she hangs up.
I quickly plug the directions to the safehouse into the GPS so when we’re all packed up, we can just go. It’s probably not the smartest thing, coming back here, but I have to protect my boys. Any time we spend sitting in one location is too long.
