Page 43 of A Touch of Frost
The body stopped in midstride and hit the floor hard.
Someone peeled themselves from the direction of the bathroom and swung at me. That proved to me it wasn’t Jesse, so I felt no way when I shifted to the side and rewarded the intruder with a high kick to the throat then spun with the tray.
The sound of it connecting off the person’s forehead echoed through the room, but the hit hadn’t taken the attacker down. Shuffling quickly to the side, I kicked again, this time to the stomach then swiped around in a roundhouse to knock the person over.
The sound of a scuffle caught my attention in the bedroom, and I rushed toward it. I was in time to watch Jesse climb his attacker like a tree, wrapped his legs around the person’s neck then slipped his body backward and downward to the floor. His attacker grunted, tried to escape but Jesse merely twisted his legs in two separate direction and released.
He scrambled out of the way of the falling body before pushing quickly to his feet. I took a step forward and Jesse spun toward me and squared up.
“It’s only me.” I told him.
“Hotels need better security.” Jesse grumbled while frowning and flipping the light on..
He had a darkening at the corner of his left eye and his lip bled. The anger in his eyes, however, was raging. He hunched down to look into the face of the man whose neck he’d just snapped.
“Son of a bitch!” I swore then rushed out to see who else we’d caught.
Jesse followed.
“Fuck!” I wanted to punch something or someone.
“Who are these people?” Jesse asked.
I pointed to each man. “The one with the face bashed in is Loco. That one is Rico and the dead one is Dawg.”
“Striker’s team?”
“Yeah.”
“How the fuck did they get in here?” Jesse demanded. “How are we going to explain a dead SEAL? Why sneak in here in the dark?”
“Think about it.” I rolled Loco over.
He shouldn’t be throat deep in all of this. His wife just had a child. He was supposed to be back in the US with her and their kid. Now he was here, out cold on the fucking floor and I wanted to bash his face in again.
“Jesse, grab me one of the sheets.”
He hurried to do as I asked and when he returned, I began ripping it into healthy pieces. Using them, Jesse and I restrained the men then dumped cold water in their faces to wake them up. Both of them snapped to and sputtered as water rolled up their noses but I didn’t care.
Rico lunched toward me, but Jesse steadied him with a foot to the chest.
I smiled and pulled up a chair and sat in front of them. Crossing my legs, I watched as Jesse moved to stand behind the chair.
“Where’s Dawg?” Loco asked.
“Dead.” I replied, coldly. “Tell me, what were your orders? Were you here to make sure Jesse and I never walked out of this place alive?”
Loco and Rico looked at each other. When they turned to me again, they said nothing.
“I’m pretty sure I’m wasting my time here, but where is Paul?” I asked.
Still nothing.
“Okay.” I dragged my palms along my thighs and rose.
Jesse took my seat, but he merely stretched his legs out in front of him while I Jerry-rigged an electrical torture device and stuck one end of the cord into Rico’s ear. I pressed the frayed end down into his flesh causing him to scream.
“Do you know what electricity does to the ears, Jesse?” I aske.
