Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 74597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74597 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 373(@200wpm)___ 298(@250wpm)___ 249(@300wpm)
There it was again—that horrible anxiety that something could happen to JT and she would spend the rest of her life mourning him.
“If you don’t know where the prototype is, I don’t have a lot of use for you,” Patrick said, though there was a tremor in his tone.
“How do you think you’re going to get out of this?” JT’s voice was strong and steady. “Nina works for a private security company, but she’s got ties to the government. Yeah, that’s right. They know something’s happening, and they won’t stop looking for you even if you do manage to kill me. So the question is do you want to add another murder to what’s going to be a long time in prison for you?”
Nina’s heart was thumping in her chest, adrenaline flowing through her system. She could see the way this would play out in her head. Two more steps from Patrick and she could ease around the side of the couch, pop up, and plant two squarely in his chest.
Two more steps and it would all be over.
Patrick stopped. “If I kill the two of you it can look like a lover’s quarrel. I can make it look like Nina found out about you and Deanna and killed you both then herself. That’s what women do when they lose their shit.”
Where the hell was Hutch? Patrick wasn’t moving. He seemed stuck in a loop, trying to figure a way out of a trap that wasn’t ever going to let him go. The longer she waited, the more chance he would figure it out and come to the conclusion that nothing mattered. A desperate man was a dangerous man.
“Or you could take the prototype in Deanna’s bag and run,” JT offered. “I think it’s probably in her bag. She came up here to tell me about what she’d learned. Dee is smart. She knew something was going on and she tried to solve this thing herself. She came close. She figured out it was you.”
“Nosy bitch never could stay out of things that didn’t involve her,” Patrick said, but he started moving toward the table again.
One more step.
Patrick came into clear view and Nina stood, took her aim, and fired. And again, taking out both lungs.
She watched his eyes flare and he put a hand to his chest. His gun clattered to the floor and then he followed.
She took a deep breath, banishing her panic. It was over. At least this part. She looked down at JT. “You can come out now. He’s dead.”
JT got to his feet, his skin sheet white. “Are you okay?”
Nina nodded. “I’m fine, but I have to make a couple of calls.”
“I really do think the prototype is in her bag,” he said. “She stole it earlier and she was bringing it to me. Damn. I can’t believe he shot Deanna. I need to see if she’s all right.”
He started to move toward where his assistant lay, but nearly jumped out of his skin when her seemingly dead body sat up.
Deanna looked around, a wild look in her eyes. “Where’s my gun?”
Nina moved to her and noticed there wasn’t a drop of blood on Deanna’s T-shirt, though it sported a nice hole in the chest. She held a hand out. “Body armor?”
Deanna took it and let Nina haul her up. “Of course. What? You think I would walk into some criminal shit without protection? My dad was a cop. And I am always prepared.” She winced. “Though I wasn’t prepared for how much that would hurt.”
“You’re all right?” JT stood back as though he wasn’t exactly sure what to do.
She wanted to wrap her arms around him, but the job wasn’t over yet.
Deanna looked down at Patrick’s body and pointed. “Am I all right? No, I am not fucking all right. You gave this asshole my promotion. Mine. You want to go find Jordy now that Patrick’s gone and hand the job to him? He’s out looking for drugs, you know.”
JT shook his head. “Nope, it’s all yours. As of right now you are the VP in charge of operations.”
Deanna glared his way. “I want ten percent more than what this asshole was making. And I want the company to pay me the five grand I spent on PIs and all the crap I needed to do this job.”
“Done,” JT said.
“And a budget to redo the office because his is nasty.” Deanna brought her foot back and kicked the dead body. “Try shooting me again, moron. That was my fucking job.”
The cops would love processing this scene. Not that they would actually ever get to the scene. The Agency would have a cleaning crew here in no time.
The door came open and Nina brought her gun up only to breathe a sigh of relief as Hutch walked through.