Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 88290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88290 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
They all just stared at him.
“I was somewhere…far,” he told them. “And you’re never gonna know where because it’s classified, but that’s not the point. Here’s the point—a while ago Hannah Kage got in the middle of a money-and-weapons clusterfuck with the Colima cartel out of Sinaloa and––”
“We know all that,” Mabe growled at him. “What we don’t know is––”
“Because of that,” George said, making his voice really loud for a moment, and then calming, “I have made it my business to know when, or if, there would ever be any retaliation.”
“You’ve been monitoring this situation for over a year?” Salazar asked.
“You know I’m her bodyguard, right?” he asked them, squinting like they were stupid. “It’s my job to keep her safe.”
“Yes, but––”
“So this week, of course, when I’m deployed on the other side of the world is when I hear that––” He looked at Sam. “––Huerta? Is that right?”
“It is,” Sam said, and I saw the fondness he had for George Hunt clearly on his face.
“This is when I get alerted that Huerta,” George said, yawning again, “sorry—had finally learned Hannah’s identity and had sent guys out to kill her.”
“Jesus,” Salazar groaned.
“I know, right? It took him a while. That’s some shit intel he’s got.”
“No, I didn’t mean––”
“So I’m stuck a long way away, and so I called a buddy of mine, and he took care of it for me,” he finished, and then fished another card out of the breast pocket of his suit and passed it to O’Meara. “That card is for my lawyer, who you can talk to about my mandate as a bodyguard.”
“What are you talking about?” Hall asked him.
“Well, I’m allowed to be armed and to kill if the person I’m protecting is in imminent danger,” he explained. “So I am well within my rights to neutralize the three men who presented a direct threat to Hannah Kage.”
“But you aren’t the one who killed them!” Mabe yelled.
“No, I wasn’t,” he said, and I heard the regret in his voice. “I wanted to be, but I simply wasn’t here,” he finished with a shrug.
“Then who did?” O’Meara asked.
“I asked retired Army Major Christopher Mancuso to be my proxy, and he took care of the three men.”
O’Meara pulled his phone.
“Don’t look him up through regular channels or you’ll have the state department up your ass, and believe me, you don’t want that. Sitting with those guys for ten, twelve hours, you'll wish you were dead, I swear to God.”
All four people were staring at him.
“The CIA can be really invasive as well, and when they say they don’t work on US soil, you wanna take that with a big ass grain of salt.”
After a moment, George narrowed his eyes as he stared at O’Meara. “I will not allow any harm to come to Hannah Kage. I will do everything in my power to keep her safe. Now, did I know that Christopher Mancuso had a soft spot for drivers and that he could scare the shit out of a drug lord in Sinaloa?” He was quiet a moment. “If I thought about it for a second, yes. He’s always been very careful not to hurt civilians. I couldn’t have taken the shots he did. I would have had to wait until the party was over. But he’s always been better in traffic, while I’m the distance shooter.”
I looked at Sam, at the four police detectives, and then back to Sam. “Is this just like George killing the guys in the parking lot that attacked the kids?”
“Yes,” Sam assured me.
“When was this?” Hall asked George.
“August of twenty twenty-one,” he answered.
“How do you remember that?” I was amazed.
“Because that was the reason the kids had to start seeing Kurt, the following month, and then I met him in November, which was––” He yawned again. “––God, I’m gonna pass out.”
I wanted to ask, which was what? But I knew. He and Kurt had been together since. “Maybe tell Hannah you can’t go tonight,” I said instead.
“No. What if she got hurt? I’d never forgive myself. And anyway, it won’t be late. She has school tomorrow, plus a test in Ethics.”
Of course he knew, he always did.
“And besides, I have tomorrow off, as well as the weekend, and so does Kurt. I can’t wait,” he mused, and then his focus was back on O’Meara. “Sorry about screwing up your investigation, but c’mon, those guys wouldn’t have talked anyway. Shooters who work for cartels will always be way more scared of their boss than any of you or the American courts. Don’t you watch Netflix?”
He turned then, said it was nice to see me again, and offered his hand to Sam.
“Thank you, George,” Sam said from his heart.
“You’re welcome, sir,” he said, covering Sam’s hand with his other.
“Please give my best to Mr. Mancuso.”