Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
Keys knew absolutely that the Headed for Hell club ran guns and drugs. They were low-key about it, but they had established themselves as major players. They would need other clubs or maybe men such as these to carry the products to the buyers. Sid Baily didn’t get to be president of the club because he was a wild card. He thought things through and chose the best course of action for his brothers. He was a solid president. He would be careful about risking his brothers. It could fit that they had made a mutually beneficial bargain with a local militia.
One man, with sandy-colored hair and wearing dark-framed glasses, signaled to the others to spread out and look for anything that might tell them what had happened. He was clearly in charge, and the others didn’t so much as throw him a questioning glance. They were very efficient, breaking off into standard two-man teams to quarter the ground while the man in charge and one other examined the burned-out truck. Even that was efficient.
“I think we bought a big fish this time,” the boss said. He indicated his partner. “Silas, what’s your take?”
“Same as yours, Waylon,” Silas replied. “I don’t think our boys were killed in the crash. I think the man in that coffin killed them.”
“One of us?” A tall man chewing gum ventured, suggesting Keys might have been military.
“Maybe, Justin,” Waylon responded. “Anyone able to read what went down here?”
“He burned the bodies for certain,” Justin’s partner said. “Scattered the ashes for miles.”
Another man nodded. “King’s right, Waylon. And then he burned the truck.”
“Stripped it of anything useful,” Silas said. “We’ve got ourselves a wounded mountain lion, and he could very well be hunting us.”
The eight men looked carefully around as if they might find their quarry sitting in the nearest tree, ready to jump them bare-handed.
“He took their weapons,” Justin said, chomping fast on his gum. “He’s armed.”
“So are we,” Waylon pointed out. “And he’s got a woman to slow him down. We know they both had head wounds. Chester sent photos of both of them down. They got hit hard before they were stuffed in the transport coffin. So he’s injured and has an injured woman to slow him down. He doesn’t know these mountains. He most likely doesn’t know the way home.”
Waylon indicated the vehicles. “Let’s hit the second location. From there, we spread out and look for traps. He can’t be so good he’s a ghost up here. He’s one man.”
“One man who killed five of ours,” Justin pointed out. “Merrit had a wife and two kids.”
“We’ll find him,” Waylon said with confidence. “We always do. He got lucky, but we’re going to be prepared for him. The others weren’t.”
“We going to make the video?” one of the other men spoke up. He was wearing dark green from head to toe.
“We took the job, Koda,” Waylon reminded him. “So yeah, we want to get paid, we make the video.”
“Gotta fuck both of them up?” Koda’s partner asked.
“That’s the deal, Jay,” Waylon said, a sigh in his voice.
“I got a wife.” The man who stayed in the background spoke up. “I’m not fuckin’ the bitch. I don’t mind beating the shit out of her, but I’m not cheating on my wife.”
“How is rape cheating, Jared?” Koda asked. “It isn’t sexual. It’s just part of the deal we made. Grow a pair.”
“Don’t rile him, Koda,” Waylon said. “He’s got the right to say he isn’t participating in that aspect of the job.”
The last of the eight slapped Jared on the back. “Gotta respect you, man. Your decision. I don’t have a wife or a girlfriend. I’ll do your part and mine, no problem.”
“Thanks, Wells, appreciate it,” Jared muttered.
Keys noted each man’s name. He particularly took great exception to Koda and Wells. They seemed just a little too eager to sexually assault Lyric.
The men loaded back into their vehicles, but Waylon paused before stepping inside to take a careful look around. Keys noted that his expression was grim. He ducked into the SUV and leaned over to speak to the two men in the back. The one they called Justin, and his partner, King. From his vantage point, Keys watched the two dark SUVs with tinted windows pull a U-turn and start down the trail. He didn’t move. Sure enough, he heard the second vehicle slow, the one Waylon, Silas, Justin and King rode in.
So fuckin’ predictable. And so stupid. Keys waited, and within minutes, he caught a glimpse of the tall man moving at a brisk pace along one of the game trails leading back to the site of the crash. Run, little rabbits. They were the bait.
Waylon had made the very mistake he was annoyed with the first team over. He’d given himself away when he’d taken that careful look around. They should have slowed the SUV farther down the trail if they didn’t want him to hear. So that meant they wanted to alert him to the two-man team they’d dropped off to backtrack him. They would only do that if those men were protected. Which meant two others had been dropped off farther out, where he hadn’t been able to hear the vehicle slow.