Dead and Gone by Jack Patterson (universal ebook reader .TXT) 📕

guard. However, he didn’t fight it and didn’t take long to return the full embrace.

Alexa didn’t stop until she’d managed to wrangle his keys off his belt and hand them to Burns, who stole next to her and slipped off to get the object.

Burns rolled under the truck to the other side and unlocked the side door. He flipped on a few lights and searched for the security video system.

Most of the haulers contained a similar layout, and there weren’t many places to hide such equipment. It didn’t take long for him to locate it and then find the library of tapes in a cabinet under it.

He scanned for the date from the previous weekend and fingered it before stashing it into his coat. In an effort not to arouse suspicion, he slid the tapes together to eliminate a gap between the chronologically ordered arrangement. He turned the lights off, rolled back beneath the truck and delivered the keys into Alexa’s waiting hand.

Alexa reattached the keys and then pulled back from the man.

“Wow!” she said. “If I didn’t have a date with Jason Aldean tonight—” She shook her head and stepped back.

Burns peeked around the corner and noticed the smile on the man’s face now appeared permanent.

She waved at the driver and walked backward until she disappeared around the front of the truck to join Burns.

“Let’s go,” he whispered.

They snuck back across the garage to the Davis Motor Sports team hauler. Burns fired up their security monitor and pushed the tape in. He started scanning the footage.

“What exactly are we looking for?” Alexa asked.

Burns hustled over to the fridge and pulled out a beer. “The snake.”

“You plan on being here for a while?”

He nodded.

“Then bring me one too.”

Burns returned with a beer for Alexa and they both started draining their drinks as they watched the footage.

“Wait, wait, wait. Go back,” she said.

He reversed the footage.

“Whoa! Right there. Do you see that?”

“Yep.”

Burns let the tape keep running. Several minutes later, the same person reemerged on the screen and looked around before he slid beneath Carson Tanner’s car. When he slid back out, his face was clear for just a second, but it was enough for Burns and Alexa to identify him.

“Why that low-life scum bag,” Burns muttered. “I’m gonna make him pay.”

CHAPTER 43

CAL DIDN’T BLINK as he stared at the man standing in front of his car. With his gun trained on Cal, the man didn’t move as he talked on his cell phone.

Cal assessed his predicament—and it didn’t appear favorable. Someone was watching Kelly. He had defied the instructions given to him by a nefarious group and all that was left to do was kill him. At least, that’s how he read the situation.

It’s now or never.

Cal waited for the most promising moment, one in which the gunman glanced away. All he needed was a glance. Cal revved the engine and glared at the man lit up by the car’s high beams.

Then the glance.

Cal stomped on the gas and ducked as his car roared toward the man. Before the assailant could escape the brunt of the car’s path, Cal hit him with the car and sent him sprawling to the cement. Cal glanced in his side mirror and continued driving. He watched the man scramble to his feet and fire two gunshots in his direction. Neither one of the shots hit the car.

The tires screeched as Cal jerked the car left toward the exit. Horns honking and people shouting created an eerie dissonance in the bowels of the parking garage. Cal kept his foot on the accelerator and tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

He roared out of the garage and toward the exit for the I-10.

Cal checked his mirror for signs of any cars following him. So far, nothing. But he distrusted his mirror and turned around several times over the course of the next minute to assuage his fears. Still nothing.

Another minute passed and then red and blue lights flickered in his rearview mirror. Sirens wailed. Cal saw a pair of headlights lurch forward a quarter of a mile behind him as the patrol car swerved from behind a car in the slow lane.

Cal noticed a pharmacy on the corner ahead off to the right. He turned at the cross street and then whipped into the pharmacy parking lot. With his hat pulled down low on his face, Cal slumped in his seat. And waited.

He wanted more than anything to go straight to the authorities and tell them what was going on. But there’d be too many questions, not to mention a likely detainment of some sort. At that point, he’d become part of the story as opposed to the one telling it. And he was never going to let that happen if he could help it.

The seconds dripped past until the sirens came and went.

Guess they were after someone else.

He dashed inside because he needed a new phone. Despite his best efforts to get ahead, the people following him always knew what his next step was going to be. Cal assumed that meant he was far too predictable or they had tapped his phone. He wanted to believe it was the latter.

Inside the store, he combed the aisles for a pay-as-you-go cell phone. Cal didn’t carry much cash on him, but he had enough to purchase the phone.

Back in the car, he dialed Kelly’s number.

“Answer the phone, Kelly,” he grumbled.

The call went to voicemail.

She probably doesn’t recognize this number.

He left her a message: “Kelly, I wanted to let you know that you’re being watched. Be careful. Use the safe room. Call me back when you get a chance.”

As he pulled back onto the road and veered onto the I-10 exit, Cal called Jessica.

“Hello?” she answered.

“Jessica, it’s me, Cal.”

“I almost didn’t pick up since I didn’t recognize this number.”

“Look, about earlier. I’m sorry I had to act like that, but I thought someone might be listening. I had to sell them