Page 52 of Lone Star Showdown

Ruby had indeed sent someone to Paulie’s apartment, and the operative had used infrared to scan the rooms. No Paulie. In fact, no one was there.

Shit.

The man had been out of sight for way too long, which meant he could either be planning another murder. Or else the killer had gotten to him, too. Because if the killer was Manson or even Jason, Jericho figured either would off their old man just because they both despised him.

He was about to move onto the next report when Spike spoke. “Video call from Ruby,” it announced.

Jericho didn’t quite come to attention, but it was close. His boss didn’t make a habit of calling via Facetime. In fact, this was a first for him, and he’d been working for her for years.

“Spike, accept the call,” Jericho instructed, and along with sitting up straight, he tried not to look as if he’d recently been beat to hell and back.

“Should I give you some privacy?” Rachel asked just as Ruby came on the screen.

“You can stay,” Ruby said. “Rachel, I presume?”

“Yes.” Rachel seemed to be sitting at attention, too.

“Ruby Maverick,” his boss answered in return.

Jericho had met Ruby several times in person, but it’d been a while, maybe two years since he’d last seen her. She looked exactly the same. Her dark brown hair was cut short and efficient. Actually, efficient described the woman herself. No makeup, and she was wearing a plain beige shirt. He didn’t know her exact age, but he thought she was in her mid-fifties.

“One of the reasons I called was to see for myself how you were doing,” Ruby said, shifting her attention to Jericho.

“Good,” Jericho assured her. Which was more than a smidge of BS. Okay-ish was closer to the truth.

Ruby made a sound to indicate she’d picked up on the BS. “I’m not taking you off this ops. Is that a mistake?” she came out and asked.

“No,” Jericho assured her. “I can’t walk away from this.” No bullshit there. It was the truth.

Ruby nodded as if that’d been the response she’d expected. “I understand. And I won’t lecture you about, well, anything. I understand,” she repeated in a much softer voice that barely hinted of emotion.

Jericho figured that was the voice of experience, but he had no idea what’d happened in his boss’ past that did indeed cause her to get why he had to stay on this mission.

“The second reason I called is this,” Ruby went on a moment later. “Image on screen,” she instructed her own version of Spike. “This came in about five minutes ago from one of the drones that’s been keeping an eye out for Jason. It’s being analyzed, but I think you can see the potential problem.”

Jericho stood, went closer to the screen for a better look. It wasn’t the clearest image, but he could see a compact car and several people in it.

“It’s the Kia Rio that Jason bought with part of the ten grand he withdrew,” Ruby explained. “Zoom in,” she added to her Spike.

The program immediately complied, moving in on the interior. There were four people in the vehicle. Two in the front, two in the back.

And hell, yeah.

Jericho could see the potential problem all right.

Because all four were wearing ski masks.

“Adjust angle to show passengers in the backseat,” Ruby continued.

The program did, and Jericho saw something else that had him cursing. The two in the back had zip ties on their wrists. Probably on their feet, too. So, these likely weren’t willing participants in whatever the hell was going on.

“Any idea who these people are?” Jericho asked.

“Not yet. Marco’s trying to get camera feed of them getting into the car. At this point we’re not even sure where the vehicle came from.” Ruby paused a moment. “But we think we know where it’s going. Show next image.”

Another picture came onto the screen. It was the same Kia traveling on a country road. A road that Jericho instantly recognized.

Fuck.

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