Page 65 of A Touch of Frost
We waited until Paul and Jesse joined us before I told them what the plan was.
“Jesse, you’re staying here with Paul.” I spoke. “I’ll have Tink come this way. She’ll be watching the house. Widow, you and Lizard will take point A. I’ll handle the other.”
“I don’t like this.” Jesse spoke.
“I know.” I replied. “But we don’t have any another choice. Paul is too weak. I’m not taking him out into the field for this. And you know how to handle yourself.”
“What about Kandi?” Jesse wanted to know. “Instead of her watching over us, take her with you.”
“It’ll be quicker for her to watch your back.” I replied. “We’ll be fine.”
To stress my point, I picked up one of the guns and turned the handle toward him. Jesse hesitated but accepted the weapon.
“Remember, this is just to find out if we’re right about Striker’s location.” I told them. “We both know he probably has people working for him again.”
“The piece of shit.” Black Widow muttered. “Don’t take this man on yourself. If he’s going down, we should do this together.”
Everyone else agreed and Lizard and Black Widow gathered their things and headed out to Lizard’s jeep. In front of Paul, I walked over to Jesse and kissed him deeply. He pulled me into his arms, hugging me tightly as he kissed my head.
“I know you can handle yourself.” Jesse growled angrily. “But I…”
“You fancy yourself my man and you are suffering from that Alpha gene that makes you want to protect me from everything and everyone.”
“And that won’t ever change.” Jesse told me honestly. “You watch your back, you hear me?”
I looked up into his face. “And if anyone comes into this house that isn’t one of us, you shoot first and ask questions later.”
He kissed me again and I headed for the door without looking back. If I had, I’d have changed my mind and stayed.
Jesse had quickly become my kryptonite and I wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
Leaving Jesse behind was hard. But I had to put my heart away and become a soldier again. The fact I’d missed a couple of races wasn’t even bothering me anymore I made a mental note to withdraw some of my inheritance to donate to the charities I’d promised a part of my winnings to.
Exhaling, I sent Kandi a message to watch the house. She replied instantly, confirming she was on the way. She was about ten minutes out but leaving Jesse with Paul for that amount of time still bothered me.
Out of choices, I slipped Black Widow’s helmet on, pressed my thumb to the ignition and waited for it to read my print. When it roared, I twisted the key, and the engine came to life.
“You’re riding that?” Jesse asked from the door.
I lifted the visor to look at him.
Jesse descended the front steps and stood beside me with his fingers stuck into his back pockets. He leaned in and kissed my throat. “I know I said it before but—be careful.”
“I will.”
Jesse stepped back and I revved the engine, gave him one final look then flipped the visor down again.
On the back of Black Widow’s cycle, I pulled out and caught up with Black Widow and Lizard. As I rolled the bike to a stop beside them, Black Widow glanced at me and winked.
I offered her a nod right as the light changed, then I sped off ahead of them through the center of the city. Another twenty minutes later and I was rolling to a stop at the gate of the Konik camp.
Black Widow and Lizard didn’t stop as they hung a left. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I slowly eased the cycle to the right, passing through narrow alleys.
The stench made my stomach turn but there was no going back.
Not yet.
The homes looked as though a good breeze could shove them over. And those were the lucky ones. Others were zinc pieces put together to fashion shelter. The deeper I went into the place, the more I began realizing what Striker had done. He’d situated himself in the center of the slum, perhaps had taken weeks to learn the tributaries leading in and out of the place. Someone who wasn’t familiar with the layout would get lost. It would be easier for an ambush and next to impossible to survive it.
