The Finish (The Eliminator Series Book 12), Mike Ryan [summer reading list .txt] 📗

doesn’t end soon… I don’t know how much longer I can ask you to wait.”

“I’ll wait as long as I need to.”

“But you shouldn’t put your life on hold indefinitely.”

“I’m not. And I don’t want to talk about going our separate ways, or moving on because it’s better for me, or anything else you might be thinking about.”

Jacobs looked at her and smiled. “That obvious, huh?”

“I just know you. You put a lot of pressure and weight on those shoulders of yours. And it’s not always justified.”

Seconds later, Franks came out to join them. “Hey, hate to interrupt you two lovebirds doing your song and dance here, but I thought of something.”

“That time of the month, huh?” Jacobs asked.

“Now don’t be getting all like that, man. Um, what was I saying?”

“You had an idea?”

“Oh yeah, that. Anyways, I got another idea we can try.”

“We’re listening.”

“The lawyer,” Franks said.

“What about him?”

“Mallette’s got a new lawyer, right?”

“Yeah.”

Franks looked at a paper he had written some stuff down on. “Andrew Berry’s his name, right?”

“Yeah?”

“We can use him to get to Mallette. Think about it, we’ve done it before. A couple times, if I’m not mistaken.”

Jacobs turned his head and thought about it. “I’m sure Mallette’s got some safeguards in place by now. I mean, after what’s happened with his former lawyers, he’s gotta assume we’ll latch on to him at some point.”

“But what if he don’t?”

“What exactly are you proposing we do with him?”

“I dunno. I’m sure there’s something. Follow him, listen to his phone calls, snoop into his records, you know… the usual thing.”

“You’re assuming he’s got regular contact with Mallette,” Jacobs said. “And there’s no guarantee there is.”

“No guarantee there ain’t either.”

“Wouldn’t Mallette have a great deal of appreciation towards him?” Tiffany asked. “I mean, since he’s the only one who got him out of prison, wouldn’t he reward him with whatever he wanted?”

Franks snapped his fingers and pointed at him, winking at her at the same time. “There you go. Now you’re thinking. She’s getting the hang of this thing. You’re right on the money with that, too. I’m willing to bet you there’s a pot of gold at the end of Berry’s rainbow.”

“What pot of gold are you speaking of?” Jacobs asked.

“Tiff’s right, man. Nobody else was able to get him out of prison except this guy.”

“So?”

“So you know Mallette had to reward him somehow, right? Buying him things, giving him things, promising him things. You see where I’m going with this?”

Jacobs did, but decided to string things out. “No.”

Franks slapped his legs and sighed. “C’mon, man, are you really gonna act this way? If Mallette is giving him something, or whatever, there’s gotta be records, right?”

“But that doesn’t mean anything will come back to Mallette.”

Franks shrugged. “Depends on what it is. Some things you gotta put a name and address down for. Or a name.”

“Or a fake name and address,” Tiffany said.

Franks snapped his fingers and pointed at her again. “There you go again. You got it. She gets it. Whoever said you were just a pretty face?”

“Who said that?”

Franks shrugged, then slyly pointed to Jacobs with his thumb.

“I did not!” Jacobs said.

Franks let out a laugh. “OK, OK. But seriously, let’s dig into this guy’s records, see if we can shake a cat out of the tree.”

Jacobs nodded. “OK. Sounds like maybe we can get something there.”

“My man. I’ll let Hack know to start poking around in that direction.”

After Franks left, Jacobs looked at the pretty woman to his left. “You know, I’m not sure I like that you’re starting to get into this. Thinking like everyone else.”

Tiffany grinned. “I’m a quick learner.”

“That’s the problem. It’s stuff I’m not sure I want you to learn,” Jacobs said. “You’re better off not getting involved in this at all.”

“But I am. And since I am, I might as well help to get you out of it, too.”

“You’re the best. You know that?”

Tiffany shrugged, then leaned over to kiss him. “I just want that pot of gold at the end of my rainbow, too.”

6

Mallette was walking around the main floor of the warehouse, waiting for his plan to be put into action. It was a bit of a gamble, but he didn’t feel he was risking much. Selby rushed over to him after coming in from outside.

“Everything’s in place.”

“Good,” Mallette said. “Everyone knows what to do?”

Selby nodded. “They do.”

“Excellent. Now, all we have to do is wait. And hope that Ames takes the bait.”

“You think he will?”

“All depends on how credible he thinks the information is. I’m willing to bet that he can’t pass up the opportunity of possibly killing me, so I believe that he’ll be here.”

“He might just send his crew, though. He might not show up, himself.”

“We’ll see. I think he would want to be here in order to see for himself that I’m dead.”

“Speaking of all that, are you sure about those guys out there on the perimeter?”

“What about them?” Mallette asked.

“Well, we got one guy on the gate, then a few more scattered around the fence on all sides.”

“So?”

“So if Ames takes the bait here, there’s a good chance those guys are gonna get killed.”

“It’s a price that needs to be paid. That’s why I told you to hire some extra guys off the street for this. No need to waste any of our men on this.”

“But we didn’t even tell them they were being used as marks.”

“They’re getting paid to provide security,” Mallette said. “That comes with inherent risks when you accept that kind of assignment. Let’s not waste anymore thoughts on them. Let’s look at the bigger picture.”

“We got the machine rolling in the office, hooked up remotely, so if Ames’ guys come in, they’ll hear the voices in the office.”

Mallette smiled, pleased with how everything was coming together. “Good.” He pointed to the hallway that led to the office. “They’ll go down that hall, then we have them. They’ll be nowhere for them to go. There’s only one way in or