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

went up, their guns out and ready to fire at the first sign of trouble. Once they got to the second floor, they opened the door, finding a small hallway with several doors on each side of it.

They barely stepped foot on the floor when the door closest to them opened. A man stepped out. He had a shoulder holster on, though he had a paper in his hands that he was looking at, not paying attention to, or expecting anyone else there to join him.

Jacobs and Thrower briefly glanced at each other, both of them quickly aiming their weapons at the unsuspecting man who was walking straight for them. The man looked up, then did a double-take once he saw the intruders. He immediately dropped the paper and reached for his gun.

Jacobs and Thrower didn’t let him draw his gun, though, each firing one round that put the man down. Almost instantaneously, another man appeared in the same door frame.

“What’s going on?!” the man asked, before realizing he was in just as much trouble.

Seeing the guns pointed at him, the man tried to retreat through the door and close it. Jacobs and Thrower rushed over to it and pushed it open before the man was able to lock them out. The opening allowed Gunner to sneak in, his mouth cinching down on the man’s forearm, pulling him to the ground.

“Get him off me! Get him off!”

Once Jacobs and Thrower went inside and saw there was nobody else there, and the man had no visible weapons on him, Jacobs called his dog off. The man clutched his arm, then retreated back against the wall. As Jacobs started to question him, Thrower went back to the door, keeping his eyes—and gun—fixed on the hall, in case anyone else came out of any of the other doors. It was clear so far.

“Who else is here?” Jacobs asked.

“Nobody.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“There’s nobody else. Just us.”

“What are you guys doing here?”

“We monitor the cameras overnight.”

“For who?”

“What do you mean, for who? For the business.”

“Mallette?” Jacobs asked.

“Who?”

Jacobs turned his head for a second, trying not to get agitated. He hated when people played these games with him. Especially when they had no leverage.

“Listen, I’m gonna ask you this question one more time. And if you don’t give me a truthful answer, I’m gonna let that dog go back to work on you, and let him chomp down from your wrist until he gets to your shoulder and you’ve got nothing there but bone. And believe me, he is quite capable of tearing your shoulder completely out of its socket.”

The man looked at Gunner, and based on his brief encounter with him already, was inclined to believe just about anything.

“Just… please don’t kill me.”

“I’m not interested in you,” Jacobs said. “Tell me the truth, and I promise we won’t touch you again.”

Realizing he had no leverage, the man knew he had no other option. He nodded. “Mallette works here most times.”

“What do you do for him?”

“Just monitor the cameras overnight. That’s all. We get here about six and work twelve-hour shifts.”

“You work every day?”

“Just weekdays. Someone else takes over the weekends.”

“Nice gig,” Jacobs said. “You know who I am?”

The man shook his head. “No. I’m not involved in Mallette’s business. I was just hired to watch the cameras. That’s it.”

“When’s Mallette usually here?”

“It varies. I don’t know about the weekends. Like I said, I’m not here.”

“During the week?”

“I don’t know about during the day, but at night, sometimes he’ll show up. No specific times.”

“Every day?”

“Most days, yeah.”

“When’s he leave?” Jacobs asked.

“Depends. Sometimes by ten, other times he’s here till midnight, or even later.”

“You ever talk to him?”

“Not normally. Usually just his assistants.”

“Where’s his office?”

“Down the hall. Third door on the right.”

Jacobs looked over to his right where there was a large desk and a dozen monitors, all hooked up to the security cameras that encompassed the building. He then grabbed the rifle that was strapped to his back and started putting holes in the equipment. Though after this he assumed that Mallette wouldn’t come back, but Jacobs still wanted to send the message. Plus, if Mallette wanted to replace everything, he’d have to spend a lot more money to do it.

Jacobs commanded Gunner to stay put and guard the man while he and Thrower investigated the rest of the rooms. Jacobs knew the guy wasn’t going anywhere with Gunner standing in front of him. One by one, they opened and went through each door. There wasn’t much of interest in the rest of them, until they got to Mallette’s office. Jacobs kicked the door open, with Thrower rushing in first and Jacobs following.

“It’s clear,” Thrower said.

They looked around, hoping they’d find something that would tell them where Mallette was staying. They knew Mallette wasn’t staying there twenty-four hours a day. And they were sure he had other places he set up shop in. Jacobs looked through the desk, while Thrower looked around the rest of the room.

Unfortunately, they found nothing of interest. Not that they really expected to. But they hoped, even though it was unlikely, Mallette was going to leave around a clue.

“There’s nothing here,” Thrower said. “Let’s get out of here before someone else shows up.”

“Maybe we should wait.”

“Brett, this is a working facility. You’ll likely have a hundred workers in here long before Mallette shows his face again.”

Jacobs sighed. “I just hate to give this up already. We found him. Now, he’s probably not coming back here.”

“Well, we just can’t hit here during the day and risk all those other people being here. There’s too many. And they’re probably not involved.”

“I know. I just really wanted this to work. I really hoped he would’ve been here. Maybe we should’ve waited a while.”

“Cat’s out of the bag now. Besides, from the outside, you can’t tell who is or isn’t in this place, anyway. We might’ve waited a week and still came to the same place.”

“Yeah. It’s just disappointing.”

“He’ll know we were here,” Thrower said.