EVEN: a HAM novel by Dustin Stevens

Author:Dustin Stevens [Stevens, Dustin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-19T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Forty-Six

The man hits the same road I drove in on – the only exit from the single lane leading to the motel – and makes a hard right. Even in the mid-afternoon, traffic is basically nonexistent in a town like Butler, making it easy for him to slip out.

Gaze focused his way, I watch until the vehicle is gone, openly staring in plain sight. Everything committed to memory, I run the license plate number through my head once more to make sure I have it.

Even if it doesn’t matter. Within the hour, it will be gone. Same also likely for the vehicle itself.

If Jeff Reston was driving for Edgar Santos, there has to be a contact point for the operation somewhere in the area. Most likely down in Pittsburgh, it is still close enough that the guy will be able to make a quick swap if need be.

That’s probably how the guy beat me here, was able to get set up and over to the Restons as fast as he did.

Just one more damn miscalculation on my part.

Feeling that same venom within, unable to push aside the number of mistakes I’ve made just within the last few minutes, I turn to Gina. Backed into the frame of a doorway marked with the number 2, her body mass seems to have decreased by half.

In sharp contrast, her eyes now seem three sizes larger than when I first ran up.

She is scared shitless, a reaction which is more than reasonable, all things considered.

“Are you hurt?” I ask.

Staring at me with those eyes the size of dinner plates, she flicks her gaze from my face to my arm. Following her focus, I can see blood continuing to flow downward, beads dripping from the tips of my index and ring finger.

Already, the lower half of the denim sleeve is stained dark red, the only thing keeping the mess from being worse than it is.

“Are you hurt?” I repeat.

Taking a step to the side, I bend down and snatch up a pair of washcloths from the carnage piled around the cart. Wadding them both in my left hand, I wipe the back of my right, following the rivulets up as far as I can.

With it already flowing so thick, the blood merely smears across my skin, painting it red. Which is fine. I don’t need it to make things disappear, I just need it to stop any more from hitting the ground for a moment.

Once my hand is wiped reasonably clean, the free flow stemmed somewhat, I stuff both washcloths up under the cuff of my jacket. An unnatural bulge forms around my wrist, the lower half of my arm looking like something from a Hellboy comic book.

It will have to do for the time being.

“Your arm...” Gina gets out, her gaze locked on it before slowly tracking up to meet mine.

“Is fine,” I finish. Anger and annoyance permeate my voice, though neither are aimed at her.

This one is on me.

There is absolutely no

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