Present Tense (A Parker & Coe, Love and Bullets Thriller Book 2) by Matthews Alana

Author:Matthews, Alana [Matthews, Alana]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Braun Haus Media
Published: 2014-09-07T16:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

So I told him. And I didn't go with the bullet points version this time.

As we headed to the Trailblazer to radio for help, I spoke quickly, giving him most of the details—Hap dying at the controls, the possibility that he'd been poisoned, the parachute jump, the trees, getting lost, Cat Eater and his team chasing us…

The only thing I left out was the depth of my relationship to Ethan. I told Parker we were old high school friends and left it at that.

The rest could wait until later.

"If Wilky's involved, he's a dead man," Parker said. "And so is Swan."

"Easy, tough guy. I appreciate the sentiment, but why don't we let the courts handle them?"

"Swan's got money, so chances are good he'll buy his way out of trouble. And Wilky's well-loved in the business so we'll have a hard time proving he had anything to do with this. Assuming he did."

"Who else would do it?"

"I don't know. Maybe your prisoner? He certainly had a lot to gain."

"That's ridiculous, " I said. "He was in cuffs the whole time. and if he was that cold-blooded, he would've left me on the plane."

I suddenly realized how defensive I sounded and saw the skepticism in Parker's eyes. But we didn't have time to argue about it. If Ethan was alive, every second counted. We could carry him down the hill, but we'd need a Medivac team to get him straight to a hospital.

Parker went to snatch the mic off the Trailblazer's dash, then paused, taking a closer look at the radio.

"Dammit," he said.

"What's wrong?"

"Some wires have been pulled. Looks like your ranger friend put it out of commission."

I nodded. "I should have noticed it when I called you. Maybe I could've reacted faster."

"Don't second guess yourself. Anytime the bad guy gets dead instead of you, that's a win."

"Not if the prisoner dies, too."

"Then let's hope he's a slow bleeder." Parker pulled out his cell phone, looked at it and shook his head. "I'm still getting nothing. What about you?"

I checked mine. "Nope."

He gestured toward the shack. "And there's no radio inside?"

"Pieces of one. The dead guy shot it up."

"Then I guess we'll have to improvise."

We went back to the Rover and climbed in, Parker behind the wheel. He fired up the engine and headed up the narrow road toward the clearing where I'd first seen Cat Eater.

I once again marveled at how close Ethan and I had been to finally finding the path to civilization before Swan's men started shooting at us.

Parker said, "So, high school, huh? How well did you know this guy?"

I didn't want to get into this discussion. Not now. "He was a friend."

"A friend friend or a… friend?"

The Rover bounced hard over a deep rut and I bit back a groan. That parachute jump had really done a number on me. "Does it really matter?"

Parker frowned. "I know what that means."

"You don't know anything."

"It explains why you were so distant when I called you on the plane. Have

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.