Fall Into Place (Taking the Fall #5)(4)

I look over and see Sam pulling out his duffel bag and taking out a couple of handguns. He’s always packing heat, and I knew this trip would be no different. No matter where we go, I never have to worry about protection with him. I get up and walk to the window, look down on the Vegas Strip, and try to figure out what’s bugging me about this report.

“What’s wrong?” Samuel asks from behind me. We all know one another well enough to read body language. He can sense I’m churning something over in my mind just by the way I’m standing.

I turn around to face him and cock my head to the side. “That alert we got in the car?”

“Yeah. What about it?”

“Did you notice it only went to the two of us?”

He thinks for a second and then nods his head. “That’s not unusual. Sometimes the counties that know our reputation send to us directly instead of just a cattle call for bounty hunters. You know that.”

“I do, but this one didn’t come from a county. It came from an individual.” I go back to my computer and do a little more digging to find the trace for the request. “The alert was sent directly to us even though we’ve never worked with them. The request was generated elsewhere, but it looks like we were specifically requested. And I can’t seem to access who it was.”

“Maybe someone heard about us and wanted all this talent.” Samuel holds his arms out wide, showing off his big body. I roll my eyes. He’s an idiot. He’s GI Joe on steroids, and he’s always ready to go charging into a mission.

“I can’t seem to find anything that makes me think we shouldn’t do this one. It just seems a bit suspicious, that’s all.”

“So what’s this chick look like? All I saw was a name, and it sounded Russian. She’s probably some old grandma who’s still got spy ties in the motherland.” Samuel laughs at his own joke as he slides his handgun into his shoulder holster.

I turn the laptop around and sit back. “Samuel, meet Nika Kozar.”





Three





Anthony




Samuel just stares at the computer screen like he’s in shock. His mouth is hanging open, and he isn’t blinking.

“You know her or some shit?” I ask, trying to figure out where his head is at.

After a few seconds, he finally speaks. “She’s f*cking beautiful.” He’s still in a trance as he looks at the screen, and I can’t think of a time I’ve ever seen him act like this.

I flip the screen back around to have another look, and he growls. I just ignore him and look at the girl. Yeah, she’s cute, but she’s got nothing on my Mary. Where my Mary is bright light, this girl seems a little dark. She looks like she might carry a knife in her boot. She has short, dark-brown hair, honey-colored eyes, and the fullest lips I’ve ever seen.

“What the f*ck are you looking at?” Samuel barks, flipping the screen back around towards him.

I hold my hands up because I know that f*cking look he has on his face. It’s the same one that was on my face the first year of college and Mary was surrounded by all those pricks who thought they could take her from me. I broke a few noses my freshman year, but those f*cks stayed away from her after that.

I’ve never seen Samuel this bent out of shape over a chick before, but in all fairness, I haven’t seen him with many either. It’s not like we went out partying. Sam was on the road a lot and didn’t like getting tangled up with them. I’m glad I never had to worry about shit like that. I’ve always had my girl and never had to worry about anyone but her. Thank f*ck.

“That’s it.” It finally hits me, making my snap my fingers. “Kozar. I know that f*cking name.” I search my mind but it doesn’t seem to want to come to me. I feel like it’s on the tip of my tongue. “Can I have the computer back for a second, or you want to take it into the bathroom with you for a minute?”

“Fuck you,” he bites out, but turns his back to the computer. “Send me her pic. So I have it. You know.”

“Yeah…I know.” I want to give him shit, but it’s probably not the time. With the way he was looking at just her picture, I can already tell there’s going to be problems. Maybe this isn’t a mess we want to get into. The more I think about it, the more uneasy I get about the whole thing, and my dad always told me to go with my gut.

“You sure you wanna do this skip? You seem off,” I say, flipping the laptop back my way and digging into Nika Kozar. She was last seen in Vegas this morning at the Blue Diamond casino. Other than that, the file on her doesn’t give us much.

“Fuck yeah, I wanna do this. It’s already messed up because we’re the only ones to get the alert. Besides, what could a little thing like her have done to have a million dollars on her head? She looks like she couldn’t hurt a fly.”

Shit, this isn’t good. Because the picture of the girl I just saw looks like she can swing a good left hook if she wanted. Sam isn’t seeing clearly here, which is scary because he’s better at sizing people up than I am.

“All right.” I know he isn’t going to let this go so there’s no point fighting him. And it’s not as if I’d let him do this alone.

I search through the casino footage that tracks her out of the casino, and then switch over to traffic cams to follow her path. She’s good at keeping her head down, but if you want to stay hidden, Vegas isn’t the town for that. Eyes are everywhere, and there isn’t a camera I can’t get into here.