Minutes to Kill (Scarlet Falls #2)(87)

The chief rushed to the door. “The rail yard.”



The truck came to a stop. Brody lay still on his side, his ankles pressed tightly together, his hands behind his back. Hannah sat next to him. Their eyes met.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

She nodded.

The door rolled open. Brody’s heart slammed against ribs he suspected were broken. Every deep breath he drew felt like a knife slicing him from the inside out. He closed his eyes almost all the way.

“Hello, sweetheart.” Mick climbed into the truck. Gun at his thigh, he prodded Brody with the toe of a boot. Brody let his body roll limply.

“Is he dead?” Mick asked.

Hannah sniffed. “I don’t think so, but I think he might have some internal injuries. He needs to get to a hospital. Please.”

“In a short while, it isn’t going to matter much.” Mick laughed. He leaned over to grab her arm. “Get up.”

Watching through his lashes, Brody wanted to kill him right there and then, but he waited. They had a plan. Hannah wasn’t injured. Brody needed to trust her.

Mick bent over. The knife in his hand moved toward Hannah’s ankles.

She wobbled, making a show of awkwardly folding her feet under her body. When her boots were planted flat, she launched her body forward, head first. Her forehead struck Mick in the nose. Blood spurted.

“Fucking bitch.” He punched her and brought the knife up.

Brody rolled, taking Mick’s feet out from under him. Mick went over backward, his knife clattering to the metal floor. He flipped onto his belly and reached in his pocket. His hand came out with a gun. Brody crawled onto his back. Mick leveled the pistol and turned the barrel to aim at Hannah. Brody couldn’t move fast enough to disarm him. Instead, he snapped Mick’s neck. The body under him went limp.

The sudden movement sent agony rolling through Brody. He panted, unable to take a deep breath.

Hannah rubbed her jaw. With a head-clearing shake, she scooped the gun from the floor and pulled the clip out to check the load. Satisfied, she snapped it back in place.

Light-headed, Brody searched Mick’s pockets and cell phone. He pressed a button, and a lock screen displayed. Pass code–protected. No use to them.

Hannah nodded toward the door, no doubt thinking exactly what was on Brody’s mind. She whispered, “The brother is out there.”

The one who took a bat to Joleen’s face.

“We need to get out of here.” Brody rolled the dead man into the dark back corner of the truck. Then he peered out the door. Not trusting his vision in the dark, he waved Hannah forward. She nodded the all clear.

A cold wind hit them full force as they climbed down from the trunk. Next to him, Hannah shivered.

Knife in hand, Brody took in their surroundings. Trees in the distance. Large, bulky shapes all around. Where were they? A rectangular structure loomed ahead. There was another behind it. Clouds shifted, and moonlight brightened the landscape. A train.

They were in the rail yard. The same place where Joleen’s body had been dumped.

Brody called up a mental image of the area, but the yard comprised multiple acres. They had to move. Sam was out here somewhere, armed, dangerous, and ruthless. Unfortunately, it didn’t seem his bullet wound had slowed him down. Footsteps crunched on gravel. Brody pulled Hannah into the shadow of a freight car.

“Mick?” Boots clunked on the metal ladder of the van. “Fuck. No. Mick.” An inhuman roar echoed from the moving van. Remorse slid through Brody at the wounded sound.

Sam had found his dead brother.

But Brody would have to process taking another life later. Now, fear for Hannah’s life blotted out any other emotional reaction. Sam would be coming for them, and Brody could feel his pain and rage vibrating in the cold night air.

Boots hit the dirt and came toward them. “I’m going to kill you!”

Then Sam went into stealth mode. No more footsteps. No more words. Where was he?

Brody went down on one knee and looked under the freight car. No boots. Hannah turned and faced the other direction. Back to back, they waited. Nothing. Brody pointed ahead. They needed to get out of here.

Hannah inched forward. Brody moved in a crouch, watching the ground under the train, the bent-over position killing his ribs.

The air shifted. Brody sensed more than heard the movement. He turned just as a body dropped on top of him from inside the train.





Chapter Thirty-Four “Brody!” Hannah lifted the gun. Brody and Sam went down and rolled under the train. She couldn’t shoot. She might hit Brody.

She ran ahead a few steps, dropped, and rolled under the next freight car. Turning, she ran back. The bodies had stilled. The figure on top flipped to his side. One arm flopped out into a patch of tall weeds.

Was that Brody or Sam? The grass was too high to see his face. Hannah pointed the gun forward. “Brody?”

“I’m here.” Wheezing, he sat up. One hand held his rib cage. “I think he’s dead.”

Hannah walked closer. She peered over the vegetation. Sam’s eyes stared sightlessly at the sky. A knife protruded from his belly.

“Hey, look!” Brody pointed behind her. Red and blue lights swirled in the distance.

Hannah helped him to his feet. Now that the threat was gone, he sagged.

“You need a hospital.”