Walker (Bowen Boys, #1)(15)

“Gray sweat pants, green and navy sweat shirt. He has on tennis shoes, running and high top. He has on a cap and his…you might want to tell the sleeper he’s armed. I think it’s a Glock, but can’t be sure since he has it in his hand.” She heard him tell someone to be careful and she smiled. She thought maybe she’d taught him a few of those words. He came back on the line.

“You have that good of a view of him, why the hell didn’t you tell me in the first place?”

She hadn’t told Garrett about her extras she’d put on her house a few months ago.

“I don’t suppose you know if he has on clean underwear, do you?”

She might not be able to see if they were clean, but she could see that they were white. She zoomed in on who she thought was the sleeper as he walked toward him. She had never understood why Garrett had called them sleepers. He had told her once it was because they could go past you as if in a dream. Bullshit. She knew every time one was near her.

“He has him in his sights. He said that he doesn’t see a gun.”

Lynne snorted when she herself could see he was armed and knew that Garrett was lying to her again.

“He’s about five yards away.”

By the time the sleeper was about ten feet away, the man had seen him. He turned in the opposite direction and started walking away. Lynne was no longer watching the sleeper, but the man who had staked out her house. When he slipped around the corner and out of her sight she waited. This was, she was sure, far from over. The car coming around the same corner had her watch in fascination as the sleeper was gunned down.

“He said he’s got a make on the man. The sleeper said for you to slip out the back and to a safe house.”

Lynne made no comment as she watched the car drive by her house fast. She got a great picture of the man driving as he looked right at the camera for her. “Which safe house?” She rewound the recording and froze it on the face. She blew it up until she could make out features without distorting the image and she asked Garrett again.

“The sleeper is coming back in now.”

Lynne didn’t move.

“He said to tell you that the area is clear. That it should be safe for you to move to the safe house now.”

If Lynne didn’t know before that Garrett was bad news, she did now. He was lying and wanted her out in the open. She looked out the back door to her house and thought about what he had said. Out the back. He wanted her to go out the back. He had another operative out there or someone that he had sold her to.

Lynne printed the picture and downloaded all the information she had on the computer until now. She needed to make a quick escape before they got trigger happy. She reached for her backpack as she spoke to Garrett. “I’m on crutches. I took a tumble when I was going upstairs. I don’t suppose you can have him wait a damned minute.” Her mind was whirling as to how to proceed as she put her Bluetooth in her ear to move while talking to him. “Let me get dressed then I’ll meet him in the alley behind my house. Can he do that?”

“Sure. Let me get in touch with him.” As he spoke to someone else again, she hobbled up the stairs and gathered all her identifications she had stashed and her guns. She might be going out into the unknown, but she wasn’t going to go down without a fight. The sudden knock at her door startled her.

Going down the stairs slowly, she looked in the peep hole and nearly laughed. She doubted that Walker would understand her insanity right now so she tried to straighten up her face and opened the door. He looked good enough to eat.

“I was just—”

She cut him off with her mouth. She didn’t want whoever was watching the house to know who he was. But her plan took a nice turn until she heard the phone bark in her ear.

“Lynne, how much longer are you going to be? Damn it, girl, you need to get your ass in gear.”

She took a reluctant step back and put her finger to her mouth when Walker started to speak.

“Lynne?”

“I’m here. Christ, will you give me a break? I have to get dressed and then I need to make sure I’m not being followed.” She handed her truck keys to Walker. “And I have to make sure that I can come back here to a house that’s not been stripped empty.”

She found a piece of paper and wrote Walker a note. “Go to garage. Don’t start truck until you disengage the safety mech. It’s under the steering wheel just under the ticker. Turn it to the left.”

He looked at her oddly, but turned to go. Before he was out the door he turned back, pulled her to his body, and kissed her again. When he moved out this time, she stood there for several seconds trying to get her heart to slow to a reasonable speed again.

Grabbing up the rest of her things, she handed them to Walker when he came back inside. She looked around, trying to think if there was anything in the house she couldn’t replace or live without. Nothing. She went to the wall nearest the stove and flipped down the little door. Pressing in the code, she nodded to the garage again. Walker took the last of her things and frowned at the gun in her hand. She would have to explain a few things to him, but right now she didn’t have time.

“Hey, Garrett. Do you suppose you could send in the guy? I’m having problems getting my crutches under me and my overnight bag.” He said he would. “Tell him to knock on the back door three times and I’ll come let him in.”