Chapter 19 Pretty Bird #2
Lynnette shifted back on one foot. The man with the ugly neck tattoo, and his cohorts, flashed through her mind. They were the only ones she’d ‘beaten up’ in recent times. But those men—crap. She licked her lips. “You’re Pretty Bird.”
Quetzal’s brow pinched sharply in displeasure.
She took that as confirmation and her stomach twisted.
She’d only first heard the name the previous day, while the military boys had been discussing their agenda before they’d set out.
She and Jenna had spent most of that time on Jenna’s sofa, and Jenna had filled her in on a lot of the details she hadn’t already known.
Between what she’d overheard from the guys and what Jenna had said, Lynnette had put together that there was a man-in-charge somewhere in the area, a mystery figure, who went by the nickname Pretty Bird. The Spanish translation, technically.
He was the one their attackers in that parking lot had referred to as PJ.
Quetzal’s irritation faded back to neutral. “Well, we were going to have to kill you, anyway.”
Lynnette arched a brow.
“You won’t get away with that,” Jenna said, pushing the words out as if she didn’t care about the threat of the raptor on her shoulder.
The bird’s head tipped to one side.
Quetzal raised a hand toward Jenna, palm outward. “Settle yourself, please. We’ll leave momentarily.” He returned his focus to Lynnette. “She’ll do much better without the influence of a woman like you.”
“Funny,” Lynnette returned. She might as well let her anger empower her courage for the moment, because at the moment, the only enemies she could see were the singular man and the strange bird.
Which she was beginning to think were a linked pair, somehow.
She took a step forward, into Pretty Bird’s space.
“I think she’ll do much better away from you. ”
He didn’t like that, or her nearness. Quetzal snapped out an arm to backhand her as fire blazed in his eyes.
Lynnette blocked him, Jenna’s gasp carrying on the air, and shifted her weight to keep hold of his wrist. She was thinking she might try kicking out his ankles. But that entire plan screeched to a halt when something cool, round, and metallic pressed into the base of her neck on the opposite side.
“Lynnette!” Jenna gasped again, fear weighing her voice.
Quetzal jerked his arm free and moved half a step backward.
More unfamiliar men swarmed into view around them. All armed. All Hispanic. All visibly tattooed. One of them said something about his brother and spat in her direction before raising a military-grade rifle at her.
Quetzal tucked his hands into his pockets. “He says you killed his brother.”
Lynnette kicked up a brow again. “I’ve never killed anyone in my life. I’m a nurse.”
Quetzal sighed. “I have no interest in this banter.” He raised a hand. “My apologies for your unfortunate fate in all of this, Ms. Garver. Perhaps you’ll be rewarded for your good deeds in the beyond.”
The pressure at the base of her neck receded and an ironic chill rolled down her spine. She wasn’t delusional. She could handle a fistfight with one or two assholes, but she couldn’t dodge bullets.
The guy who’d accused her of killing his brother sneered and tilted his head to peer through his scope, fingers flexing beside his trigger.
The bird Lynnette had almost forgotten about made a startled cry as Jenna threw herself in front Lynnette.
“Wait!” Jenna exclaimed.
Feathers flapped furiously past Lynnette’s face as the bird was forced from its post.
Quetzal did not look amused. “Jenna. Step aside.”
“No.” Jenna crowded Lynnette, arms spread as if she were a shield. “You can kill both of us or spare both of us.”
“This is not a negotiation.”
Lynnette drew a hard breath. Nothing about the situation was ideal and they were far from prepared to escape a half-dozen armed cartel bastards. It was a bad play to assume Quetzal was so hung-up on Jenna that he would cave to keep her alive. More than likely, he wanted something from her.
Jenna licked her lips, her nerves showing through, and said, “Jon will never let you get away with this, Q. Whatever you do to me, or Lynnette, he’ll find you.”
Is now really the right time to be threatening the enemy, babe? Lynnette kept the question to herself, because she was also impressed that her conflict-avoidant friend had even said it.
Quetzal’s eyes narrowed. “No. He won’t. He’s off reliving his glory days in the woods somewhere, and we’ll be long-gone before he returns.
I don’t care about him, Jenna. I’m not going to send him some stupid text message and bait him.
I’m not going to linger and lie in wait.
You and I are going to get in my SUV, and we’re going to leave. Together. Today.”
“Then I hope you like riding with corpses,” Jenna returned.
One of the men shifted to the side, gun raised, looking for an angle on their assigned target.
Jenna leaned enough to raise her arm between his laser dot and Lynnette’s body.
“Jenna,” Lynnette hissed. The movement revealed the smallest dribble of blood beneath the shredded section of Jenna’s clothes.
“Excuse me!” a projected, but too frail, voice called over them all. “Excuse me, gentlemen, could you please lower those weapons?”
Is that who I think it is? Lynnette didn’t dare turn for fear she was right.
Jenna stiffened and turned her head slightly in the direction the voice came from.
Quetzal let out an irritated grunt.
Jenna’s landlady, Diane, spoke again as a couple of the men lowered their weapons with expressions of blended shock and amusement.
“This may not be the fanciest place, but we don’t allow this sort of violence on the property, do you understand?
Now you leave those women alone and kindly take yourselves elsewhere, or I’ll be forced to call authorities.
I’ve already taken pictures of all your vehicles, too. ”
Lynnette watched the three males she could see—two of the gunmen and Quetzal—while Diane’s perfectly decent and na?ve warning held in the air.
The guy who’d first attempted to shoot her still looked like he wanted to pull the trigger, but maybe just swing his gun in a wide arc and turn all of them into Swiss cheese.
The other gunman looked like he was biting back a laugh.
Quetzal had murder in his eyes. And Lynnette had no doubt it was his judgment that mattered with these men.
“Let them go,” Jenna breathed, the words rushing from her on an exhale. Her focus was forward. “Let both of them go and I’ll come with you. I’ll cooperate.”
“Jen—”
Quetzal’s stare was hard. “This is not a negotiation. And I dislike repeating myself.” He raised a hand and swept his arm sharply downward, fingers pointing out.
Someone in Lynnette’s peripheral pivoted and gunfire exploded behind her.
Too many shots for a singular target. But there was barely a whisper of a startled outcry beneath the barrage, then nothing.
Only the slightly delayed, sickening sound of a human body already wet with blood collapsing to concrete.
Lynnette bit her lip hard as a tremor rocked through her. She hadn’t known Diane well, but Diane had been a nice woman. A good woman.
“Get her phone,” Quetzal said, his tone clipped.
Jenna clapped her hands over her mouth as a sob strangled in her throat.
The irritated, seemingly trigger-happy guy in Lynnette’s side-view lowered his gun to spit again on the ground. Chewing tobacco, she realized, even as he reached into a pocket for more.
The other guy was murmuring to someone else, and that was when it struck Lynnette that if they had a chance at all, it was upon them. Tactless and terrible as it was, Diane’s horrific death may have given them their tiny window of opportunity.
They couldn’t afford to chat about it or meander about the direction.
Lance’s car was behind them, on the other side of all the gunmen.
Jenna’s apartment was locked. But there was forest just beyond it, just behind, and it wasn’t fenced.
It was a damn lot better than hoping to outrun a half-dozen armed murderers on an open road.
Lynnette squeezed her eyes shut, letting herself look like she was mourning and not thinking clearly, and moved the hand that wouldn’t be visible from Quetzal’s position to lightly poke Jenna in the back.
Just once. Then, with no other warning and no time to waste, she pivoted sharply on her feet, snagged Jenna by the elbow, and bolted for the forest only three yards away.
It was still risky as hell.
The men could still easily lift their guns and aim.
But it was better than standing still and hoping everything somehow worked out.
The shouting that broke out behind them was no surprise. The first couple of bullets that whizzed by, practically soundless behind the ringing still haunting Lynnette’s memory, were no surprise.
She wasn’t even surprised when Quetzal barked at his men to be careful not to hit Jenna.
She was, however, perversely grateful. Both for the order in general and for the fact that it boosted their odds.
The men had lethal weapons, but hitting only one of two moving targets while avoiding hitting the other was a challenge even for most marksmen.
Instead of nearly taking chunks out of her shoulders or gouging out her brain, suddenly the bullets began biting into the dirt and choppy portions of grass. Mud and dirt went flying, spraying them and making the scene more dramatic.
Jenna panted at her side, reminding Lynnette of Jenna’s twisted ankle. This tactic was less than ideal for her, too.
Lynnette ground her teeth. Sorry, Jen. Push through it for me.
“You can’t escape my sight, Jenna!” Quetzal shouted as they sprinted past the tree line. Birds cawed and chirped from the trees around them.
Jenna gasped. “Wh-what the hell?”
“No idea,” Lynnette admitted, encouraging her friend to veer sharply to the side and stay behind the thicker brush.
“But we keep moving. It’s not safe here.
” They were only barely past the foliage boundary.
They’d be fooling themselves to think they could slow down because the trees had closed in a little.