CHAPTER NINETEEN
Mortis sat behind the wheel of a gray sedan parked across the street from the foundation’s grand opening. The dark-tinted windows hid him from the world outside. Little did the crowd laughing and celebrating across the street know that a trained killer was sitting just feet from them.
Hell, even the Talon, the one who hired him, didn’t even notice his presence as he spoke and mingled with other familiar faces that Mortis saw in the crowd.
However, unbeknownst to all those people in the crowd, the most important person had briefly made an appearance.
His mind went back to when the speeches were being made. It was the same moment when he had laid eyes on his target.
Something in his gut told him to stake out the event. And his gut was right when he spotted movement near the corner of the building leading into an alley.
When Calvin Henderson stepped out of the shadows, looking half dead already, Mortis had been pissed that he couldn’t take the shot right then and there. He had the perfect angle. One squeeze of the trigger and Calvin’s skull would’ve split open like a rotten fruit.
But there were too many witnesses around. Taking Calvin out in the middle of that circus would have been sloppy, and Mortis didn’t do sloppy. So, he had let the moment pass, even if the decision still sat in his gut like a bad taste.
Mortis reached for the burner phone in the cup holder. He tapped the screen and hit Talon’s number.
He lifted his binoculars up and watched as Talon looked at his phone and excused himself from the conversation he was having.
The sight actually made him chuckle. The dumbass has no clue that I’m watching him right now.
“Hello,” Talon answered.
“Your hunch was right. Your guy showed up today.”
He watched as Talon looked around him with his phone pressed to his ear. He knew now that I had eyes on him.
“You’re here?”
Mortis laughed. “You know me. I’ve got eyes everywhere.”
Talon ignored Mortis’s comment and focused on the main reason for the call.
“So, it is Calvin?” he asked.
“Yep. Looks to be in rough shape. It was a shame I couldn’t finish him off.”
“Why didn’t you?”
Mortis’s jaw ticked. Was this guy for real? “Because the place is crawling with people. Unless you wanted me to drop him in broad daylight with hundreds of witnesses.”
The silence that followed made Mortis assume that Talon had gotten the message.
“Well, now that you know he’s here, take care of him sooner rather than later,” Talon snapped back.
Mortis let out a soft laugh. “Careful, Talon. You sound like you’re forgetting who is really in the driver's seat here.”
“I hired you.”
“You hired a result,” Mortis said, his voice dropping. “Don’t mistake that for loyalty.”
With those final words, Mortis cut the call.
For a moment, he sat there in the silence, phone in one hand, binoculars in the other.
Mortis couldn’t stand that fucker. The only reason he tolerated his arrogance was that he paid well.
But one of these days, he was going to piss Mortis off to the point that Talon might end up paying for his own life.
Mortis scanned the grounds once more, searching out another individual. Once he found her, he focused his binoculars on her.
Charley Taylor. She was a stunning creature. He watched as she walked into the building with two men and another woman.
“I hope you’re not involved, sweetheart,” he murmured. “You’re too damn pretty to end up in my crosshairs.