Relentless (Option Zero 2)

Liam turned in time to see Drury draw his gun. Sliding the knife from his boot, he threw it, hitting Drury in the shoulder. Drury’s shot went wild, missing Liam’s head by a few inches. Drury grabbed for the knife, and Liam was on him in an instant. The knife wound wouldn’t kill him. The bastard didn’t deserve an easy death. That was too good for him. Rotting away in a prison was the goal.

Pushing him facedown on the ground, he pulled Drury’s hands behind his back and zip-tied them. Leaving him for a minute, he went over to Drury’s still unconscious cohorts and tied them up as well. Both men were coming around, but the glazed look in their eyes told him it’d be a couple of hours before they were all there. By that time, they’d be locked up tight.

Returning to Drury and just for the fun of it, he zip-tied the man’s ankles.

Drury’s body jerked with rage. “You’re not going to win, Stryker. I’ll hunt you down, and when you least expect it, I’ll kill you. Just you wait.”

“Oh, give it a rest, Barney. The only place you’re going is a six-by-six jail cell. You’ll be lucky to see daylight before your hundredth birthday.”

“Stop calling me Barney!”

Feeling generous, Liam said, “You prefer Bernie?”

Roaring, Drury reared up and tried to buck him off. Wasn’t going to work. Leaning over, Liam whispered in his ear, “You’ve killed your last innocent man, asshole.”

“Nobody’s innocent, not even a sanctimonious asshole like you.”

“Maybe not,” Liam said cheerfully, “but at least my name isn’t Barney.”

Before Drury could throw out another insult, Liam heard a shout. “Hey, Stryker. You around here somewhere?”

“Back here!”

When he’d spotted Drury, he’d called Charlie Hudson, a local bounty hunter he’d worked with in the past. The guy was decent, occasionally providing intel to OZ. Liam gladly threw him business when he could. Three different countries had bounties on Drury’s head. Charlie

would get a nice chunk of change, and the world had one less creep running around in it.

A win-win in Liam’s book.

Charlie came around the corner with another man. They made an interesting pair as Charlie was close to seven feet tall and probably weighed twice as much as Liam. The other guy was shorter than average and thin as a whip. They both were holding their Glock 45’s at the ready and had the expressions of junkyard dogs at feeding time.

“Good timing, Hudson.”

“We aim to please. This here’s Trey.” His eyes bloodshot, likely from an all-nighter, Charlie took in the three tied-up men. “Look’s like you made a nice catch.”

“Just make sure they stay caught.”

“No worries on that,” Charlie assured him.

Enjoying himself, Liam watched Charlie haul Drury over his shoulder like a bag of flour. Upside down and furious, his face blood red, the man cocked his head and sneered, “You’ll get yours, Stryker.”

Deciding he’d give the guy a break, Liam didn’t respond.

Drury bounced against Charlie’s broad shoulder as he was carried away. Charlie’s partner rounded up the other two men, who thanks to the hard knocks on their heads, were subdued.

“Might want get them checked out,” Liam called after them.

Charlie lifted a hand in acknowledgment seconds before he rounded the corner and disappeared from view.

Satisfied at the day’s work, Liam picked up his knife, wiped it against his leg and returned it to the sheath.

He spotted his gun lying beneath a dumpster where one of the goons had thrown it when they jumped him. Took a few minutes to fish it out. He wiped it down as best he could. He’d had the SIG since he’d started working for OZ and was a stickler about keeping it in pristine condition.

On the way back to his car, he checked his messages. He’d turned his notifications to silent and hadn’t checked them since he’d texted Aubrey this morning.

Frowning at the display, he was more than a little concerned to see that he had several missed calls, a couple of texts, plus a voice mail from Aubrey. He clicked on the message.

Hey, it’s me. So listen, I’m on a flight to LA. My cousin got fired from her job and needs a shoulder to cry on. Don’t worry about me. That…uh guy…he’s not a threat anymore. He was killed a few hours ago. Sorry, I know this is a weird message, but I don’t know what I can say in a voice mail. You’re going to need to teach me some covert words or something. Anyway, I’ll call you as soon as I can. And…well, I love you, in case you didn’t know it. See you soon.