She handed the photograph back. “I’m sorry,” she said, keeping her expression calm. “He doesn’t look familiar. But I’ll keep an eye out.”
Colonel Reed took the photo, but his gaze lingered on her a fraction too long, like he was trying to decide whether he believed her. For a second, she thought he might push. Instead, he nodded slowly and offered a brief smile.
“Thank you.” He reached into his pocket again and handed her a business card. “If you do happen to see him, or if anything comes to mind, contact me. Or let him know that I was looking for him.”
Charley accepted the card. “Of course.”
The colonel gave a small parting motion toward Pierce and Ray, then turned and walked away without another word.
The second he disappeared back into the crowd, Charley opened her mouth to say something, but Pierce beat her to it.
“Not here,” he said quietly, his eyes on hers. “Let’s talk inside your office.”
Ray nodded once in agreement.
Charley’s fingers tightened around the business card as she looked between them, a fresh ripple of unease moving through her.
Did they find something out?
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?”
