Page 85 of Steel Vengeance

Blade and Stitch strode to the taxi rank and got into a waiting cab. As they closed the doors, they saw armed police storm up the steps to the hotel.

Blade gave the taxi driver the name of their street and the zone it was in, purposely not mentioning the hotel. Not that it mattered. In less than an hour, they’d be on the road.

“That didn’t go according to plan,” Stitch said, glancing at Blade.

His buddy grimaced. “Couldn’t be helped. Did you get the recording?”

“Yep.” He patted his pocket.

The cab merged into traffic.

They both knew Blade’s shot had been the kill shot. Stitch’s gut wound might’ve done the job eventually, but it wouldn’t have been as clean or painless. “He was lying about being at the village attack.”

Blade nodded. “I know.”

One name crossed off his list, Stitch thought grimly, as they headed back to the hotel.

Taking a life was never something he did lightly, even if the guy was a scumbag like Jeremy. The man had blood on his hands, though, and that made him feel better about what had happened. He’d ordered the hit on Sloane, probably even had a hand in the slaughter that took out Soraya and the elders. Not to mention his role in Ghost Company.

Stitch wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it.

“You know,” Blade said, “there’s no reason why Sloane can’t come with us to Karachi.”

Stitch shot him a glance. “There’s no reason she can’t stay here. We’ve neutralized the threat.”

“Yeah, but if the Feds take down Matthew Sullivan, Sloane can go home. We can fly out of Karachi instead of coming all the way back. Hell of a drive, buddy, and honestly, I’m not sure I want to do it twice.”

Stitch thought about it. Blade wasn’t wrong. Sixteen hours of driving was a massive waste of time.

“I don’t know. She’s not going to like what we’re going to do.”

“So don’t tell her.”

“It’s not that simple.”

“Because she reads people?” Blade shot a look at him.

“Yeah. It’s almost impossible to keep anything from her. She’s too intuitive.”

“And you’re afraid she’ll talk you out of it?”

“I’m not afraid of anything,” he growled, making Blade grin. “It just complicates matters, that’s all.”

There was a brief pause.

“Sullivan is going to know she had help,” Blade pointed out. “There’s no way he’s going to believe she walked in there and shot Jeremy. Twice. With two different caliber bullets.”

Stitch sighed. “Okay, I get your point. She’s still not safe. We’ll take her with us.”

“The shipment leaves in less than twenty-four hours,” Blade said.

Stitch tensed his jaw. “We’d better move out then.”

CHAPTER 32

“He’s dead?” Sloane stared at them in disbelief. “But how? I thought you were going to get him arrested.” They were in a rented SUV, heading out of the city on the Lahore-Islamabad freeway. Sloane sat next to Stitch, who was driving, while Blade lounged in the back.

“That was the plan,” Stitch said, eyes fixed on the road.