Hearts and Aces (Kelsey's Burden Series Book 7) by Kaylie Hunter (great books for teens txt) 📗

Reggie and Blake got out of their rental. As they started walking forward, Trigger stepped out from behind the SUV and shot a dart into Blake’s leg. Reggie’s eyes got large before he turned to run in the other direction. Trigger nailed him with a dart in the ass. Both men dropped to the ground.

“I can’t believe that shit just happened,” Casey said, laughing. “Now what?”

“Handcuff them in the backseat of one of the SUVs and get the keys for the rental.”

As Trigger walked toward Reggie, he turned toward Casey with a huge smile on his face. This was the crazy shit I hired him to do. In Trigger’s cam we watched Casey shake his head and laugh.

I picked up the remote and hit mute. “Tech? Do we have anything else on Milo? Any special training? Hunting skills?”

“Nothing we know of. Kemp’s been sending everything he can find, but so far everything’s come back odd but non-threatening. Milo only has twenty Facebook friends, most of which are family members, and his profile picture shows him fishing.”

“Current employment?”

“Last paycheck was from a temp agency. Not sure if he’s working today or not.”

“Give me the number,” Wayne said. “I’ll call on my burner phone and ask if he’s available to work today?”

Tech wrote the number down, and Wayne stepped out of the room. I unmuted the phone as Casey and Trigger finished loading Reggie and Blake in the back of the rental.

“Make sure Blake doesn’t have handcuff keys on him. Reggie doesn’t think that far ahead, but Blake might.”

A minute later Trigger held a handcuff key in front of his body cam. “He had it taped to the inside of his belt.”

After they closed the back door, Casey asked, “What now, base?”

Wayne stepped back into the war room and shook his head. He didn’t have a location on Milo.

“You have a green light to proceed. Be aware, we do not know the location of the mark. He could be on the property. We also have no knowledge if he has dogs or guns.”

“Do we know anything, base?” Casey asked, looking at Trigger’s body camera.

“Kelsey,” Trigger said before I could answer Casey. “What do you want to happen if we run into this guy?”

“I’d say it’s fifty-fifty at this point that he’s our guy so don’t kill him. Secure him. Don’t tranq him unless you have to. We’ll want to ask him a few questions. I’m having Tech send his DMV photo to your phones. He’s five foot eight inches, weighs three hundred and forty pounds, but it’s mostly fat from what I can tell. As long as he doesn’t shoot you or sit on you, you should be safe.”

“Is this the norm when working these investigations?” Casey asked Trigger as they moved into the woods.

“Yup,” Trigger said. “We go off script a lot. The only rule is that you do whatever the fuck Kelsey says, which could be just about anything.”

“Lucky bastard,” Casey mumbled before starting a slow jog to the south.

Chapter Seven

Ten minutes later, the trailer came into view on the body cams. They split up, circling the trailer in a wide radius.

“Hold your position,” I ordered before muting the phone. “Tech, zoom in on Trigger’s camera.”

Tech zoomed in on what appeared to be a storm shelter, half concealed under trash bags on the back side of the trailer.

I nodded to Tech to return to normal view as I unmuted the conference phone. “Okay. You can continue.”

Wayne leaned over and muted the phone again. “What was that?”

“Could be nothing,” I said, shaking my head. The chill zipping down my back told me otherwise, though. I glanced at Tech who was watching me. I shook my head again before concentrating on the cameras.

“Perimeter is clear. Orders, base?” Casey asked.

I unmuted the speaker. “Proceed to the trailer. Two-man entry from the front. Be careful.”

“Windows on the trailer are blacked out,” Trigger whispered as they approached the front.

“There are a lot of reasons people black out windows.” What I didn’t say was that all the reasons I could think of were nefarious. Better to keep that to myself. “Stay focused, Trig.”

Trigger moved up the porch steps to the left side, his hand on the door handle. Casey crouched toward the right of the door and nodded to Trigger when he was ready. Casey swept in first with Trigger following close behind him. Within five steps inside, they confirmed the trailer was empty.

“Trigger, close the door and stand ready in case our guy comes home. Casey, move to the front of the trailer and walk slowly toward the back so I can get a good view.”

Casey moved to the front window, unclipping his body cam to hold it in the air and slowly scan the front section which consisted of a small couch under the window. The couch was old, but a tear along the arm had been neatly stitched. Turning, Casey walked a few steps, sweeping the camera from side to side. The trailer was at least four decades old, needing new flooring and cabinets, but appeared to be kept in spotless condition.

I shook my hands, my palms sweating. “Open a few cupboards and the fridge, Red Dog.”

In the cabinets, the dishes were perfectly aligned. The canned food all faced with their labels forward in neat rows. The ancient avocado green refrigerator was bright white inside, filled with fresh food. Casey moved to the closet-sized bathroom, then to the curtained bedroom space at the far end of the trailer.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” I whispered, feeling my stomach lurch as Casey swept the camera around the bedroom.

“What is it?” Casey asked.

On Trigger’s cam we saw a flash of sunlight as the back door of the trailer opened. Trigger’s body had been turned