Kingston Kidnappings (What Happens In Vegas Book 3) by Matt Lincoln (great book club books .txt) 📗

point to see everyone who came and left. “Considering it’s the middle of Carnival. I’m sure every single room is booked. He probably deliberately chose this weekend to conduct whatever business it is he had here. He knew it would be much easier to blend into the crowd.”

“How should we proceed, then?” Tucker asked as his eyes scanned over the crowd.

I crossed my arms over my chest as I thought. We could just head straight to the room. Doing so might put the surrounding civilians in danger, though. We also couldn’t discount the possibility that Davis was already expecting us and might have set a trap.

“... agents shud bi yah at any moment. Wi can use har as leverage.” I froze as my ears caught a thread of conversation. The words might have just blended into the rest of the background noise around me had it not been for the term ‘agent’ and the fact that the speaker had spoken in a dialect of Patois that wasn’t common here. I turned wildly, trying to identify the source.

“What’s wrong?” Charlie asked.

“I heard something,” I hissed, trying to isolate the surrounding noise into individual voices.

“There,” I snapped my head toward a man slowly walking through the doors and onto the street outside of the hotel. “He said something about agents, and I think something about leverage?”

“You think that’s Davis?” Charlie asked.

“I don’t know,” I answered. “But I have a bad feeling. We should at least talk to him.”

We left the hotel made our way down the sidewalk after the man. When we were just a few feet behind, Tucker took off at a jog to circle around and cut him off.

“Excuse me,” he called as he sauntered up to the man. “Can I speak with you for a moment?” I couldn’t hear what the man said in response, but he suddenly turned around. His eyes widened with shock as he saw us approaching.

I knew immediately that something was wrong when the man made eye contact with me before reaching behind his back.

“Watch it!” Charlie yelled, but I was already reaching for my gun. Before I could raise it, however, the man whipped his arm from his behind his back. I dove to the side as I caught the glint of a pistol. The man fired, and I heard the blast of a gunshot followed by a loud, metallic clang as the bullet struck the back of a car parked by the side of the road. I raised my gun but couldn’t get a clear shot. There were so many people around that if I missed, I might easily hit someone else. Tucker didn’t appear to share my qualms, as the next moment, he raised his firearm and shot at the man.

Unfortunately, the bullet missed him and struck the leg of a bystander instead. It seemed that the crowd hadn’t heard the two gunshots, or at the very least, had brushed them off as some part of the festival. Several people did notice the man who was now bleeding out on the ground, though, and a second later, the once joyful atmosphere turned frantic as people began to panic and ran in every direction.

The suspect smirked at me as he turned and slipped into the crowd. I swore under my breath and gave chase, physically shoving people out of my way as I went. I needed to come up with a plan. I couldn’t shoot into the crowd, but without my gun, I wasn’t sure how else I could get him to stop.

He was heading toward the parade, where the crowd was the thickest. A group of female dancers screeched as he barrelled into them in his attempt to break through. The suspect lost his footing and fell to the ground, and I pounced on top of him. If I could just get his hands cuffed behind his back, I could hold him down until Charlie or Tucker came to assist me.

I managed to force one arm behind his back, but before I could get a good grip on the other, the suspect flipped himself over, throwing me off in the process. I scrambled to stand up, but before I could find my footing, I felt a sharp pain explode across my face as the suspect punched me. I brought my arm up to block his next blow before twisting around to punch him in the ribs. He swung at me again, but I dodged and reared back to kick him. Unfortunately, my balance was off, and my kick didn’t land.

The man lifted his fist as if to hit me again but suddenly turned and took off instead. The paraders had moved away as we fought, unintentionally clearing a path for him. I took off after him, but just a moment after I did, I saw Charlie tackle the man to the ground in front of me. I wasted no time in running up to them. I knelt to the ground to help Charlie place him into a set of handcuffs, then allowed myself a moment to regain my breath once he was secure.

“Where did you come from?” I asked through huffs of breath.

“I saw you both heading toward the parade,” Charlie replied. “I ran around to cut him off. Probably wouldn’t have made it if you hadn’t stalled him with that fight.”

“I wish you’d gotten here before he broke my nose,” I griped, reaching up to inspect the damage. I wasn’t actually sure if it was broken, but it certainly hurt, and I could feel that it was beginning to swell already.

“You’re bleeding pretty badly,” Charlie commented as we hauled the suspect onto his feet. He wasn’t struggling, which was a bit surprising after the chase he’d led us on. In fact, he was smirking maliciously.

“I’ll be fine,” I brushed him off, though it was getting hard to breathe through my nostrils. “Let’s just get this scum to the police station so I can get some medical attention.”

We dragged the suspect back