Page 98 of The Fourth Option
“Fine, fuck you. I’ll get it somewhere else,”Belle said, stuffing the cash back in her jacket pocket and turning to go.
Flat Brim grabbed her arm.
“Don’t rush off,”he said.“Maybe we can hook you up. Then you hook us up.”
Walker flipped the selector from SAFE to FIRE and brought his finger to the trigger.
As he started to exert pressure, his NOD lit up from the headlights of a fast-approaching vehicle that screeched to a halt behind Belle’s BMW, blocking Walker’s view.
He studied it through his night vision. New-model Dodge Charger. Black. The silhouette of a male head in the window. He was wearing a hat and appeared to have short hair. The car had thick tires over plain wheels.
Cops?
Walker tried to look through the Charger’s windows, but the tint prevented it.
If these were cops, then she would not get into trouble if she kept her mouth shut. She had no drugs on her, just money. She wasn’t in possession. Maybe this was a good thing. It would settle matters peacefully.
The man in the undercover police car stepped out, his interior light off. He was tall and thick, dressed in civilian clothes but wearing a black plate carrier with a Velcro badge. Walker could see there was someone else in the car. A partner?
The dealer by the cooler stood up for the first time. Flat Brim made no attempt to hide his gun.
What the fuck is going on here?
He listened to the interchange through Belle’s phone.
“She’s looking for Snowball. Says she’s from the Garden.”
“The Garden, huh? Where?”
“Why the fuck should I tell you, Sasquatch?”
“Because, honey, I’m the law.”
Belle went quiet.
“Let’s figure this out inside,”the cop said. He touched something on his belt.
Must have been a radio, Walker thought, because the other man in the police vehicle got out and approached. He was thinner than his partner but wore the same jeans, shirt, hat, and gun belt along with a plate carrier clearly identifying him as NOPD.
“Let go of me,”Walker heard Belle shout over comms.
Cops. Dealers. Shit.
“Inside,”the cop ordered, marching her up the steps and into the house.
“What the fuck is this!”Walker heard a man yell in his earpiece. The line went dead.
They had found her phone.
Belle screamed.
Walker sprang from the vehicle, weapon up, thumb of his left hand on the IR pressure pad. He moved into the street toward his target.
He would have entered the gate while Cooler was still looking back at the house had it not been for the headlights of a passing car that swerved around the corner. The Honda Accord accelerated away, undoubtedly freaked out by the sight of a man with a rifle in mid-stride closing in on the house they were probably about to approach for a drug buy.
Damn it!
The man by the cooler stood up. He reached behind his back.
