Recalled (Death Escorts #1)(14)
Author: Cambria Hebert

Chapter Eleven

“Reconnaissance – the process of obtaining information about the position, activities, resources, etc., of an enemy or potential enemy.”

Dex

My recon mission didn’t really go the way I planned. I couldn’t call it a complete failure because I found out where she lived, but I wouldn’t call it a success either. I acted so weird she probably wanted nothing more to do with me, and then I started feeling sick. My being sick probably had nothing at all to do with her (and everything to do with that nasty BLT), but I couldn’t really shake the knowledge that as soon as I put some miles between us, I started to feel better.

Maybe the idea of killing her in such close proximity made me nervous. I’d never been the nervous type before. I mean, living on the streets really wasn’t a peaceful place, so me getting nervous to the point of feeling sick around one girl seemed dumb.

Still, I wanted to go back to my decision to not get close to her. To just kill her and be done with it.

So I bought a gun.

Not a big one, nothing that would draw too much attention, but enough that it would get the job done. I stared at it now, taking in the black metal and every detail from the trigger to the tip of the barrel. I never had a gun before. All my years on the streets, I avoided guns because the fact was if you carried one around, it usually got used against you. That or someone was always a quicker draw.

I used to carry a knife for the times violence was unavoidable. But I didn’t want to get close enough to use a knife on this Target. Of course, I really wasn’t all that excited to use the gun either, but hey, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.

She was a college student; that much I heard during my recon mission. Someone asked her about her classes and she gave a fairly generic answer. I had no idea what she studied. I really didn’t care. I figured she probably took most of her classes by day, then worked early in the morning or at night. There was one college here in Fairbanks so finding her shouldn’t be a problem.

I glanced at the clock. Not quite lunchtime. I took the gun and slid it into the waistband of my jeans. Then I pulled on my coat and shoes. I was going on a field trip.

Chapter Twelve

“Stalker – someone who prowls or sneaks about; usually with unlawful intentions.”

Piper

Morning classes seemed to drag by, like this entire week. I just wanted to get to Wednesday. I wanted to know what Frankie would find out about the guy from the diner. If she got his address, maybe I’d just go to his house and knock on his door. Part of me really wanted to. But part of me thought I was insane. I shouldn’t care so much about this one guy.

But I did.

I couldn’t get him out of my mind. Whenever I went to sleep, my dreams were filled with his face and then the dream would change and I’d be staring at the man who died. As much as the guy in the diner filled my thoughts, the one who died was there more. There was something about him that pulled at my insides—a part of me that wanted to know him. And now I never would.

“Girl, what’s with that long face?”

I looked up to see Frankie coming toward me. She was hard to miss in that red coat, and today she was wearing a pair of black knee-high boots and a black and white scarf full of butterflies.

“Frankie. What are you doing here? I thought you were allergic to college.” I teased.

“I’m breaking out in a rash as we speak. Hurry, let’s go to the food court so I can get some sugar to counteract all the…”—she made a face—“learning that goes on here.”

“That’s where I was heading. I don’t have another class for an hour.”

“Yes. I know. BFF here, remember? I know your schedule,” she said, exasperated.

I smiled. “Well, shouldn’t you be at work?”

“I took a lunch break.” She shrugged.

“Is everything okay?” I asked. She never came to see me at school.

“Of course,” she said, then leaned in close. “I got the info you wanted early.”

Excitement tingled along my fingers. “How did you manage that? I thought you had to wait until your supervisor wasn’t there.”

“I like a challenge.” She smiled slyly.

I grinned and shifted the weight of the books in my arms. “Well, tell me!” I demanded.

“Girl you’re going to collapse under those books. Come on. I parked right over there.” She pointed to the parking lot. “You can put these in there until after we eat.” She grabbed a couple books off my stack and headed toward the car. “You must really want to be a doctor, putting up with all these books.”

“You know I want to help people,”

“I help people all the time. You should’ve seen this woman today that came in for her license renew. She was blind in one eye and only had half the vision in her other eye! I have no clue how she even got a license in the first place. I refused to renew it. You know how many lives I saved by keeping her off the road?”

I snickered as she unlocked the passenger door of her Jeep Wrangler and threw in my books. After I added the rest to the pile, she slammed the door and we began walking. A strange feeling crept its way up the back of my neck and I turned back, looking over my shoulder at the parking lot. I didn’t see anything other than students heading to and from campus.

“What’s wrong?” Frankie asked.

“Nothing. I just got this weird feeling,”

Frankie looked over her shoulder too and saw exactly what I saw: nothing.

“You need sugar,” she said, pulling me along.

“So what did you find out?” I asked, trying to ignore the prickly feeling I couldn’t seem to shake. It felt like someone was drilling a hole into my back with their watchful eyes.

“Crap!” I said suddenly, stopping midstride. “I think I dumped my money in your car with my books.” I turned to face back toward the parking lot and I swear I saw a dark shape almost glide behind a nearby building. My eyes narrowed on the spot, waiting for more movement, but none came.

“Are you sure?” Frankie asked.

I shook my head and stuck my fingers into my coat pocket. The little pouch I used to carry my money was there. “Oh, never mind, it’s here,”

We started walking again. “Frank,” I whispered quickly. “Six o’clock and a little to my left. Is someone following us?”

Frankie laughed like I said something funny and threw her head back and to the side. I saw her eyes darting around. “I don’t see anyone but a couple of students walking around.”