Free The Buried by Brett Battles Page A

episode multiple times so he kept going.
    Bones reruns. Okay, he could get into that. That girl was seriously smart but whacked, man. And that Angela chick was hot.
    One of the doctors was pulling a skeleton out of a barrel of congealed crude when Ricky’s phone vibrated twice on the glass coffee table. A text.
    He waited until a commercial and then reached for the phone, but before he even got his hand on it, a second text came in.
    Someone’s anxious , he thought.
    He was wrong. The two texts had been sent by two different numbers. The first was from a regular client based in Washington, DC, and read:
     
Assignment: find and obtain
Last known loc.: Seattle, WA
Usual fee plus bonus if completed within 24 hrs.
Details upon acceptance
     
    As he read the second text, he let out a surprised “huh.”
    It was from a client in Moscow he’d done a couple jobs for the previous year. The weird thing was, the Russians wanted to hire him for what appeared to be the exact same job as the DC client’s. But the Russians were offering double fee plus bonus.
    Well, this is a first , he thought. If there was a way to accept both, that would be awesome.
    He spent a few minutes considering the possibility, but in the end, he knew he’d have to give the package to someone, meaning one of the clients would not be happy. That could turn ugly.
    He had nothing currently booked so it wasn’t a question of whether he would take the job or not, just who he would take it from. While the second was offering more cash, number one had been a much more reliable employer.
    Wanting to see if his first choice would come around to more agreeable terms, he sent a reply:
     
Double fee, w/bonus up to 48 hours
and I’m yours.
     
    The answer came back within seconds.
     
Done.
     
    Ricky smiled. After he sent his regrets to the Russians, he pushed off the couch and looked toward his bed on the other side of the loft.
    “Babe, you gotta get out of here. I got things to do.”
    The woman, lying naked on top of the sheets, barely moved.
    He tried to remember her name but it wasn’t coming to him. Hell, he couldn’t even remember what her face looked like, but knew she was a looker. Even as drunk as he’d been, he wouldn’t have brought her up otherwise.
    He walked over to the bed and slapped her ass. “Honey, snap to it. The hunter’s been activated. Time for you to go.”
    He laughed as he headed into the bathroom to take a shower. That was a good one. He’d have to remember that.
    “The hunter’s been activated. Time for you to go,” he whispered at the mirror and laughed again.

CHAPTER 11
     
    TACOMA
     
     
    W HILE QUINN WOULD have liked to leave the Seattle area immediately, he knew if they didn’t first get a handle on their situation, they could run themselves right into trouble.
    The logical place to start was with Danielle.
    He stationed Nate in the hallway in case she tried to run, and then unlocked her door.
    She looked at him as he walked in, disappointed. “I thought maybe you were bringing me something to eat. At least Mr. Black fed us.”
    “When we eat, you eat. I promise.” He stopped a few feet from the bed. “I’m hoping you can help us.”
    “Oh, really. In what way?” she asked, her tone dismissive.
     “This doesn’t need to be a confrontation.”
    “Whatever you say.”
    “Look, we don’t want to be here any more than you do. We were supposed to be done last night after we dealt with your Mr. Black. Rescuing anyone was not part of the plan.”
    “You didn’t rescue anyone. You’re holding me, and you left the others behind.”
    “The police were at the house within twenty minutes after we left. Your cellmates are being cared for in a hospital right now.”
    “Why should I believe you?”
    “You don’t have to,” he said. “Follow me.”
    He walked into the hallway and waited.
    A few seconds passed before Danielle stepped through the doorway. “Is this another trick?”
    “No trick,” Quinn said.