Free Deadly Intent: An Action Thriller (Adrian Hell Series Book 4) by James P. Sumner

holding his phone to Josh. “This is bullshit,” he says, interrupting. “He should just do as he’s goddamn told! Show him the photo already.”
    We both look at him.
    “Ryan, shut the fuck up, will you?” says Josh.
    I love it when he loses his temper and curses—his accent is perfect for it!
    “Ignore him,” he says to me.
    “What photo?” I ask.
    “Adrian, forget it.”
    “What photo, Josh?”
    Schultz sighs and thrusts his phone in my face. There’s a picture displayed on the screen. I move back slightly and grab hold of it, examining the image.
    Josh mutters under his breath. “It’s nothing, Adrian, honestly. You’ve got your life here now, and I don’t want you involved. It’s not fair.”
    I don’t acknowledge him. I’m too busy looking at the image. It’s a file photo, black and white, showing a man and woman talking. Judging by the background, it looks like somewhere in the Middle East. I don’t recognize the man. But the woman is very familiar.
    “Josh…” I say, looking up from the phone and staring him straight in the eye. “Is this…?”
    He lets out a heavy sigh and nods. “Yup… that is Clara Fox.”

10.
     
     
     
     
    10:44 CDT
    I wasn’t aware of anything around me. Like the world had shrunk, reducing my existence to nothing except this image on Schultz’s phone.
    Clara Fox.
    I fucking knew she was still alive!
    I look at Josh, angry. “And when did you plan on mentioning this?” I ask him.
    “Honestly?” he replies. “I wasn’t going to. Not after you said you wanted no part of whatever’s going on here. I respected the fact you’ve moved on and was gonna leave you in blissful ignorance.”
    We both know my anger isn’t justified, and I calm down as quickly as I got fired up.
    Tori appears next to me. “What’s going on?” she asks. “Is everything okay?”
    Josh and I look at each other. He knows instantly that I’ve told Tori nothing about my old life, and he discreetly nods to me.
    “Is this to do with what’s been happening here?” she asks.
    “Yeah,” I reply. “Josh here works for a defense contractor who’s investigating the organization that’s been sending people after me. There’s, ah… evidence to suggest a link to an old mission we worked together, back when I was in the military. He’s asking for my help to sort it out.”
    I feel awful lying to her, but it’s for her own good. After everything that’s happened here, the last thing she needs is to find out her boyfriend’s the world’s greatest hitman, trying to retire.
    To her credit, she doesn’t even hesitate.
    “You’ve gotta help them, Ady. It’s the only way to make sure we’re left alone, isn’t it?”
    “I’m not leaving you. These guys are professionals—I’m sure they can handle things without me.”
    She shakes her head. “Ady, I know you. If you let them go without you, you’ll walk round here, restless, wishing you’d gone with them. There’s nothing to do here that I can’t do myself. You won’t trust anyone else to stop this, either, so quit worrying about me and go be my action hero.”
    She smiles and hugs my arm. I look at Josh and raise an eyebrow.
    “Wow, she really does know you!” he laughs. He puts a hand on her shoulder. “Tori, this man is like a brother to me, and I can confidently say, hand on heart, that I have never seen him this happy. That makes me happy, and I thank you for that. And you’re right, you know him almost as well as I do, by the sounds of it.” He turns to me, taking the phone off me and handing it back to Schultz without looking. “And you… you should listen to your better half here. We need you on this. Neither of us trusts anyone other than you to fix it, and we both know it.”
    I turn and walk over to the refrigerator, open the door, take out four beers, and place them on the counter. Opening the drawer underneath, I use a bottle opener on them, and then carry them over, two bottles in each hand, to the rest