Free Edge of the Heat 5 by Lisa Ladew Page B

and watchful gun-clerk eyes each time. She didn’t want to be remembered in case anything went sour with Manny and some too-smart cop sniffed around where he didn’t belong. She didn’t expect anything to go wrong with Manny though. He looked 100% soft and used to only dealing with women who didn’t fight back. He would be easy, especially if she played her cards right.
    Done with the gun shops, she laid everything out on the seat next to her. The sun was setting outside and she wanted to go over her plan one more time. She was parked inside a large parking garage, on the 4th floor. Her car’s a/c kept her cool while she inventoried what she had.
    2 boot knives with sheaths. Her small Ruger pistol with laser - the perfect concealed carry for a woman. A holster for it that would clip to her bra. 6 extra magazines for the Ruger, giving her a total of 43 easy access .380 rounds. A belt holster for the magazines. And her bag with her high-tech cell-phone sniffer and her no-tech drugs. She felt ready for anything. Well, maybe not anything, but certainly anything that a small-time pimp like Manny was likely to dish out. She’d seen his operation. It was barely an operation. Of course the women he was terrorizing might feel differently, she knew.
    As she filled her magazines and put her holsters on, she felt a pang of some emotion in her chest she couldn’t identify. She pushed it away. Emotion wasn’t part of this job. Emotion got people killed.
    Sara pulled out onto the street. She needed to make one stop to get Manny’s cell phone number and drop some things off to Jessica, and then she would get a few hours of sleep. Enough that she would be sharp. Even if it was a small-time, low risk hit, she was determined to be at her best.

Chapter 10
    J erry’s eyes flew open at exactly 5:59 a.m. He swung his feet onto the floor and strode into the bathroom. Today would be a grab breakfast on the go kind of day. He had a lot to do.
    By 6:45 he was on the road. His first stop was the Eller’s Mansion where the wedding reception had been held two night ago. Two whole nights ago - the thought made him sick. If Sara had been taken somewhere by someone (he wouldn’t quite let his mind say kidnapped) anything could have happened in 2 nights. (He wouldn’t quite let his mind say raped and murdered either, although those were the two words that tried to surface most often in the darkest parts of his brain.)
    If Jerry were to be completely honest with himself, this wasn’t the first time he’d struggled with thoughts like these. When his mom didn’t come home from work that one night, so many years ago, the first thing he had done was call the restaurant that she’d waitressed at. She’d been due home at midnight, and Jerry and his dad had fallen asleep. When he woke up in the middle of the night and she still wasn’t there he made the call. When the hostess had found out what he was calling about, her voice took on a guarded quality right away. Jerry was only 16, but even he could recognize it. She knew something. Something that Jerry wasn’t going to like. But all she’d said was “your mom left when her shift ended.”
    Jerry hadn’t known what to do. Should he call the police? When Jerry asked if he should call the police Darren Mansko had simply shrugged his shoulders.
    Jerry did call. The young, male cop who showed up looked and sounded bored, as if he’d taken hundreds of calls just like this before and they all turned out to be nothing. Jerry had felt increasingly nervous with each question the officer asked. But he wasn’t sure why. Maybe it was because the cop addressed each question to his dad, then seemed irritated when Jerry answered it. (Luckily his dad had given an approving nod every time Jerry had spoken.) Or maybe he’d already started to have an idea what his mom might have done.
    The cop showed back up at 6:30 and told them there was an APB out for Cassie Mansko, but they shouldn’t expect too much from