Free Hitmen Triumph by Sigmund Brouwer Page A

asked.
    â€œI don’t want him part of it,” Nate said. “I’m not sure he would want to be part of it either. He’s knows why our Mom and Dad died and who killed them.”
    Good thing my hands weren’t around Nate’s neck. The word
SNAP
came to my mind, I was so angry at him.
    â€œI’m cool with that,” Max said. “Tell him what you need to tell him. Just make sure you don’t get caught. We need to make sure, one way or another, that he’s completely out of this.”
    â€œCompletely,” Nate said. “I’ll take care of it right away.”
    It sounded like a chair’s legs scraping the floor. Was Max standing up?
    â€œThat’s it then, right?” Max said.
    â€œExcept for the money,” Nate said.
    There was a short pause before Max spoke.
    â€œFifteen hundred dollars,” Max said. “A lot of guys wouldn’t do what you’re doing.”
    â€œI’m not a lot of guys,” Nate said.
    No kidding, I thought. Give up yourbrother to a biker gang after bikers were the ones who killed your parents?
    Then silence. Max was leaving.
    I tapped Mercedes’ shoulder.
    â€œThe back door,” I said. “Max came in through the back door. He’ll probably leave through the back door. Let’s follow him!”
    She started the Volkswagen and moved it closer to the back. Sure enough, a big guy in jeans and a leather coat came out. He had long black hair and a beard. He walked straight to a green pickup truck.
    â€œI don’t think he saw us,” Mercedes said.
    I gave her a thumbs-up, and we began to follow.
    She did a great job. Judging by the way he drove, it seemed like he had no idea we were following.
    Five minutes later, he stopped, parked and got out of his green truck.
    At the last place I would have guessed.
    A police station.

chapter twenty-two
    We parked down the street from the police station.
    â€œNow what?” I saw Mercedes say.
    I shrugged. My cell phone rang. Actually it vibrated.
    I looked at the number. It was Nate.
    I held the phone over my processor, not against my ear.
    â€œWe need to meet!” Nate said.
    â€œNeed to meet,” I repeated. “Where?”
    He named the pizza place we had left only five minutes earlier. But I wanted to make sure he had no idea that I knew where he was.
    â€œYou’re cutting out,” I said into the phone. “Bad signal. Text me, okay?”
    I hung up. Thirty seconds later, another short vibration of my cell phone. His text message was simple:
Meet me at Pizza Palace right away
.
    I explained everything to Mercedes.
    â€œNot much use spying on a police station,” she said.
    â€œI wrote down the license plate number to the truck,” I said. “Just in case that helps.”
    She nodded and drove back toward the pizza place.
    Just as we made it to the parking lot, I saw Nate. He was standing in the doorway with the two big bikers who had put me on the train tracks, Tattoo Biker and Bent Nose Biker.
    What had Max said to Nate barely ten minutes ago?
Tell him what you need to tell him. Just make sure you don’t get caught. We
need to make sure, one way or another, that he’s completely out of this.
    And what had Nate replied? Completely. I’ll take care of it right away.
    Sure, he’d taken care of it right away. In about as much time as it took to call in the bikers and as much time as it took to call and set me up.
    Mercedes pointed. She saw the bikers too.
    â€œKeep driving,” I said. Had she guessed what I had guessed?
    â€œI hate him,” I said to Mercedes.
    â€œHe asked you to meet him so that the bikers could really take care of you,” she said. So she had guessed.
    â€œSlow down,” I said. “Don’t get out of range of my FM.”
    There were plenty of vehicles on the street. She zipped in and parked ahead of a truck that hid us from the pizza place.
    That’s when we heard