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  “Well, not quite. I’m taking a little leave of absence.”

  Malloy’s face looked like he was floored. “You’re getting out?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t think so. I’m just… taking a break.”

  “For how long?”

  “I’m not sure yet. At least a month or two. Maybe more. I dunno. We’ll see how it goes.”

  “Going away?”

  “Hawaii.”

  “Nice. Taking the missus?”

  “Wouldn’t be much of a vacation without her?”

  Malloy smiled. “I agree there. What brought all this on? Just getting tired?”

  “Something like that.”

  “I guess it’ll happen to all of us at one time or another.”

  “Maybe.”

  “What’s up with this new guy?”

  “Don’t know. Never met him. Today’s apparently his first day.”

  “What’s he like?”

  “Couldn’t honestly tell you. Like I said, never met him. I’ve read his file. He’s highly qualified. But is he warm and fuzzy like me? Guess we’ll both have to wait and see.”

  “Ex-government?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Seems to be the type for you guys.”

  Recker smiled. “Just seems to work out that way, I guess.”

  Haley drove around to the back of the facility, easily finding the northeast corner. Just as Malloy said, there were two tall trees in front of the fence. Haley and Phillips got out of their car and looked around to make sure none of Jerrick’s men were waiting there in surprise. They walked around the trees and knelt down by the fence.

  “Get ready for anything,” Haley said.

  “How will I know who’s who?”

  “Right now it’s pretty easy. You see someone with a gun, you shoot them. Our guys are on the second floor. Anyone else, assume they’re bad.”

  “Makes it easy.”

  Within twenty seconds, Haley popped the metal covering off the small entrance through the wired fence. Haley climbed through the opening first, followed by Phillips. It was a tight squeeze, but both were able to get through without a problem. After getting through the fence, they knelt down for a few seconds to analyze their surroundings and make sure no one was around.

  Haley then pointed to his right. “That way.”

  They stayed low to the ground as they ran for the nearest building, which was some type of shed or storage building. It wasn’t large, but big enough for both of them to comfortably hide behind. With the coast clear, they kept on moving, quickly finding the next building. The entire complex was a fairly large area, with multiple buildings in every corner of it. It would take a few minutes for them to find the building they were looking for.

  “Malloy said the building they were in had a blue-ish roof. You see anything?”

  Phillips looked around. “Nothing yet.”

  “It’s gotta be over that way.”

  They kept moving, going from building to building. Considering they hadn’t yet encountered any resistance, or took on any gunfire, they assumed they weren’t that close yet. They also didn’t see anyone hovering around or nearby any buildings. They assumed they would know when they found it, with or without the blue roof.

  It took a few more minutes, but they eventually got their eyes on a building with a light-blue roof. There were a bunch of cars in front of it, though the men with guns standing directly outside the door were pretty much a dead giveaway that they found the spot.

  “Looks like that’s it,” Haley said.

  “How you wanna do this?”

  Haley looked around. He was already aware of the sniper initially in the area, but considering they hadn’t been shot at on the way in, assumed that he was long gone by now. None of the men with guns near the blue building appeared to be concerning themselves with anything else other than going in and out of the building. There didn’t appear to be any lookouts. It probably had something to do with the men they had blocking the front entrance. They stood there and watched for a few seconds, trying to get a feel for what was happening. Haley formulated his plan.

  “Look. They keep going in and out of the building. But when they go in, they only leave one guy on the outside near that one car. You see it?”

  “Yeah,” Phillips replied.

  “I’ll start running for those cars. You stay here and keep eyes on him. If he spots me, you light him up.”

  “Why not just take him out now?”

  “Because if we miss and he fires back, they’ll know we’re here, and it’s gonna be harder getting there. If I can sneak up on him first and get there before anyone knows what’s going on, we can get the upper hand.”

  “What about me?”

  “Once that guy’s down and I secure that spot, I’ll keep you covered until you get there. Then we’ll have those guys trapped between us and Mike.”

  Phillips nodded. Haley was putting a lot of trust in a guy that he didn’t know. But Phillips’ file indicated that he was a first-class shot. He had to assume that if it came down to it, that Phillips wouldn’t miss. The man by the car was pacing around a little, so Haley waited until the guy turned his back to him. As soon as he did, Haley took off running. It wasn’t a close distance, looking like it was about thirty or forty yards away. Haley assumed the man would either hear him coming or just turn around naturally before he got there. He was right. Haley only got about halfway there before the man turned around. As soon as he did, though, blood squirted up out of his chest as the bullet penetrated through him and he dropped to his knees, then fell face first. Haley never broke stride, getting to the back of the cars a few seconds later. Once there, he looked at the building to see if anyone was coming out. Since no one was, he looked back to Phillips’ position and waved for him to join him.

  Phillips immediately started running for Haley’s spot. He’d only gotten about ten yards, though, before someone came out of the building and saw him. The man instantly raised his weapon to try to shoot at him. Haley jumped up from behind the car and dropped the man immediately with two shots to the chest. That allowed Phillips more time to get there, though it wasn’t unimpeded. Upon hearing all the commotion outside, a few more men came near the door and started firing out there. Luckily, Phillips was able to dodge the incoming bullets for a few seconds until he safely got behind the cars.

  “That worked out well,” Phillips said.

  “Hope it keeps up.”

  For the next several minutes, the two sides exchanged fire, though nobody seemed to get the upper hand, and nobody got hit. But it took the pressure off of Recker and Malloy, and now put it on Jerrick’s men. Now they were the ones trapped between the two sides.

  “Looks like the attention’s off us,” Malloy said.

  “Yeah, maybe we can put the screws to them now,” Recker replied. “Focus is off us.”

  “Head down?”

  “Just keep your guard up in case they’re splitting their concentration between us.”

  “Ain’t gotta worry about me letting my guard down.”

  “Unless you wanna try and talk them into giving themselves up first. I mean, they did give us that courtesy.”

  “Screw them,” Malloy said. “I’m not taking prisoners. These guys can go to hell.”

  Recker nodded. “And they will.”

  Recker and Malloy slowly and quietly started descending the steps. As they got about halfway down, they saw one of the men enter the picture, though he was walking from one side of the room to the other, and not really giving anyone on the second floor attention. That turned into a fatal mistake as Recker and Malloy mowed him down at the same time. With gunfire blasting in the background, the first floor turned into a chaotic scene, with bullets flying, men screaming, and men dying. One by one, Jerrick’s men were eliminated by Haley and Phillips outside.

  Once Recker and Malloy got down to the final step leading to the first floor, they quickly identified their targets. Two were by the front door an
d one was by the window. That’s all that was left at this point. As Recker took aim at one of the men by the door, Malloy fired off a round at the back of the man’s head by the window. He nailed the shot, and the man dropped instantly. Recker fired several rounds at the first man by the door, then quickly shifted his aim to the man beside him, who turned around once he heard the gun fire behind him and as he saw the man next to him fall. As the man turned, his finger pulled on the trigger, though his body was already falling backwards from the two bullets Recker put into him. His shots went wildly into the ceiling as he eventually fell onto his back.

  Though they saw no one else immediately, Recker and Malloy kept their guard up and swept through the room. Malloy went over to the back door to make sure there was no one hiding out that way.

  With the gunfire temporarily stopped inside, Haley and Phillips waited outside to be told the coast was clear. They could still hear gunfire in the distance though, sounding like it was coming from the front gate area. A few seconds later, they were surprised to see a bunch of men coming at them from the side. Phillips instantly turned and fired his weapon, eliminating the first man that he saw. Haley turned his head at the same time, but was horrified to see what had happened.

  “No!” Haley immediately recognized the men that were coming as part of Vincent’s crew. Not wanting to start a new war right then and there, and since Phillips was not yet a known entity, Haley jumped in front of his new partner, and slapped his gun down to Phillips’ side. Haley’s head turned toward Vincent’s men and saw them going for their guns to return fire. Haley quickly put his hand up to prevent them from shooting. “He’s friendly, he’s friendly!”

  “Could’ve fooled us,” one of the men replied.

  Phillips had a cocky type of grin on his face, not looking all that upset about killing one of them. “Oops. Looks like I goofed.”

  “They’re not our enemies,” Haley said.

  “Aren’t they criminals?”

  “They’re not our enemies.”

  Phillips shrugged, still not appearing to care. As far as he was concerned, it was no big loss. In his mind, a criminal was on the other side of the street as them. It didn’t matter to him what type of agreement or bond Recker, Haley, or Jones had with them. He wouldn’t be operating that way.

  Vincent’s men continued walking toward Haley and Phillips, their guns still drawn and pointed at them. Haley kept his hand up to try to prevent more of a conflict than they were already in.

  “He’s new, he didn’t know better.”

  “Hell of a time to find out,” the man said.

  After sweeping through the rest of the first floor, Recker and Malloy exited the building. They immediately saw the standoff and rushed over to it.

  “What’s going on?” Recker asked.

  “Phillips here took out one of Vincent’s men,” Haley answered.

  “What?!” Malloy said, clearly agitated.

  “Hey, I saw people with guns approaching,” Phillips said. He gave another shrug. “How was I to know who they were?”

  Malloy went over to him and grabbed him by the shirt collar. “How ’bout you identify your targets first before shooting?!” He started shoving Phillips around a bit.

  Before Phillips was able to respond in kind, Recker and Haley got between the two of them and pulled them away from each other.

  “Get him away from me,” Phillips said.

  “You took out one of my men!” Malloy shouted.

  Phillips shrugged again. “Big deal. I just helped save your sorry ass.”

  “Big thanks.”

  “Why are we even helping these low-life thugs, anyway? They should all be in jail, anyway. Just lock them all up.”

  Recker walked over to Phillips and pushed him away before he started a new war. Just what Recker needed. He’d spent years building up the relationship they had with Vincent and this new guy was about to destroy years worth of work in about ten seconds. Though in principle, he couldn’t disagree with Phillips’ sentiments. Vincent and his crew were technically criminals. But they were a necessary element. Vincent didn’t target innocent people. The people he dealt with were equally as shady. But Vincent was a known quantity. If Vincent wasn’t around, there would be someone new to take his place. Someone like Jerrick. Someone who didn’t have the same standards or principles that Vincent did. As it stood now, even though they were criminals, Recker knew that Vincent wasn’t someone they had to deal with. But if someone like Jerrick was in charge, all bets were off. Their caseload would likely pick up without Vincent being in charge. Because of Vincent’s reputation, he did help keep some things at bay. Obviously Phillips didn’t understand that yet, but if he stayed around for any length of time, he eventually would. Recker just had to make sure he didn’t ruin it before that happened.

  After pushing Phillips away, Recker turned to Haley. “Get him out of here.”

  Haley immediately walked over to his new partner and escorted him from the scene, walking him back to where they entered in the northeast corner. As Recker walked back to Malloy and the rest of Vincent’s men, he looked down at their fallen member. It was a face that Recker recognized. He knew the man had been with Vincent’s crew for some time.

  Before Recker was able to say anything, Malloy spoke right up. “I’m telling you right now, Mike, if that’s the guy that’s replacing you, there’s gonna be some problems.”

  “Just give him a chance to get his head on straight.”

  “He’s already off to a horrible start.”

  “Agreed. I’m not defending him. Don’t even know him. I’m just saying let’s try to have a calm head here.”

  Malloy paced around for a few seconds, huffing and puffing. “You know I don’t have any problems with you, right? Me and you, I’d go in a hole with you any day. You know that. Chris too. I got no beef with him either. He’s as solid as they come. But this idiot, he ain’t got the same clout as you two.”

  “No one’s saying you have to give it to him. He’ll have to earn your respect, same as we did. And this is a bad start and he’ll have to make up for it down the line. I’m just saying to cool off, this was a high-leverage situation, a lot of stuff going on, he doesn’t know who anybody is…”

  “I’m not giving him a pass for killing one of my guys.”

  “I’m not asking you to,” Recker said. “I just want everyone to take a breath. I don’t want anyone saying or doing anything that they’d regret later on. You’ve got more than one man down here. Take care of them. Don’t worry about that knucklehead. Just take care of things here. The rest will take care of itself.”

  Malloy finally started to calm down after another minute. He looked at Recker and nodded. “Fine. I don’t wanna see that guy again anytime soon, though.”

  Recker put his hands up and nodded. “Understood. I’ll tell them to keep a distance for a while.”

  Malloy told the rest of his men to start cleaning up the area. “I’m gonna need to call Vincent.”

  “Figured you would.”

  Malloy then stared at Recker for a moment, remembering what he told him inside. “I guess this might be the last time I see you then?”

  “Could be.”

  Malloy stuck his hand out. “Well I guess if this is it, we sure went out with a bang.”

  Recker grinned, returning the handshake. “We sure did.”

  “I’ll admit, I had some doubts about you at first, but I’m happy to say I’m glad we never opposed each other.”

  Recker nodded. “Me too. And I appreciate all the help you’ve given me. Helping with Mia and all that.”

  “I’d do it again. If this is it… good luck.”

  “Thanks.”

  Recker started to walk away, then remembered his car had a flat. He pulled out his phone and saw he had a text message from Haley.

  “Figured it was better if I got him out of the scene for now. Taking him back to the office. I’ll tell David everything.”

  Recker replied, �
��Good idea. I’ll meet you there. Have a tire to fix first.”

  Malloy hadn’t yet gotten on the phone with Vincent, so Recker walked back over to him.

  “You think any of your boys has a spare they can give me?”

  Malloy quickly looked at his men and spotted the one he was looking for. “Hey, Dave!”

  “Yeah?” Dave responded.

  “Mike needs a new tire! Can you help him?”

  “Gotta go get one. I can be back in ten minutes.”

  Malloy nodded. “Do it.”

  Recker looked over at him. “Appreciate it.”

  “One more favor for old time’s sake.”

  Recker walked back to his car as he waited for a new tire to arrive. He sat in the driver seat, looking around at all the carnage. It was a sight he was used to, but one that he knew he might not ever see again. It would take some getting used to if this was his last battle. But at least he’d go out on top.

  12

  By the time Recker got back to the office, he already had a pretty good idea of what he was going to say. He’d been thinking about it for the last thirty minutes. And he was going to say something. He had to. Even though he wasn’t going to be around for a while, if he did come back, he wasn’t going to let some new guy screw up all his work and create bad blood and animosity with Vincent. Even more, he wasn’t going to go away and worry that Phillips was making life worse for Haley and Jones. Recker was hoping the new guy would help alleviate some of his concerns by going away, taking things off their plate, not putting additional weight on it.

  Recker barged into the office, immediately locating Phillips sitting at the desk next to Jones. He stormed over to him and stood right in front of him as Phillips turned to face him. “What the hell you think you’re doing?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You think you’re some Rambo that just comes onto the scene, shoots a few people, then rides away?”

  Phillips stood up. He wasn’t ready to back down to anyone. “Listen, dude, I helped save your ass.”

  “Well, you’ll pardon me if I don’t say thank you, then? You almost got yourself and the rest of us killed because you were a little too trigger happy.”