Meridian shot his head up, the glare he gave Slade making him snap his mouth closed. Fucking idiot.
Ex didn’t answer the question or say thank you for the compliment as he started unlocking the cases and getting them unpacked. Meridian knew Ex needed to keep eyes on his mother. Her house alarms were linked to his phone but by the time they were alerted, it could be too late.
“I’m gonna check into the bed and breakfast in town,” Slade said. “I can’t commute from Atlanta each time you need me; it’ll take too long. I’ll help you finish getting settled in, then I’ll go.”
Meridian nodded then took his one rolling suitcase with his clothes from Slade. He was about to find a bedroom to rest in when he caught a flash of rage in Ex’s eyes as he stared down at one of his screens. His hand flexed as he shifted to watch Ex more closely. Slade was still talking and moving shit around, not reading anything into the blank stare on Ex’s face. But Meridian could see past the shield. He saw the vein in Ex’s neck pulse as he worked to keep his breathing steady. Saw the way he swallowed at the hollow lump in his throat. Something was wrong.
“Slade, go and take care of that now. We’ll need you here early tonight,” Meridian said in a casual tone.
Slade stopped in the middle of what he was doing and narrowed his eyes. Meridian knew his face gave nothing away as he watched him back. Slade chuckled then headed towards the front door. “I’ll see you at nightfall.”
Slade wasn’t even off the porch before Meridian was at Ex’s side. He glared at the monitor for a second, then clamped down the urge to drive his goddamn fist through it when he saw the same car parked down the street from Ex’s mother’s house. She’d been going to the police department every week to check on Evan’s case; Meridian guessed those hoods were there to make sure she didn’t go back anymore.
“Motherfuckers,” Ex snarled, his nostrils flaring the longer he watched the monitor.
“Stay calm,” Meridian said, inches from Ex’s cheek. “And I need you to sleep. We take care of them tonight.”
The frustration in Ex’s posture was visible. He walked away from the table and down the hall until Meridian heard a door slam.
Ex pulled at his leather gloves, making sure they were on nice and snug. He sat beside Meridian in the back of the SUV around the corner from his mother’s house, his trigger finger twitching while they waited for the right moment to move. Meridian always knew when that was. In the field, their actions were regulated by their handler and calculated down to the second. This mission was all off-the-cuff, off the top of their heads. Reckless.
“You ready?” Meridian was asking Slade, not him. “When I’m in the backseat of the car and the headlights come on, you take the lead. Ex will tell you where to go from there.”
“Yeah. I got it. You told me twice back at the cabin.” Slade drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as if he was nervous. That was fine with him. As long as he followed their orders, nothing was going to go wrong. This is what they did.
Ex and Meridian watched each other for a moment, and he couldn’t let go of the feeling that after this, their lives would be changed forever. If he did this, there’d be no going back. Meridian reached into his suede trench coat and pulled out his chrome Wesson forty-five and screwed on the silencer.
“I’ll be right back,” Meridian said, his voice sending a calming caress down Ex’s spine.
“I’ll see you soon,” Ex gave the same response he always did and watched as Meridian slid out of the back seat and closed the door.
He tried to watch his partner sneak up behind the assholes parked a few doors down from his mother’s house, but Meridian was impossible to track and not even Ex would see him until he was ready. Though Meridian was the bigger of the two of them, he was the one trained to get in and get out without detection. Ex pulled his laptop into his lap and hacked into the GDOT server to scramble the traffic cameras on their route to his dump site. The first of many, if these thugs kept sending men for his mother.
“Get ready,” Ex told Slade.
Meridian
Meridian didn’t have to work too hard to sneak up on the men in the tricked-out Mercedes since they were running their mouths incessantly about the Thursday night game and smoking weed. With his gun in one hand, he pulled on the handle to the rear passenger door with the other. Without a sound, he slid into the backseat then slammed the door shut.