Kill and Run (A Thorny Rose Mystery Book 1) (16 page)

Jessica was beaming on their way through the door.

Spotting her giddy state, Cameron whispered, “Why are you smiling?”

“This is my first undercover operation.” Jessica’s grin filled her whole face.

“Congratulations.” Cameron patted her arm. “Now drop the smile. You look like a fool.” With a jerk of her head in the direction of the coffee counter, she urged in a low voice, “You go to the counter and start ordering the drinks. I’ll be right behind you. I need to assess the situation before approaching our target.”

While Jessica moved up to where Emily Dolan was checking the inventory to restock for the next day, Cameron picked up a magazine from a basket next to a love seat that rested in front of the see-through fireplace. A young couple who appeared to be barely out of their teens cuddled in the loveseat on the other side. When they saw Cameron nearby, they parted, but not without shooting her a chastising look for intruding.

Taking the hint, Cameron turned away.

In one booth against the far wall, a young man wearing earbuds was banging away on his laptop like he was doing a speed test. One of his legs shook while he tapped his foot non-stop.

At the booth nearest the counter, a lone customer was sipping a cup of coffee while scrolling through the screen on his cell phone. A middle-aged man, he donned a suit like the vast majority of men who worked in and around Washington. Unlike most of those men, beneath his suitcoat, he had a bulge on his hip.

Cameron recognized it for what it was.
Is he one of Murphy’s agents watching Emily Dolan?

In the booth directly behind that of the lone customer, another couple was talking to each other in low voices. Older than the kids in the love seat, they seemed to be in their mid-twenties to early thirties. Both were dressed in jeans and button down shirts. The young woman wore her long dark hair in a ponytail gathered low on the back of her neck.

Strolling up to the counter where Jessica was waiting for their coffees, Cameron took note of the woman’s shoes. Flat heeled lace ups. Not exactly date wear. Upon seeing the detective checking out her shoes, the woman caught Cameron’s eye and gave a slight nod of her head before flicking her eyes toward the counter as if to urge Cameron to move along.
They have to be part of Murphy’s team.

Moving past the lone customer in the suit, Cameron paused.
If they’re both part of the same team, why aren’t they more spread out? One of them should be on the other side of the café to provide extra coverage.

The woman agent’s cell phone buzzed. Bringing the phone to her ear, she cocked at eyebrow at her date, a slender man with dark hair.

“Cam, our lattes are ready,” Jessica called to her from the counter. “Come and get it. You wouldn’t believe who this is.”

The opening of the door caught Cameron’s attention.

Donning dark sun glasses in the evening, two men dressed in worn military desert fatigues, complete with fully loaded utility belts, stepped through the door. Cameron turned to Jessica. Behind her, she noticed two other muscular men dressed likewise at a bistro table next to the window. Looking oversized for the delicate chairs, the muscular men sat with their long legs sticking out into the serving area with their big feet encased in dull, scuffed up combat boots.

Laughing, the two new arrivals strolled up to the counter from which Jessica was stepping away with a latte in each hand.

As she passed them, Jessica noticed that the taller of the two men had thick dark hair and a shock of white hair on the sides, directly above his ears, which reminded her of white stripes.
Sidewalls.
Trying to suppress a giggle, she smiled. She didn’t want the tall, muscular soldier to realize she was laughing at him.

The two men at the bistro table stood up. They nodded to the taller of the two men, while his partner faced Emily Dolan behind the counter. She stepped over from where she had just completed her transaction with Jessica to take their orders.

“Murphy,” Cameron whispered, “this is going real bad real fast. You need to get in here.”

She sensed movement behind her.

The young man who had been typing away had slammed his laptop shut, shoved it into his backpack, and slid out of the booth to trot toward the door to the beat of the music piped in through his earbuds.

At the counter, in a casual motion, almost like that of a man reaching for his wallet in his pocket, all four men in their military fatigues reached for their weapons.

Simultaneously, out of the edge of her peripheral vision, Cameron saw the café door crash open.

The quiet evening at Starbucks erupted into a firefight.

Chapter Fifteen

In one smooth motion, Sidewall’s companion slipped his weapon from of its holster and fired three shots into Emily Dolan’s chest.

Behind him, Murphy took a flying leap across the dining room. “Everybody get down!” While firing with one arm at the four assailants, he threw his free arm around Jessica. Together, in a hail of bullets and flying lattes, they dove to the floor between the loveseat and the fireplace.

The assassin who killed Emily Dolan dropped down onto the counter. As he slid to the floor, customers screamed to see that at least one of Murphy’s shots had hit its target. He had a gunshot wound to the back of his head.

Screams filled the air while the remaining three gun men shot at everything that moved in their effort to exterminate any possible witnesses.

“Stay down!” Murphy ordered Jessica while returning fire at the three remaining assassins.

Struggling to get out from where he had her pinned, Jessica extracted her gun from her purse. Her hands were shaking. “How did you—”

“Dull boots!” Pausing to replace the magazine in his gun with a fresh one, Murphy caught sight of a man in a suit running through the swinging door to the back of the café. The men in the military fatigues made no move to stop him.

“Latimore! Where are you?” Murphy yanked his gun from the ankle holster.

“Back here!” Perry yelled from behind the fireplace.

“I told you to cover Dolan!” Murphy jumped up to fire off double-taps with both guns. “Archer, get over here and cover me!”

“I’ll cover you, Archer,” Cameron volunteered from behind an overturned bistro table.

“Don’t leave me!” The young man who was leaving before the chaos erupted begged from where he was clinging to Cameron behind the table.

“Get a grip and stay down!” Jessica heard Cameron order before a barrage of shots flew over her head.

Jessica felt, rather than saw, one of the gunmen fall backwards over a bistro table only a couple of feet from her. By natural instinct, she rose up to see if he was really dead.

With a cocky grin, the downed assassin sat up. He was so close that Jessica could see the Kevlar vest through the bullet holes in his jacket. With a laugh, he stuck out his arm. The barrel of his gun, only inches from her face, looked like a cannon.

She froze like a frightened rabbit looking into the mouth of a wolf drooling over the prospect of a juicy dinner.

Abruptly, she felt a strong hand clamp down on top of her head and shove her to the floor. The two shots that Murphy fired into the assailant’s head wiped the smirk off his face. “I told you to stay down!”

Keeping low, Susan scurried up behind them. “What’s your plan, Thornton?”

“Keep them busy.” Murphy tucked one of his weapons into the waistband of his pants. “I saw a guy in a suit run to the back.”

“But—”

“He’s with them,” Murphy said. “Most likely, he’s after Dolan’s laptop. I need to get to him before he finds it and wipes it clean.”

“On the count of three, go,” she told Murphy.

“Count me in.” Jessica held up her gun for the agent to see that she was armed and ready.

Susan grinned. “The deb’s got guts.”

After catching Cameron’s attention Susan counted off with her fingers, not unlike a catcher giving signals to a pitcher. On the count of three, Susan, Cameron, and Jessica sprang up and fired off a barrage of shots at the two gunmen who were now pinned behind the counter.

While the gunmen were ducking the hailstorm of bullets, Murphy sprung for the door leading back to the business office and supply room. Bursting through the swinging door, he collided with the man in the suit coming out of the manager’s office with a laptop tucked under his arm.

Not only did the collision cause the suited man to drop the laptop to the floor, but it caused Murphy to drop his gun. Both the laptop and gun skidded across the floor in opposite directions.

Spotting the intruder reaching for the gun he was wearing under his suitcoat, Murphy grabbed his wrist and squeezed it while delivering a knee to the man’s groin. When he doubled over, Murphy followed up with another knee to his chest.

Instead of collapsing, the intruder quickly recovered to grab Murphy’s leg and yanked it out from under him, plunging Murphy flat on his back. Even with the air knocked out of him, Murphy could see his assailant reaching for his gun to finish him off. A swing of his leg sent the gun flying. Another swipe knocked both of the gunman’s legs out from under him.

Spotting his gun a few feet away, Murphy scrambled across the floor for it.

In the instant that he took his eyes off the assassin—less than a foot from his weapon—he heard the click of a gun behind him. He dove for the floor and rolled while feeling the rush of the bullet speeding over his shoulder to pierce the wall in front of him.

Tucking his legs up under him in the roll, Murphy came back up on one knee—knife in hand.

Before the man in the suit saw the knife, it hit its target—the point drove through the front of his neck. The path of the blade severed his spinal cord before coming out the back to pin him to the wall behind him.

The explosions from their guns were almost drowned out by another burst that went off in the middle of the floor—directly in front of the loveseat where Jessica and Susan were seeking cover.

Smoke filled the air. Instantly, tears came to their eyes and smoke filled their lungs.

The shooting stopped.

“Jessica, we need to get out of here!” Susan called out through the smoke. “Head for the door!”

Unable to see through the smoke, Jessica rose up to run in the direction of the door. The smoke cutting off her breathing, she fell to her knees.

“Time to go, Buttercup!” Murphy’s arms were around her. She felt her legs shaking when he lifted her to her feet. “Can you stand?”

As if to answer him, her knees crumbled under her. Before she could hit the floor, he lifted her up into his arms and carried her out of the café.

Unable to see through the tears in her burning eyes, she dug her face into his chest while he carried her out into the night air. While she gasped for air, Murphy seemed to only be breathing hard and coughing slightly. As soon as she caught a wisp of the fresh air, she took in a deep breath, only to let go with another round of coughing.

“Take it easy, Buttercup,” Murphy soothed her while carrying her across the parking lot. “Don’t overdo it. Obviously, you’ve never experienced a smoke bomb before.”

Her vision clearing, she squinted through her tears to see that he was smiling at her. “And you have?”

“As a matter of fact, I have, in training,” he said. “Once you know what to expect, then you can handle it better.”

“And since I didn’t, then you must be having a good laugh,” she said.

“No I’m not,” Murphy said. “My chief witness is now dead.”

“Then why are you grinning?” Sometimes, she hated how the sight of his dimples and that sexy grin got the best of her.

“Because you’re not, Buttercup.” He pressed his lips to her forehead. “We’ll find a way to solve this case,” he whispered, “but if anything had happened to you …”

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pressed her face into his neck. “I froze.”

“I think you can put her down now, Murphy,” Cameron said next to them. “I just had to carry a one hundred and fifty pound sci-fi author out of the café—he’s still crying like a little girl.” She gestured at the front of her shirt.

“Was he hurt?” Jessica asked while Murphy gently put her down next to Cameron’s SUV.

“Only emotionally,” Cameron said.

Her legs still shaking, Jessica grasped the SUVs door. Murphy wrapped his arm around her waist to steady her. “Are you okay?”

“Considering that my only possible witness is now dead, Jessica’s wearing my latte, and that guy left snot all over the front of my shirt, I’m dandy,” Cameron answered.

“I was talking to Jessie,” Murphy told her.

“Is that any way to talk to your stepmother?” Cameron replied.

“Anybody besides Dolan hurt?” Murphy asked Susan when she approached them. “Are the customers and employees okay?”

“The three employees who were working with Dolan ran out the backdoor as soon as the shooting started and called the police,” she reported. “The three customers in the café are shaken up, but okay.”

Perry was directing the police and emergency vehicles pouring into the parking lot. Cameron opened up the back of her SUV to extract her utility belt and police detective’s badge.

“You and Latimore?” Murphy asked Susan. “Either of you hit?”

Dismissing his question with a wave of her hand, she replied, “This isn’t our first rodeo, Thornton. We’re fine.”

“How many of the shooters are down?” Murphy asked.

“Two of the shooters are down,” Susan reported while snapping her badge onto her belt for the police to see. “Emily Dolan is dead too.”

“Add to that one accomplice I left in the back room.” Murphy reached around behind his back to extract a laptop from where he had tucked it under his coat. “Once the shooting started, he ran back into the manager’s office to steal this.”

“Are you sure that’s Emily Dolan’s?” Susan asked.

“The guy was willing to kill me to escape with it.” Murphy handed it to Susan. “If it’s not hers, he thought it was.”

Susan asked, “Do you want me to call Hamilton?”

“I’ll call him.” Seeing Jessica unsteady in her high heels, Murphy urged her to sit down in the SUV.

“Why aren’t any of you …” Jessica clutched her chest. Her lungs felt like they were going to explode and her heart was beating so hard that she thought it would pop out of her chest. Stars came to her eyes.She heard roaring in her ears.

“We need an EMT here
now!
” she heard Murphy yell as she slipped away into darkness.