Authors: Jonas Saul

Tags: #Mystery, #Thriller

The Victim (25 page)

He panted, trying to catch his breath. “I need to know … where you’re … taking Gary …”

The man placed his sunglasses back on and opened the van’s door, ignoring Aaron.

Aaron reached out and stopped the door.

The man spun around to face Aaron.

“You can’t be serious,” he said, his voice dark like an unexplored basement. It sent shivers through Aaron.

“Who are you?” Aaron asked, knowing that if they were cops they would have to identify themselves.

The driver had already gotten in and started the van.

“Let go of the door or lose the hand.”

Aaron almost smiled. The last thing he needed was being held on charges of assaulting a police officer. But he also understood the law better as he had recently been sitting for too many hours with his lawyer preparing his own defense on an attempted murder case. The cop, if that’s what he was, had not identified himself, and he had just threatened Aaron with violence for simply touching the van’s door.

Aaron held onto the door. “I don’t take threats lightly.”

As he spoke the man turned to fully face Aaron.

Perfect,
Aaron thought,
open yourself up to me and make your whole body a target. Your move, asshole.

“Last chance,” the man said. “Let go of the door and step away.”

Aaron smiled as wide as he could, unmoved by the man’s alpha-male approach. He waited for the lunge or the grab or the punch, but nothing came. He was prepared to block and attack, but instead the man slowly moved his hand across his chest and pulled his jacket open a fraction to show him what was inside.

If it wasn’t for the fact that his sister was missing and the only lead was Gary Weeks in the back of the van, Aaron would’ve conceded defeat and walked away. Guns were something altogether more serious. The kind of serious that Aaron wasn’t normally willing to tangle with.

But his sister
was
missing, Gary Weeks
was
in the back of the van, and Aaron didn’t like being threatened.

Aaron’s left hand shot out, grabbed the man’s right wrist—the one that would unholster the weapon—yanked it down and twisted. At the same moment, his right hand released the van’s door, hit the pressure point at the base of the man’s throat, and applied the exact amount of force to cause prolonged choking, but not enough pressure to collapse the trachea.

It was times like this he was glad he’d spent his entire youth working out, exercising, and doing his katas. Being a second dan black belt in Shotokan karate and an instructor in his own dojo had been a lifelong dream. Having almost killed one of his students a month ago with his bare hands in a fit of rage had been bad for business. But it was times like this that his extreme skill wasn’t put to the test, it was put to task.

The man slumped to the ground, clutching at his throat, gasping and choking, his face reddening.

The driver’s side door slammed shut. Aaron spun and addressed the driver, who now stood beside the van’s grill.

The driver had a cocked pistol in his hand.

“Step away, or I will shoot you in the iris of your left eye. You have one second.”

The man’s voice gave nothing away. He sounded colder than the air conditioning in the terminal. Like shooting someone in the face was as routine as eating ice cream on a hot day.

That voice persuaded Aaron to ease back, his hands raised chest high.

The driver helped his friend up into the passenger seat, the whole time keeping the gun trained on Aaron.

What the fuck is happening here?
Aaron thought.
Who are these people?

“Turn around and start walking,” the driver ordered. “Do it now.”

Aaron did, but not before scanning the terminal windows. At least a dozen people watched from the relative safety of the building. No way would the guy shoot an unarmed man in the back when his hands were raised. Not with that many witnesses.

The van door shut and the wheels bit the grass as the vehicle raced away, headed for the ferry.

As they left, Aaron memorized every feature of the two suited men and the little he saw of Gary Weeks.

“Shit, now what?”

Read the rest of
The Specter

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About Jonas Saul

Jonas Saul is the author of the Sarah Roberts Series and The Mafia Trilogy. Visit his
Amazon page
for a complete listing of his books.

Visit his website,
www.jonassaul.com
for upcoming release dates, and to sign up for the newsletter. Jonas lives in Washington, USA with his wife, author
Brenda Grate
.

Contact Jonas Saul

Website:
http://www.jonassaul.com

Twitter:
@jonassaul

Email:
[email protected]

Or send mail to Jonas Saul ℅ Imagine Press:

900 Front Street, Suite C #137

Leavenworth, Washington

98826

United States

Jonas Saul Titles

The Sarah Roberts Series

1. Dark Visions

2. The Warning

3. The Crypt

4. The Hostage (*Featuring Drake Bellamy from The Threat)

5. The Victim (*Featuring Aaron Stevens from The Specter)

6. The Enigma

7. The Vigilante (To be released, Summer 2013) (*Featuring Aaron Stevens from The Specter)

The Mafia Trilogy
(Starring Darwin and Rosina Kostas)

1. The Kill

2. The Blade

3. The Scythe

Standalone Novels

The Threat (Starring Drake Bellamy)

The Specter (Starring Aaron Stevens)

Short Stories

Visitations - A Book of Short Stories

The Burning

The Fetish

Trapped

The Elements

Hatred

PUBLISHED BY:

Imagine Press

ISBN: 978-1-927404-18-8

The Victim

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.