FMJ BLT: 14.50

  The deli pce was at the end of a long alley in a cluster of bar-grills and gss hotels, squeezed between two ventioers off the highway. Luke arked in the baext to the outside seating area with his SIG rattler, a short assault rifle chambered in .300 bckout, in his p. He had the seat rolled bato the shade and was near invisible thanks to the tint.

  The smell of onis and citrus-fvored Friday lunch cocktails came in the cracked sunroof, along with echoes of loud brags and ughs from people who made enough moo vacation in the Maldives three times a year, but didn’t have the seo order something other than bad quesadils and sour mix margaritas from restaurants whose greatest achievement was keeping its ers from realizing it was a .

  Luke haden sihose drive-thru breakfast burritos arou. He hoped they’d have time to run in and grab something after they killed the guy.

  Philip was the only person at the outside tables, sittihe edge of the patio with his back to the SUV. He fully expected just to drop Paul whe down, but there was no reason not to give Luke line of sight just in case. He ordered a grilled chi club sandwich with potato sad and a beer from a waitress with pupils shrunk by roxy. Her eyes reminded him of neon green pickle slices, so he asked for some fried ones.

  He lit the half-smoked cigar and thought about what he would say to Lindsey after it was all over. A different server came out to remind him that you couldn’t smoke anywhere in this god damate anymore. Philip killed the stub on his heel before the poor bastard was halfway across the tables.

  “My food do?”

  “You— uh no, not yet. You ’t smoke here, Sir.”

  “Alright.” The silence begged for a crow caw or something. The guy walked back across the tables and ran into a chair on the way and the sound bounced around in the alley. That would have to do.

  “Blondie ever check ba? Did she tail him?” Philip said behind his beer.

  “Nope. If she did, she hasn’t told me.” Luke said in his ear.

  “Guess she’ll miss all the a.”

  “You kinda cut her out on this one.”

  “She’s the one who wao ride solo. And what was I supposed to do, sit around and wait for her to sneak in the air vents?”

  “Might have been o have some backup if he doesn’t e alone.”

  “What, you scared of a little shooting?”

  Luke didn’t respond. Someone somewhere had brought out a sizzling pte of fajitas and the smell was demanding all his attention.

  Paul had his driver drop him off in the grocery store parking lot down the alley from the restaurant. He walked as casually as he could and preteo text. He gnced up at the tables and saw a guy in a bck tracksuit and a Burberry trench. All money, no css. There was his t all right. He took a right at the restaurant ahrough the brushed steel door.

  “Think that’s him going inside,” Luke said.

  Philip looked up from his food and watched the guy with faded frat house features stroll into the door like he was ing home. He had on a stained light blue oxford and khaki scks with a pale gold tie.

  “Good disguise for an area like this,” Philip said.

  “Go hit him a’s go.”

  “Nah, give it a sec.”

  “What? Shit, I’ll do it.” Luke unbuttoned his suit jacket and started to tuck the Rattler u.

  “No, you won’t. He’s ing to me. Just wait. You might spook him.”

  “You haven’t been on this end of things in a bit, man, but let me tell you. Shit ays this chill for long.”

  “Here he is,” said Philip.

  Paul opehe gss door and looked across the tables, and the guy iracksuit waved and smiled. Something clicked in his mind, and he remembered seeing him at one of Davis’s parties months ago. That didn’t mean this couldn’t be a setup, but it made him feel a bit better. Still, he would let the guy talk until he felt fortable enough to make a deal. He waved bad walked towards the table.

  A car turhe er and came down the alley on Luke’s left. It was a high-end sedan with two finance bros in the fro, but he switched the Rattler from safe to auto and folded out the stock just in case.

  Philip watched Paul weave through the seats and pushed the fried pickles across the table with one hand and switched the safety off the pistol in his pocket with the other. He could taste the payday.

  It all happened in uwo seds. The car pulled into the handicap spot o Luke and two men stepped out with MP5 submae guns raised. Luke had no choice but to fire through his window, filling the cab with gs, smoke, and gss as the sound dampening kicked on in his earbuds.

  Philip’s table exploded in a burst of gss and food. Paul went leaping sideways and Philip put two rounds through the restaurant windows. Wheurned back to yell at Luke, he saw two men colpse o a car that hadn’t been there a sed ago, and Luke stepping out of the SUV. Philip wiped beer and ranch off his fad looked around. People ihe restaurant hopped around and dove uables, or stood staring like they were already dead. Window gss glittered on the ground and his beer streamed towards some cra the crete. At the edge of his peripherals, Paul’s foot disappeared behind a booth as tires squealed down the alley.

  A bck truck flew out of the grocery store lot with a man standing out of the sunroof. His face fshed and Philip dove for cover as bullets cracked through the tables.

  Luke braced his rifle on the hood of the SUV and opened fire. Thirty caliber rounds put big white circles iruck’s windshield and the shooter dropped out of sight.

  Philip popped up aied his mag into the bench seating Paul had disappeared behind, visualizing the bullets taking him in the chest. When souuro the earbuds, Philip heard him scrambling across the sidewalk.

  “Fuck you.” He dropped the empty pistol and picked up an MP5.

  Luke spped in a fresh magazine as the truck barreled down the alley. He fired half the mag and the windshield turned solid white. The truck swerved to the left and smmed into a parking space behind a work van. Luke took a step back from the SUV and listened for the truck’s doors. In the silence, broken in pces by screams boung in the alley, anine roared.

  A fiat 500 jumped the curb in the front parking lot and sped through a row of little two-seat tables between the restaurant and a yogurt shop at forty miles per hour. It took a sharp turn around the er of the building and crashed through the tables towards Philip. He dove behind the blood-spttered sedan Luke had lit up a few seds ago.

  Three gunmen got out of the Fiat and Philip flipped the MP5 to full auto. He held the trigger as he stood up then leaned into it and dumped the mag in a single trolled burst. One man dropped dead and the other two vanished behind the car. As Philip looked for an on the body o him, someone behind the Fiat let loose with an ungodly rate of fire and he ducked back behind the engine blo one foot. Rounds spped off crete and thuhrough the car.

  “They miss me. They miss me.” He recited the mantra in his head, slid the driver's seat of the sedan fot it into gear, and wedged the gas pedal down with the empty MP5. The car hopped the curb, crashed through the tables, and smmed into the Fiat. The gunfire died with a metallic ch.

  Luke had taken cover in the fro and saw a guy with a short-barreled AK step out from behind the van. Luke fired through the passenger window and got him three times in the face, then climbed over the sole and hopped out the ter door on the driver’s side. He got low a his feet behind the tire and aimed around the engine block. Another shooter moved down the sidewalk around the front of the van, aiming at the SUV’s passenger side. Luke’s Rattler snapped five times and the shooter stumbled and fated onto the sidewalk. Somebody down the alley yelled “Jesus!” like they had just seen a touchdown.

  Philip shouldered the other MP5 and sed the restaurant through jagged window frames. Lots of whimpering and whispering to 911 dispatchers. Paul was o be seen.

  “Shit!”

  “Where is he?” Luke loaded a fresh magazine.

  “In there, I hope.”

  “I’ll get him. Get in the god damn—”

  Luke took oep towards the restaurant and two cars screeched into the parking lot oher side of the building. Gunmen poured out and tables erupted in bursts of fries and soda and honey mustard. Luke and Philip got low aurned fire. Philip emptied his mag and put a panel of wall between him and the shooters.

  “Moving!” he yelled and ran for the SUV as Luke covered him. He swung open the driver-side door aurned fire between the door jams. Luke fell bad slid into the passenger seat. When his Rattler went to work, Philip hopped behind the wheel, backed out to the right, cut it to the left, and floored it down the alley as Luke put more fire through the restaurant. He turned a hard right around the er while Luke reloaded with a flurry of sharp movements. As they came out from behind the building, bullets struck the SUV like hail.

  “Fuck!” Philip yelled. They sped out of the lot and stopped on to the access road with the grass slope at the bottom of the lot between them and the shooters.

  “He got in a car!” Luke yelled. “A grey sedan.” There was blood on his hands.

  “You hit?” Philip asked. Luke ignored him and raised his on towards the lot. A grey Nissan zoomed onto the street ahead of them.

  “Fug catch him!” Luke yelled. Munfire cracked from the lot and Philip peeled out. A stray bullet bounced off Luke’s chest pte and cttered across the dashboard.

  “Why didn’t you have them armor these god damn windows!” Philip yelled.

  “I always have to shoot out of them!”

  Someone leaned out of the sedan a off a burst that put three small white circles in the gss. Philip’s heart skipped a beat.

  “At least you let them armor the windshield.”

  Luke dropped his seat bad rolled into the ter row. He pulled a down from around the sunroof, stood up in the middle of it, and opened fire.