Cold Blooded Assassin Book 6: Red Horizon (Nick McCarty Assassin) by Bernard Lee DeLeo Page A

ride with Cala driving to horror house. Are you okay with riding next to dead men, Cleaner?”
    “Did you just insult me, Payaso?”
    Cala’s indignant reply earned a moment of humor as Nick dived into the rear and Cala took over driving duties. Nick waved at his friends. “Thanks, guys. Viper may have saved our asses. She warned me from down the pathway we had trouble on its way. See you both in a little while.”
    Johnny clasped Cala’s hand for a moment and then moved on to take care of Rachel. Cala sped off toward Carmel Valley immediately. “How did Rachel take it, Muerto?”
    “With 9mm in hand,” Nick replied. “After our time on the run, nothing much bothers Rachel.”
    He continued shoving the body in the back down between the seats. “Next place in the road where you can stop without much traffic, I’m going to yank the live one back with me.”
    “Just ahead,” Cala replied, driving to a spot off the road, nearly barren of traffic on the way toward Lighthouse Avenue.
    Nick got out quickly, ran around and ripped the live hoodie from under the seat. Cala waited with the rear door open for Nick to shove him into a sitting position on the rear seat. A moment later, Cala drove away from the roadside again. Nick fixed the man into the seatbelt. The hoodie absorbed the blood from Nick’s pistol whipping, where it had coagulated to glue the material at the side of the man’s head. Nick buckled him in with his hands already restrained at his back. He slapped the man into groaning consciousness. The man’s eyes blinked as his head swayed from side to side in pain. Only after a few more minutes of groans and moans did the man start trying to form words.
    “What the fuck you do me for?”
    Nick used his stun-gun on the man’s groin, causing him to jackknife upwards with a scream. Cala giggled, keeping the vehicle steadily moving. “No stupid questions. I’ll keep it simple for you. The next bad answer or stupid question and I will toast your nuts for thirty seconds of hell. Do you understand?”
    “Yeah… yeah… don’t zap me!”
    “First. How did you know to find me at Otter’s Point beach?”
    “My boss knows all your hangouts. He tell me you and your friends are always at the Point in the mornings. He say cap your ass and anyone with you there. I picked up Calista and Morgan when they were let go. We came after you the moment they got released. Man… nobody say you was a killer, blood. Can’t you let me go? I ain’t in this killin’ shit.”
    “What’s your boss’s name?”
    “Carone… Fernando Carone.”
    “Did he call you personally?” Nick knew if the minion with him said Carone called him personally it would be a lie.
    “No, man… Carone call nobody. He get his boy, Hector, to call me from his boat. They anchored off the coast some place.”
    “When Hector told you to bring Calista and Morgan to kill me, did he say why?”
    “He tol’ me you a local fud, stickin’ your nose in Carone business. He don’t know you a killer. Who the fuck are you, man? Carone never give up when he got a problem. He send King Kong and Godzilla to get you if he have to.”
    Both Cala and Nick shared amusement over their captive’s declaration. “What’s your name, homeboy?”
    “Jarrod. Let me go, man.” Jarrod saw in Nick’s eyes he would not be living past the day. He shook his head more in self-loathing than outrage. “Shit! I knew it… I tol’ Calista this was bad Juju.”
    “I can help you to the other side without pain,” Nick replied. “I have only a couple more questions. Were you a member of Jay Park’s crew?”
    “No… a guy named Biff hired me to drive. I used to ‘bang in Salinas, but the money with Carone was double anything I ever got. All I had goin’ was to follow instructions. Biff and his boy Ray in town too. They killers. You best pray they don’t find out what you done. They mobbed up down in East LA for a cartel in one of those Flamingo countries.”
    Nick put a