Rocket City Blues

has an amazingly speedy recovery.” He shook his head angrily. “Goddamn hired killers and crazy rich bastards with anti-aircraft rail guns! All in one night! I sure didn’t ask for this shit!”
“I checked with Von Braun this morning,” Stella updated him as they walked. She clasped her hands behind her back, her athletic body moving gracefully, almost fluidly. “As you suspected, Thomas’ ship is now in the custody of the Space Guard.”
“No big surprise.” Matt slowed just a touch, falling back the slightest of a cadence behind her to admire that gorgeous ass stretching the elastic fabric of her uniform. “Frost would still have connections within the Guard. Still, we need to request an official search and scan.”
“I’ve already initiated the protocol. We should hear back from them this afternoon.”
“Have I told you it’s becoming a little scary how well you’re beginning to anticipate me?”
A sharp, little smirk turned up her pretty lips. “It’s not that hard, Special Inspector. It’s not like men are much of a mystery.”
“Well, I wish I could say the same thing for the fairer sex.”
“I’d thought you’d have figured out quite a bit about me lately.” She turned to give him a wink, but when she saw the look that was on his face now, the mirth quickly faded.
“Well, speak of the damned Devil!” Matt’s voice went low, almost a growl. She followed his eyes across the atrium to the main entrance. It took only a split second to realize the reason for his sudden outburst.
One of Frost’s henchmen had just sauntered in.
“I guess they’ll let just anybody in here,” she remarked dryly, but her insides were twisting into a knot. Shit! She tensed, bracing for the hell she knew was forthcoming as Matt was already marching purposely in the direction of the merc.
“The animal hospital is two blocks over,” he snarled at the young man Stella recognized immediately as Frost’s com/data tech. Matt stormed up in front of him in a decidedly confrontational matter. “What’s the matter? Behind on your shots?”
“Whoa now, Inspector!” Cee Tee held up his hands. “I ain’t looking for any trouble. My business here is purely humanitarian.”
“Humanitarian?” Matt blurted in utter disdain, stepping forward imposingly. “Why, I oughta slap your teeth out for insulting my intelligence!”
“I promise! I promise!” The young merc’s voice went high-pitched with fear. “I’m here to check on our injured and file their workman’s comp! That’s all!” Like Jocko, Cee Tee was more techno-geek than gunfighter. He was adept at running gun drones from the relative safety of an armored aerocraft, but he was in no way a match for the livid detective with a reputation for being quick-tempered and quick-fisted. He wanted none of Special Inspector Matt Burlington.
He was safe, for Matt drew up, suddenly confused and bewildered. “Injured? What injured?” he asked, to no one in particular. But behind him, Stella closed her eyes and sighed softly.
Here we go …
***
“You made a mistake not killin’ me, Mister Frost!” Gideon Tuttle, the patriarch of the Tuttle clan, sat back in his chair, smiling smugly like a hog in slop.
Forrest Frost, “Asset Retrieval Agent,” couldn’t have agreed more. He lay helpless in his hospital bed, the effects of Tiger’s mysterious “electric” round still incapacitating him.Right now, he wished more than anything else that he’d killed this grungy old fart blossom when he’d had the chance. This family of local criminals had set this whole chain of events in motion by trying to abduct the vixen, while she had been in transit to a GenetX facility in Atlanta. His two idiot sons had attempted to rape her, and Frost had shot the eldest one, Rayford, in the crotch as punishment for it. He’d also shot Gideon’s ear off, but he’d left the old man alive. It had indeed been a big mistake.
If he lived through this, Frost swore to himself he’d rectify that mistake before he left the Rocket City.
That was looking like a big “if.”
“Ya thought it was funny when ya shot my boy’s junk off and blew my ear to hell, remember?” the old man with the scraggly gray beard and stringy hair continued. “Said it was all for shits ’n giggles, if’n I recall correctly.”
God, I wish this sonofabitch would just put me out of my misery! Listenin’ to him ramble on is worse than having my brains melted! The lingering pain in his joints and muscles and the temporary paralysis was nothing compared to the agony of listening to this goddamn hillbilly ramble. Yet, all he could do was glare at the maniac as he continued his monologue.
Gideon grinned, showing a mouthful of yellowed teeth. “Well, you sure ain’t laughin’ now, Mister Big Bad Bounty Hunter!” The smile disappeared. “And you won’t be laughin’ when you hear what we’ve done to your man that came in las’ night!”
Lucius! Frost felt his face grow red as rage coursed through his body like fire sweeping across a dry forest bed. But it was useless rage, as his body betrayed him, doing nothing. He immediately knew Tuttle was talking about his second-in-command, known by the nom-de-guerre as Number Two. He’d sustained severe injuries in the battle at the Inn.No doubt, the Tuttles had not only discovered Frost was in the hospital but Lucius as well. Unfortunately, he was helpless to defend his own ass, much less his old friend and trusted lieutenant.
Gideon’s face took on the cold-blooded look of a snake. A cruel smile creased his leathery, old face. “It appears yore man had himself a massive heart attack sometime in the middle of the night.” The smile transformed into a mockery of sympathy. “Poor soul… but I reckon it was just his time. I’m really sorry. Ya have the sincerest condolences of the Tuttles.”
He pulled out a grimy, beat-up, old Personal Data-Com unit. He tapped the screen, and a hologram popped up in front of him, the crest of the hospital adorning the top of it. Frost immediately recognized it for what it was, an