talk,” I say as I spray him in the face again for fun. He yanks against the binds but I pull my gun out, making him stop.
“Fuck you.”
“You’re not on the side of this where you’re free to spout insults. I make the rules now.”
“Who the fuck do you think you are?”
“Who am I?” I ask since he’s gotten a clear look at my face at this point. “You know who I am. You come into my business and lie to my face. Then you shoot my fiancé and think you’re going to get away with it?” I shake my head. “No one shoots my fiancé and gets away with it.”
“This some fucking vendetta? I was hired to do it.”
“I know you were hired to do it. I know who you are. I know what you do. I know everything about you, Burrows. And now, unless you want to die, you’re going to tell me who hired you.”
He gives me a smirk that makes me want to punch him again. “I don’t tell my client’s secrets.”
“Even if it’ll cost your life?” I ask as I switch the safety off.
He seems amused by this for some reason. He probably thinks I have the balls to beat him up but not kill him or shoot him. “Fuck off.”
I shoot him in the leg with my silenced gun. He cries out, but the shot wasn’t lethal yet. “Answer the fucking question, Burrows. What you need to know is that you have royally fucked with the wrong man. I know all the fucking tricks. I know all about how this fucking business works. Hell, I was so fucking deep into it I didn’t think there was a way out. But I’m a changed man… well… I was until someone shot Jackson. Now I’m not so sure that I have changed because right now, shooting you sounds fucking amazing. So you tell me what you know or I’m going to just keep putting holes in you until you do.”
The man seems to realize I’m not fucking around and looks panicked. “I-I don’t know! I swear to god, I don’t know! I was only told that I needed to get the laptop and kill that Jackson guy. I went in the other day just to see if I could nab the laptop but you were too defensive, so I watched him and saw he took it home with him. So I just waited until he was alone and shot him and took it. My client had me leave it in a locker at a local gym and he sent me the money. If you know so much about this world, you know you don’t always know much about your clients.”
“Yes, but if you’re good at what you do, you know more than you let the client know. Clearly, you have no qualms shooting an innocent man for a couple of bucks. So who knows what other dirty shit you’re happy to do.”
He shrugs. “Doesn’t fucking matter, now does it? Everyone’s crooked in one way or another. And every life has a price. That one just happened to have a little better price than normal. I hope he bled out nice and slowly.” He jerks his arm forward and the handle pulls free from the wall a moment before he lunges at me. “I’ll kill you—”
I shoot him in the head, and he slumps down in the tub.
Fuck.
My phone beeps and I look down at it and see that it’s a text from Ava.
Ava: Jackson’s awake and asking for you.
It’s like my limbs give out as I sink to the bathroom floor and take a deep breath. I feel like I’d been holding it since I found Jackson lying in the parking lot. “Oh god…” I whisper as I rock on my heels. “Oh, thank you, thank you.”
I’m about forty minutes from the hospital and can’t show up like this. Quickly, I call Tucker.
“Hello?”
“I need your crew to come over and do some work for me.”
“Body-sized work?”
“Yeah. I also want you to take over the apartment. I don’t want anyone noticing the man’s gone, so keep the bills paid. I’m going to have Cassel come and keep track of the computer to see if we can get information on this client or if they’ll get in contact with him again. I need to find out who the fuck thinks they can kill Jackson. This asshole was a little sloppy, but he was cocky, so I can bet