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“I don’t think this is safe,” Juicy whispered loudly.

“Shut up,” Trev hissed back. “Just let me do this!”

“But it’s stupid!”

“Shut up!”

Stupid or not, Trev continued to slowly wiggle toward the beam. As far as he could tell, the direction he was currently headed should be taking him to the back of the garage where the door was.

The door that was boarded up…

But maybe he’d be able to pry the boards off. Maybe it wouldn’t be as hard to open as he thought. He was strong. He had adrenaline on his side and could definitely snatch off a few old boards with his bare hands before Emil or any of his goons shot him.

Maybe.

Fuck.

He tracked the open space in front of him and tried to weigh his options.

It was either this or going back into the office to die.

He had to fucking try.

He had to—oh no.

The ceiling groaned and gave way, sending Trev right down into the office with a crash.

He hit the desk, the breath knocked out of his lungs. He wheezed, his body immediately racked with pain, and struggled not to scream.

“Keep it down in there!” a man’s voice shouted. “Stupid fucks.”

Trev didn’t have enough air to curse back.

Juicy petted the top of Trev’s head. “You are not a spider monkey.”

“No shit,” Trev croaked.

“Nor a squirrel.”

“Yup. Got it.”

“Or, hmm, what else climbs really well…” Juicy hummed. “Maybe a sloth.”

“Okay, enough!” Trev groaned as he sat up, dusting himself off and glaring up at the ceiling. “Look, at least I was trying! I can’t just sit here and do fucking nothing, waiting for those assholes to come in here and blow us away. Which is…”

“What?”

“Why are they waiting?” Trev blinked. “I mean, they could have just shot us both as soon as they brought us here.”

Juicy scratched his chin. “I always thought it was strange, but it’s just sort of something organized crime enjoys. Witnesses. Taunting. Long, meandering speeches. Ugo was really into that kind of thing.”

Trev flinched. “Ugo? Ugo Luchesi?”

He thought Juicy might have said that name before, but he didn’t think he’d made the connection until now.

Shit.

“Uh-huh.” Juicy reached down to scratch at Barkie’s nonexistent head. “He always wanted to come with me on special jobs. He would sometimes even request to shoot them too. They’d already be dead, so it was sort of silly, but he really enjoyed it.”