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“I wouldn't be here if I wasn't,” Gerard said sternly.

“What did she do?”

He ran his fingers across his forehead and through his ash gray hair. Gerard wore a deep blue business suit and shiny black shoes. The olive green tie with small yellow triangles didn't match. Thick-rimmed, black glasses sat tightly against his face, and a thin mustache traced his upper lip like a chocolate milk stain.

“This is supposed to be easy. Your father—” he started to say, but I cut him off.

“You really knew my father?” I asked.

“How do you think I knew to come to you? You don't exactly advertise on Google. Your father and I have a history.”

“Well, let's get one thing clear: I'm not my father. I don't do things the way he did. I don't answer to anyone. I don't take orders from anyone. And no one speaks for me.” I slipped the photo into the folder and slid it back to him.

“Don't you need it?” he asked, slightly bewildered.

“Nope.”

“How will you know you have the right person without the photo?”

I tapped my head. “I'll recognize her. I don't need the picture.”

Gerard furrowed his brows as his mouth crinkled and his mustache ruffled like a bird fluffing its feathers. “Look,” he said. “I need this done as soon as possible. She's a threat to everything I have worked my entire life for. I need her gone for good.”

“She looks like a child. How could a child be a threat to you?”

“She's not a child. Don't be fooled by her beauty. She'll be my downfall. I refuse to let that happen. I need this done before she does something stupid.”

“So you want me to kill someone for something that hasn't happened yet? This is a first.”

Most of my clients were mob bosses who wanted some distance between them and the hit, jaded lovers, or victims who wanted revenge, but this was new. This was a vendetta for future actions that hadn't even occurred yet.

“You're a professional, aren't you?” he asked.

I relaxed in my chair and thumbed the edge of the desk. “I don't eliminate people who are innocent.”

“She'snotinnocent,” Gerard said through clenched teeth. “She knows too much, and at some point, it's going to destroy everything I've worked for. She has to be removed completely before that happens.” His hands were on the desk, closed into tight fists. His knuckles were bright white, and his skin was pulled so thin that I could see the veins webbed beneath. “I have no problem finding someone else if I can't trust you'll get it done. Maybe I'll hire someone to take care of both of you.”

“Did I just hear you threaten me?” I leaned over the desk and glared at him. “I'd love to see who you hire to come for me. I hope you're not squeamish because I'll leave their fucking head at your door.”

Gerard kept his eyes on mine as he swallowed hard. “I'm not trying to offend you. I just can't wait any longer. I need this done. Your father never—”

“I told you already, I'm not my father. And you definitely offended me. I don't take what I do lightly. This is still someone's life we're talking about.”

He laughed out loud and pointed a finger. “You get paid to kill. It's what you do. You don't care about whoever is at the other end of your barrel.”

“I don't if they're bad people, but I do if they haven't done a thing to deserve it.”

“She deserves it.” The man exhaled hard as his eyes opened wide. “She killed her mother. What's more evil than killing the person who brought you into the world?”

“She killed her mother?” I asked. He shook his head yes. “Tell me more,” I said.

The man told me how Poppy was insane and dangerous. She lies. She steals. She manipulates everyone around her. And she killed her own mother. The beautiful young girl in that picture, beaming with life in her eyes, had a black soul.

“Why didn't you tell me that in the beginning?”

“I didn't think the details mattered. If she continues the way she is, I'll be dead in a year. I can't let her do that to me. I won't let her win. She wants to take everything from me.”

I shook his hand, knowing this wouldn't be an easy kill. I killed men who defied orders and stole fortunes. I killed men who murdered brothers and raped sisters. I didn't kill young girls.