Page 171 of A Quick Buck

If this was Uncle Patrick, then who had he seen…

Noah heard the click of a gun being cocked behind them.

“Oh,fuck.”

Chapter 24

Hands raised, Noah slowly turned to face the new threat.

Standing there with a gun in his hand and a hateful sneer on his face wasLandon.

Alistair immediately pushed Noah back, getting in between them as he said, “It would be very wise of you to go on and put that down, and we—”

“Shut up!” Landon shouted as he tried to steady his shaking grip. He grabbed the gun with both hands now, panting as he stared them down. “I don’t want to talk to you, I don’t… you… you assholes killed Medina! Didn’t you?”

“That’s an awful accusation,” Alistair replied flatly.

“To be fair,” Noah mumbled, “he was trying to kill me first.”

“You ruined everything!” Landon wailed. “All of this, this, this was gonna work! It was gonna be so perfect! The plan was perfect! And you bastards fucked it all up!”

Noah’s mind scrambled to keep up with Landon’s hysterical nonsense.

Landon was supposed to be the little loser who annoyed him all the time, not a crazy person waving a gun at him. Noah didn’t understand what the hell was going on here at all, and he was terrified to ask.

Alistair was tense, stone-faced, watching Landon like a hawk as if he was waiting for the right moment to pounce.

Noah had a very good idea of what would happen when and if he did.

“Especiallyyou!” Landon’s wrath zeroed in on Noah. “You couldn’t just die! I tried to make it nice! Peaceful even! Better than a fuckin’ piece of shit like you fuckin’ deserved!”

“What?” Noah’s chest tightened immediately, and he was struck by a fit of vertigo. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You?You’rethe one trying to kill me?”

“Yes, you stupid fuckin’ idiot!” Landon snarled. “Me!”

“Why?” Noah blurted out stupidly. “What the fuck did I ever do to you? What did I do that was so fuckin’ bad that you’d wanna kill me?”

“You don’t know my last name,” Landon said.

“Huh?”

“What’s my last name, Noah?” Landon demanded. “What is it?”

Shit.

Noah grimaced. He had no idea.

“Thompson. My name is Landon Thompson.” Landon’s eyes glistened with tears. “It was a Friday night. It was late. Your parents ran a stoplight because they’d been drinking, and they crashed into—”

“Your parents,” Noah realized all too late. He’d just read the names in the article a few days ago, and he’d never made the connection because he had honestly never bothered to learn Landon’s last name.

His parents had killed Landon’s.

“Yes! Your family took everything from me!” Landon snapped. “You have no idea what it’s like to lose parents that actually gave a shit about you! Yours might as well have already been dead! And you know, I’ve had a long time to think about it. If your parents had lived, they wouldn’t have been charged. They would have gotten away with it, thanks to your shitty uncle—”

“I’m sorry!” Noah shouted. “Okay? I get it. You’re right! They probably would have because they were rich assholes who would rather do anything else than actually take responsibility for being assholes!”

Landon was startled into silence, but his grip on the gun did not budge.