Page 102 of Chalk Outline

I like crazy.

“We should thank you. You’ve just made our job much easier. Everyone will get a bigger cut, so maybe we won’t kill you.”

Because it’s all about money to him, not the pain and suffering he inflicts in the world, or the lives he tears away from young souls who have only begun to experience life and have many years ahead of them. They are inconsequential to him. He doesn’t care about what he has broken or the bonds he has destroyed and severed. The only thing that drives a man like him is power. Anyone who stands in his way gets a bullet, because nothing is more valuable than earning respect through brutality, intimidation, greed, and corruption.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” I reply calmly. “The cops are on their way, knowing that there are a hundred little kids inside this truck. They know the exact description and the location we’re in. I wouldn’t take it unless you want to rot in prison.”

I’m yanked back before he spins me around and slams me against the truck again.

“Fuck!” Rick yells in my face while his friend keeps his gun pointed at me. “Do you know how much money you cost us right now?” He fumes, pressing the gun under my chin.

I could take them out in seconds, but I need them to take me to Third Eye.

“Son of a bitch,” his friend says, jerking forward and spitting next to me. “You’re a dead man.”

Acute pain slices through my arm and strikes the steel door with a loud clang.

“Get down on the ground! Next time, I won’t miss.” He yells and threatens like a psycho. “You’re going to be a meal for the wolves when I put a bullet between your eyes, motherfucker.”

I clench my jaw, fighting the pain internally.

That won’t kill me.

“What the fuck are you doing? I was right beside him.” Rick’s voice shatters the silence as he jumps on him and grabs his neck. “That fucker stays alive because I’m not going to explain to the boss that he lost millions, would you? Uh, Koda.”

Koda steps back. “We’re taking him to the boss?”

“What do you think? I’m not getting tortured for this. Rick shakes his head, calming the nervousness that crept in. “First, we’ll let him unleash all of his frustration on this guy, and then we can come up with a better plan.”

Koda tilts his head to the side, waving his gun. “You want to kill the boss?” He lets out a soft chuckle of disbelief.

Not a bad idea.

Rick huffs loudly and shrugs. “I don’t know. If things get stubby between us, we wouldn’t have a choice.”

Reasonable enough.

An SUV races toward us, its tires screeching to a halt just inches away. “What is taking you so long?” the driver barks from the rolled-down window.

My eyes instantly zoom in on the spider web tattoo on the side of his face. He looks familiar, but I don’t recognize him, though the flash of cruelty in his eyes is enough of a warning to me.

I’m pushed forward before they pull my arms back to cuff my wrists. I stifle a gasp as sharp pain shoots up my left arm.

Maybe it wasn’t just a scratch…?

“You’re going to explain to the boss why the transaction didn’t happen today,” he repeats as if I hadn’t been immersed in that conversation a moment ago.

“Gladly.”

As if that would change his fate, he disappointed the boss and didn’t do the job he was hired for. That’s a valid reason to end his life. If Third Eye won’t do it, I will. Though not for the same reason.

If Third Eye thinks I’m a dead man, he might drop hints about the big boss. Yet neither of them knows me or what I’m capable of, which works to my advantage.

“I can’t wait to watch him torture you.”

I open my eyes wide like a psycho, flashing him an unhinged grin as I say, “Sweet Death, I’m coming to collect my reward.”

Rick flings the door open and pushes me inside. I concentrate on Mira, who cradles her body in the corner and gazes out the window.