Page 29 of His Lair

Fuck. That was loud.

“I wouldn’t,” I tell him as I close the distance. “What are you up to? What are you planning against Russo?”

“What’s it to you?” the guy sneers—yes, sneers. Spittle and all.

“Call me an interested party.” I smile at him.

“Fuck you, bitch!” He yells as he lunges forward, trying to disarm me.

I step aside and knock him over the head with the butt of my gun. I’d love nothing more than to end the fucker right now, but if I leave him alive, maybe Emmanuel can get information out of him.

When the door knob starts to jiggle behind him, I turn and run down the stairs.

“Looks like these two have seen better days.” Emmanuel’s voice has my steps slowing. I’m one floor below them, which means he’s talking louder than usual. On purpose.

The door to the stairwell creaks open and two distinct footsteps push through it.

“What the fuck?”That’s Sammie.

“You know these two?” Emmanuel asks him.

“Yeah, they’re low level. Ours. What happened?”

I can only assume he’s talking to the guy I left alive.

“Some crazy bitch was here,” the guy grits out.

“What’d she look like?” Emmanuel questions him.

“Blonde, hot little thing. Tight ass,” the guy replies. “She went down that way.”

One set of footsteps moves closer to me, only to pause when Emmanuel yells out, “I’ll go. You stay and call for cleanup.”

I don’t move, waiting for him to catch up to me. Then I bring my finger to my lips and gesture down the next flight of stairs. When I reach my assigned floor, I exit the stairwell and walk into the room.

Emmanuel follows closely behind me. “Care to explain why you’re leaving witnessesalive?”

“You need to question him. They were plotting something against Sammie. Talking about how they found the guy and it was only a matter of time before they gave them up,” I rush out in one long breath.

Emmanuel gives me a curt nod and immediately steps back out into the hallway. He doesn’t return.

I sigh, falling onto the floor. The adrenaline I get after every kill is slowly wearing off, leaving me completely drained. It happens every time.

Chapter Thirteen

“How the fuck did you let a woman get the drop on you?” I ask Joel, reaching out a hand and helping him up from the ground.

“She came out of nowhere, man,” he says. His face is ashen. “Don’t worry. It won’t happen again.”

“You’re right. It won’t happen again.” I turn to look at Emmanuel, who’s currently aiming a gun at Joel’s head.

“Wanna tell him what you were up to in the stairwell? What you two fuckers were discussing?” E grunts.

I glance from my friend to the guy in front of us. “What’s he talking about?” I press Joel.

“I don’t know, man.” Joel eyes me pleadingly. The thing is, I’ve known Emmanuel since we were kids, so no way am I going to take the word of a low-level thug over him.

The sound of a gunshot rings out and then Joel is falling back to the ground, a hole in his right kneecap. “Wrong fucking answer, asshole. Try again or the next one is in your head.”