Page 4 of Ignite

Gabriel smirks. “Funny kid. I like him. Maybe we keep him.” No one chimes in, and Gabriel shrugs. “Do you know what Sinro Enterprises does?”

I fiddle with my lip ring, flipping it back and forth. “Stuff with numbers. Pose for handshakes in the news. Who cares?”

Gabriel’s humor dissolves, and I swear black doom clouds coalesce behind him. “I care. I get paid a lot of money to do certain jobs in this city, and their CEO keepsfuckinginterfering.”

I clamp my jaw together to hold back another smart-ass comment that he’s the one hiding out in a creepy tetanus shack in the literal worst part of the city. Don’t think it’ll help my cause.

Though, I do have to wonder what a large company like Sinro Enterprises could want with crusty warehouse criminals.

“He raided my operation down by the docks. Killed dozens of my men. Stole important information from me.”

Jesus, were the docks the local hangout for all scumbags in this city?

I try my best to force sympathy. “I’m sorry?”

Gabriel doesn’t buy it. He leans back to pull one of his revolvers off the wall and examines it in his hands. “Yeah? You’re going to be real sorry if you don’t retrieve what he took from me.”

Swallowing, I jab a thumb at Alphabet Soup. “Why don’t you ask these guys to help you out?”

A boot strikes at me, and I go down to my knees hard, my hands snapping to the edge of the metal desk to keep from bashing my face against it.

“My men are good at killing, but they are not stealthy like little Ezra.” Gabriel emphasizes the letters in my name, and I hold back a shudder. The fact that they know my name means they’ve put some time into me. Made an investment. I’m not getting off the hook anytime soon. One job will surely turn into two. Next thing I know, I’ll be on their payroll, and not by choice.

A captive all over again.

I push up to my feet, a prickle of unease in my chest. “So you want me to break into Sinro and steal from them?”

Gabriel tosses a cell phone across the desk at me, lit up with a picture I can’t quite make out. “No. I want you to slip in undetected and retrieve what belongs to me.”

I lean over the desk, but this earns me a smack, this time to my temple, hard enough to have my head snapping to the side.

“Ah, fuck! Can I look at the thing your boss wants me to snatch?”

The urge to poke Alphabet Soup in the eyeball nearly has me acting a fool.

Gabriel nods at his men, and I’m allowed to examine the picture of a large hard drive. I file the serial number away in my memory, pushing down questions over what could be stored on it. From the sheer volume of firepower these criminals own, I think I have a good idea.

“What if I don’t want to accept the job?” I say, meeting Gabriel’s steely gaze.

My stomach dips as he loads a bullet into the cylinder of his gun. “Then I kill you, and your crazy old man, too.”

I frown. “Guess that’s settled, then.”

“Not so easy, little Ezra,” Gabriel warns. “Any of Sinro’s employees catch you, and you’ll be wishing I was the one to put a bullet in you.”

“Ah. Death all around. Just how I like it,” I mutter.

Why couldn’t I have excelled at painting street art or bagging groceries or something fricken normal?

I know the fucking answer. But I also know there’s no fixing me.

“Five days, Ezra. Then I start carving up your homeless friend. See how brittle his old bones really are.”

CHAPTER TWO

CAIN

Sprawled on a winter-chilled rooftop, I settle into practiced breaths as I peer through the scope of my MK18 rested on the ledge of a pawnshop.