Page 27

Alec and I exchange a quick glance, sharing a silent communication. I angle my chin in the direction of the doorway leading out of the kitchen, which we know from real estate photos online leads to a small dining room, and then the living room. Alec nods.

With another steadying breath, I prepare myself to move in. Any emotion needs to be put aside in favor of cool-headed logic and strategy. Anger has no place here. Just single-minded determination.

I’m going to end this for Rory. Allow her to live without fear again.

On a silent exhale, I move. Though I can’t hear Alec’s footsteps, I know he’s right behind me.

As we creep towards the living room, the sound of the TV grows louder.

A low chuckle reaches us—Mavers, I assume, since Alec’s research found that Mavers is single and lives alone.

Still, when I get to the doorway to the living room, I hang back until I catch a glimpse of the man’s face in profile, making sure he matches the image of the man Rory described.

He does. Perfectly.

And with that confirmed, I step into the living room.

Mavers is sprawled across the couch, watching a sitcom from the 90s, a bottle of beer in his hand. A plate sits on the coffee table with a half-eaten slice of pizza on it. So far, he’s oblivious to us.

Then I circle the couch. In a threatening tone, I growl, “Don’t fucking move.”

His head jerks towards me, alarm flashing across his face. Then he scrambles into a seated position, despite my warning, and reaches beneath the couch. He yanks out a gun and points it at me, shouting, “Get out! Get out or I’ll shoot!”

Maybe he thinks of himself as brave when he’s targeting innocent women, but as he faces me, I don’t miss the flare of fear in his eyes or the slight tremble of his finger on the trigger.

“No, you won’t,” I snarl. Banked anger brings a dangerous bite to my voice. “Put the gun down before I make you.”

“No!” The gun wavers. “Get out! I’ll call the cops! I’ll shoot you!”

A low snort sounds from behind me. Alec. He knows how unlikely that is.

“You won’t,” I tell him. Then my arm snaps out, a blur of movement honed from years of practice, crashing into his.

Mavers yelps in pain. His hand goes limp. The gun drops to the ground, and Alec rushes forward to snatch it up with a gloved hand.

It takes Mavers a second to realize what happened. His eyes project his movement—flickering to the front door—before he tries to make an escape. But I’m more than prepared for it, lunging forward just as he starts to move, grabbing him and throwing him to the floor.

Looming over him, my face still shadowed by my hat and the hoodie pulled around it, I bark, “I will kill you, Karl. My friend here thinks it could complicate things. But honestly, I don’t give a shit.” I pause. “But. If you’re honest with me, I might change my mind.”

Mavers glances at the front door again, a desperate search for freedom.

Alec comes over and pulls Mavers off the floor, then manhandles him over to the dining room table. Shoving him into a chair, he threatens, “Sit there. Don’t think about moving. And by the way, I’m okay with him killing you. I think it would be doing the world a favor, really.”

Mavers glances between me and Alec, fear shifting to outright panic. “What do you want? Money? Drugs? All I have is some weed. Maybe a couple hundred in cash. If you think I’ve got more, you have the wrong person.”

“No.” In the dark of the room, his eyes gleam wildly. I see what Rory described, those white eyes staring at her, and a surge of rage courses through me. “I want the truth.”

“The truth? What are you talking about?”

“Here’s how it’s going to work,” I reply, my voice now icy cold. “You’re going to tell me everything you know about the woman you tried to kill. Who sent you. How much they paid. I want names. Times. Places. Everything.”

Mavers shakes his head quickly. “I didn’t try to kill any woman. What are you talking?—”

My fist lashes out, crashing into his face. Something snaps. Blood pours from his nose and down his chin. “The woman in Bliss. The one you attacked in the woods. The one you hit. Choked. And when that didn’t work, you tried to shoot her.”

“Wha—”

“That woman is my girlfriend . You hurt her. Almost killed her. And I want to know why.” My molars grind to dust as I force down my anger. “Tell me. Now .”

Mavers looks desperately at Alec. “Are you going to let him?—”

Alec bares his teeth in a terrifying grin. “That woman? She’s my friend. So, yeah. I’ll let him do whatever he wants.”

“Well?” I ask, stepping closer to Mavers.

“Way I see it, you have two options. Tell me the truth, and I turn you over to the police. I might even have a word with them, try to get some leniency with the charges. As a gesture of good faith. Or…” My voice dips dangerously.

“You could disappear. It’ll never be tied to me.

And then my girlfriend won’t have to worry about you again. ”

A few seconds go by while Mavers stares at me, indecision warring in his eyes.

Then his shoulders sag. “Fuck. I knew I should never have taken the job. I should have just stuck to the same shit as usual. Drugs are safe. But…”

“But?” I ask.

“A buddy of mine told me about this thing called the dark web. How you could make all this money off it. So I checked it out. Found this site—” He stops, grimacing.

“Tell me.”

“I went on there. Found this ad looking for a hit on some lady in Vermont. Five K up front just to take the job. Then another forty-five once it’s done.”

Fury explodes in my chest, and I only just stop myself from pounding the shit out of him. Fifty K? To kill my Rory?

A low cough from Alec’s direction helps me refocus. “So what happened?” I ask Mavers.

“I took the job. This guy called me on a burner phone to make the arrangements. It sounded easy. The woman lived alone, out in the middle of nowhere. How the fuck was I supposed to guess she’d fight back like that? Or that she’d survive the first attack? She fucking cut me?—”

My hand clasps around his throat. “You tried to fucking kill her!”

A second later, I release him. “ Finish .”

His voice wobbles. “Fine. The guy was pissed when the first time failed. So I went back again. But her stupid boyfriend?—”

“Who was it? Who paid you? Do you have a name?”

Again, Mavers hesitates. Then he says, “Yeah. He didn’t mean to tell me. But it just slipped out when we were talking. Elliott Ford. He’s from Portsmouth. I don’t know who he is. What he does. He didn’t tell me why he wanted her dead. Just that he wanted it done.”

Elliott Ford. It sounds familiar, like I should know his name, but it’s not connecting.

I glance over my shoulder at Alec. He lifts his chin. His expression tells me he knows exactly who Elliott Ford is.

“Okay,” I continue, working to keep my voice calm. “So this Elliott Ford came to you and said he wanted a woman dead. Did he tell you her name?”

Mavers nods. “Yeah. Rory Townsend. Single. Thirty-six. Dark hair. Scars on her face. Has a dog shelter outside of town.”

A rumble of anger starts in my chest. “Do you have anything linking Ford to this? Payments? Text messages?”

He starts to shake his head. So I slide my Sig out and hold it loosely by my side. His eyes jump to it, widening. “Yes,” he admits. “I recorded our calls. Just in case things went bad and I needed to take him down with me.”

Alec jumps in. “What kind of recordings? Any with his name?”

Mavers nods. “Yeah. All the calls. Including the one when his name slipped out.” He turns back to me. “Is this enough? Are you going to kill me? I told you everything.” A beat later, he adds, “Listen, man, it wasn’t personal. It was just a job. This Ford guy’s the one you want.”

“You choked her!” My hand wraps around his neck again, this time squeezing slightly. “Do you have any idea…” I take a deep breath. Grit my teeth. “What about the gun? Do you still have it?”

He gulps. In a croak, he replies, “Yes. I have it.”

Alec steps beside me. “It’s enough,” he says quietly. “Recorded messages, the gun he used to shoot at Rory, and his testimony…” He looks at Mavers. “You will tell the police everything. If you don’t… We know some people with… connections. You might not survive long in prison.”

“Well?” I ask Mavers. “Turn over the messages and the gun, and tell the police everything. Or…”

The man sighs. “Yeah. I’ll give you everything. Just… don’t kill me. And you’ll put in a good word with the cops?”

Though I’d like nothing more than to kill him, I always keep my word, even with pieces of garbage like this one.

“I won’t kill you. But we’re calling the cops.

You’re going to say you invited us in. That you tripped over the coffee table and hit your face.

And you told us the truth because the guilt was too much. Got it?”

His lips press into a thin line. “Okay,” he whispers. “Okay.”

I look over at Alec. “You sure this is good?”

He nods. “Yeah.”

Turning my attention back to Mavers, I tell him, “Don’t even think about moving. Got it?”

Mavers exhales, a heavy sigh of defeat. His shoulders drop. He wipes blood from his chin.

Alec pockets his phone. “The police are on their way.”

I lift my chin at him. “Can you watch this asshole for a second?”

Understanding flashes in his eyes. “Of course.”

Then I pull my phone from my pocket and tap out a quick message to Rory.

It’s him. We’re turning him over to the police. Me and Alec are fine. I’ll be back in Bliss as soon as I can.

A second later, her response flashes onto my screen.

Will you come over when you get back? I really want to see you.

My heart rolls over.

Of course, baby. I can’t wait to see you, too.