Page 35
Asher
The last few minutes had been decidedly fraught. If I ever left this room, I vowed to tell John I wasn’t ice after all, that to chip through it, all that had ever been required, was the barrel of a gun pressing into the soft skin beneath my chin. The twitchy trigger finger hadn’t helped, the face of the man holding it so close I could see the whiskers sprouting on his chin since his last shave. Close enough I could smell that whatever he’d eaten for dinner last night had contained garlic. The twitchiness said he wanted nothing more than to let his finger move that last couple of millimeters, that he’d enjoy it.
Ben, despite his poor physical state and the threat of more violence being heaped on him, had kept talking, spitting out cold, hard facts that eventually had gotten through to O’Reilly enough for her to wave the man away. Disappointment had radiated from every atom of his being as he’d slunk back to his corner, gun still out, but not pointed at anyone.
“He can’t do it,” O’Reilly said with irritation in her voice. “If he could do it, he’d have done it by now. He’s stalling for time.”
“You don’t know how long it takes,” Ben said calmly. He still looked like shit, but he’d at least pulled himself up to kneeling, hands braced in front of him. “None of us do. Until he comes back and tells you he can’t do it, all we can do is wait. If you shoot Asher, Calisto won’t do it. Shoot Calisto, and he won’t be capable of doing it.”
“Perhaps I should shoot you, then,” O’Reilly suggested.
I gave myself a mental shake, doing my best to forget about the indentation in my skin that felt like the gun was still there. “Ben is the deal,” I pointed out. “Your daughter for Ben walking out of here. You shoot him and the deal is off.”
“Then perhaps it’s time for a new deal. Perhaps it’s time while you’re not there to protect them that I round up Mr. Dominguez’s family and shoot one of them for every extra minute he makes me wait.”
She was unraveling, her usual calm persona giving way to something more feral. Eyes still fixed on me, she pulled a phone out of her pocket and made a call. “Yes, it’s me. I have an address for you to go to.”
“Don’t do this,” I pleaded.
If O’Reilly heard me, she gave no sign of it. “I want every single person under that roof brought here. I don’t care if the alarm goes off. I don’t care if the police turn up before you’re done. I don’t care what you have to do. Just get it done. The address is—”
She broke off suddenly, her hand going to her throat like someone was choking her. “What—?”
I looked to Ben, but the slight shake of his head said he had no more clue what was happening than I did. The phone slipped from her fingers, and she opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. And then, like a puppet who’d had its strings cut, she dropped, toppling forward to lie motionless.
Two of her men ran over, one rolling her onto her back while the other felt for a pulse. “Dead,” he said, disbelief present in his voice.
Ben was already moving, it quickly becoming apparent as he relieved the closest man of his gun and pointed it right back at him, that he’d been exaggerating his injuries while waiting for his moment. Clever bastard. But then, I guess it came with the job. You didn’t make detective without having a few tricks up your sleeve.
Following his lead, I surged forward, wrestling the gun from the man who’d announced O’Reilly’s demise. Having never held a gun before, I did my best to mimic the way Ben held it. Fake it till you make it. We weren’t quick enough to stop man three and man four from pulling their own guns, the situation turning into a stand-off.
And then Calisto was next to me, his face as white as a sheet, and his eyes bloodshot. As the only person not armed, I automatically stepped in front of him.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Ben said evenly. “We have no argument with the rest of you.” One man laughed. The same one who’d not ten minutes since kicked Ben in the ribs. “No argument,” Ben repeated, his voice carrying none of the weakness and strain it had earlier. “You were following orders, and the person who gave those orders is dead. So… we’re going to walk out of here, and as long as you do nothing to stop us, nobody needs to get hurt.”
O’Reilly’s goons exchanged a look. The two disarmed men understandably showed more willingness to comply, while the other two’s body language betrayed their hesitation.
Ben took a small step toward the door, and keeping myself between Calisto and both guns pointed our way, I followed. In that same slow and faltering way of only taking one small step at a time, we edged toward the door. The good news was no one had pulled the trigger. The not so good was they hadn’t agreed to Ben’s suggestion.
“See!” Ben said, his voice soothing. “That’s all you need to do. Just stay where you are, and let us go on our way.”
“Even if you get out of this room,” one of them said, “do you really think you’ll get out of the building? You might be able to take on four of us, but there are far more out there. How do you think you’re going to get past all of them?”
“You let us worry about that,” Ben said, his tone not shifting. “All you need to worry about is not playing the hero when you don’t need to.”
As the closest one to the door, it was Calisto who reached for the handle, a tremble in his fingers. He wasn’t in a great state. Either the transition between worlds had taken its toll, or it was something more. Whatever it was, now wasn’t the time to question him on it. Calisto pulled the door open, and we all edged through it, like a crab with three segments to its body.
Ben shut the door in our wake, this part of the corridor blessedly empty. He kept hold of the handle so we’d at least get some warning if they tried to follow. “I hate to say they’re right,” he said. “But they are right. They’re not just going to let us walk out of here, and we’re vastly outnumbered.” A wry smile appeared on his lips. “Yeah, Griff, I’m worried too. He’s not happy,” he said in explanation. “I can feel it. I don’t know how he knows what’s going on, but he obviously does.”
I tapped the button on the front of my shirt. “Camera,” I said. “Courtesy of Cade putting pressure on your people. He gave Griffin access to the feed to stop him from storming the building and coming to get you.”
Ben nodded and then leaned closer to the button. “Hey, you,” he said, his voice soft. “Don’t go doing anything stupid like cancelling the big wedding we’ve got coming up. I promise I’m going to do my best to make it. But if I don’t, I want you to know I love you.”
Something about Ben speaking to the camera seemed to jar Calisto into action. When Ben stepped back, he took his place. “I better say this now,” he said, “in case I don’t get a chance to. In that place I went to, the place between worlds where we borrow the souls from, I saw your sister. She gave me a message to give to you.”
I stopped listening as a vision filled my head. One that took place in this tower block. “I know what we need to do,” I said as Calisto straightened from delivering the message. “I saw it.”
“Well, thank fuck for that,” Ben said. “I thought we were going to have to rely on charm, and out of the three of us, only Calisto possesses any.” He waved an arm in front of him. “We’re in your capable hands. Lead on.”
Table of Contents
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- Page 35 (Reading here)
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- Page 39