Page 237 of Things We Hide from the Light

“You’re planning to use me to lure Nash here. And then what?”

He looked at me and said nothing. He didn’t have to.

I shook my head as a tidal wave of nausea hit me. “Naomi is getting married tomorrow and Waylay is achild. You don’t have to do this.”

He shrugged. “Look, it’s nothing personal. Well, Dilton’s hard-on for your boyfriend is very personal. Apparently he didn’t like your boy’s brand of law and order. I think he would have shot him for free. But everything else? That’s not personal. You’re all just collateral.”

Naomi, Waylay, Liza J, Amanda… Even if Hugo managed to lure Nash here, everyone else would be at that house. In the line of fire.

Panic was rising in my throat. “All this so you can what? Push your father out of the way and take over the family business? Why not start your own? Build something yourself?”

His fist slammed into the desk. “Because I’m going to take everything my father owes me and watch him rot behind bars while I enjoy it all. I want him to know that the ‘sensitive pussy son,’ the ‘waste of DNA,’ was the one who manned up and stole everything from him.”

My brain was scrambling for ways out of this. “You can’t trust Dilton. He’s hotheaded and thinks he’s the one who should becalling the shots. He tried to start shit with an entire bar full of women and Nikos had to stop him. You need to call him off.”

Hugo got up from behind the desk. “What Ineedis for you to sit down and shut up until it’s time to be useful.”

I was going to be sick. And then I was going to be dead.

“Why Nash? Why was his name on that list? He didn’t have anything to do with your father’s business.”

Hugo shrugged. “Maybe he pissed off the wrong person.”

“Meaning your father or the person who made the list?”

“Guess you’ll never know for sure.” He crossed to the worn couch in front of the TV and looped a gaming headset around his neck. “Might as well make yourself comfortable.”

The TV screen bathed the room in a nuclear green.

I leaned against the desk, my knees quaking, stomach churning.

It had to be now. I had to find a way to warn Nash before Dilton left. Before he got anywhere near Naomi and Waylay.

“Happy fuckin’ Friday. Let’s shoot the shit out of some cowboys,” Hugo said.

I blinked and stared hard at the screen. He was playingonline…which meant he was talking to other players.

My heart was slamming against the walls of my chest. He was wearing the headset, but I still needed to be quiet. I had one shot to get this exactly right.

I blew out a breath slowly and watched the screen for my opening.

“On your left. No! Yourleft, dumbass. Didn’t you learn that in kindergarten?” Hugo said, dodging and weaving on the cushion with the controller.

The characters on screen were battling a snot-shooting ogre and a fire-breathing dragon. This was as good an opportunity as I was going to get. I couldn’t screw it up.

I raised my hands away from my back as high as they could go and hinged forward.

Adrenaline spiked and I brought my wrists down as hard and fast as I could. The plastic tie snapped, freeing my hands.

“Quit fucking around, Brecklin, and stab him in the fucking foot,” Hugo said as I charged him from behind.

FORTY-NINE

A SCORE TO SETTLE

Nash

Twenty-seven minutes.